Green Day Now Considered Mostly Harmless By Cali Venue

Green Day's Not-So-Punk Rock

Home Depot Center takes the Grammy winners off its list of banned acts drafted after rowdy Deadheads besieged neighborhood.

By David Pierson, Times Staff Writer

Mindful of a Grateful Dead concert that got seriously out of hand 15 years ago, the Home Depot Center in Carson maintains a blacklist of 28 musicians — including Eminem, Snoop Dogg and Metallica — whom officials consider too wild for its venue.

One of the acts on the list was Green Day, the punk rock band that rocketed to fame in the mid-1990s with songs about suburban alienation mixed liberally with references to drug use and sex.

They take leave of much more dangerous bands like Creed and Def Leppard.

On the rock side, the list bans the Grammy-winning and multi-platinum metal band Metallica. Other groups include the now-disbanded Rage Against the Machine, Christian rockers Creed, and 1980s stalwart Def Leppard, best known for its hit "Pour Some Sugar on Me."

When it was added to the list, Green Day was known mostly as a teen band whose angst-filled songs dealt with juvenile delinquency and bodily functions.

But since then, the group changed its look and became more political. Band members traded in dyed green hair for eyeliner, T-shirts for pinstripe suits, and lyrics about suburban ennui for President Bush-bashing.

Green Day was approved by a 5-1 vote at an April 15 meeting that also gave approval for possible concerts by the Dave Matthews Band and Santana.

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