Highbury’s premier indie and rock venue, The Garage, tweeted five days prior to this gig with an invitation to “Come and see the best Green Day tribute band The CoverUps play next week!” Within hours the cat was out of the bag as to the identity of the ‘tribute’ act – and the 600 capacity Garage was a sell out.
The Coverups are, well, a cover band formed in 2018 by Green Day lead man Billie Joe Armstong with a slightly revolving membership of Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt and the band’s touring guitarist Jason White, tour manager Bill Schneider, and audio engineer Chris Dugan. They’ve only played a handful of times since then, mainly in Los Angeles and never in the U.K. A fact not lost on the crowd that lined up down Holloway Road, eager to see something so unexpected.
Support came from Birmingham four piece, Lovebreakers, whose stadium-aspiring pop-rock is reminiscent of the anthemic sound that saw Green Day themselves move into the mainstream proper with 2004’s American Idiot album. Lead singer and guitarist Jack has certainly studied Billie Joe’s ear for a soaring vocal melody.
But enough of that – what about the real deal? It’s hard not to focus on Armstrong, as a singer-songwriter who’s not only sold over 70 million records with Green Day but has influenced more subsequent pop-punk acts than most in the 90s and the Scuzz/Kerrang! TV era of the early 00s. “It’s just glorified karaoke,” he jokes with White, Schnieder, and Dugan as they take the stage.
What follows is an hour and a half of four mates playing their favourite tracks with unbridled joy, and having it reflected right back at them by the crowd.
Kicking off with The Plimsouls’ A Million Miles Away straight into Ramones’ seminal I Wanna Be Sedated, you could be forgiven for thinking this was going to be merely an education in US punk history, and you wouldn’t have heard any complaints here. However, the set spanned some American radio rock standards like Summer of ‘69 and pop bangers which highlighted how clean Armstrong’s vocals are at their core on I Think We’re Alone Now by Tommy James & The Shondells (or Tiffany depending on just how pop you want to go).
Green Day’s – or should that be The Coverups’ – love for British music was apparent throughout the set and the crowd went wild for renditions of The Clash classic Should I Stay Or Should I Go and their version of I Fought The Law. Moving through more homegrown punk staples like Generation X’s Dancing With Myself and Buzzcocks’ Ever Fallen in Love, they threw in a rapturous take on Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust and a rather unexpected Pretenders record as well.
Talking of unexpected, none other than Courtney Love joined the band midset for Cheap Trick and Tom Petty covers. I felt there would be a guest brought out at some point but I can’t say Love was at the top of my list and she will not be returning to it at any point soon. The former Hole singer/guitarist seemed to be attention seeking rather than focusing on the music. Billie Joe and the boys returned following that for an encore of Misfits’ Where Eagles Dare.
If you’re one of the lucky ones to have tickets to see The Coverups playing The 100 Club this Friday, you’ll be in for one hell of a good night. Who can argue with glorified karaoke? Green Day themselves are also back in London on The Saviors tour at Wembley Stadium on June 29th.
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