Green Jelly (pronounced "Green Jello") sucks! No, seriously.
Sure, there are a number of excellent bands, like Primus, Mr. Bungle, Ween, and Green Day to name a few, who comically proclaim that they suck, in spite of the obvious evidence in their material and performances that proves otherwise, but Green Jelly boasts that they suck, and they actually do!
That isn't to say what they do isn't or at least can't be entertaining.
Currently celebrating their 46th anniversary, Green Jelly is essentially one founding member (vocalist/songwriter/ringleader, Bill Manspeaker) and a rotating cast of musicians who he's set up as franchises in various regions of North America and lately also in parts of Europe. The project has a small and varied catalog but only ever saw any real success in the early '90s due to their surprise novelty hit, "3 Little Pigs," from the album Cereal Killer, which also featured members of Tool and comedian/actor Pauly Shore as a guest on backing vocals. Shortly after releasing a follow up album and creative, low-budget home videos for each of those releases, the band became inactive for over a decade before being resurrected in its current form, with occasional collaborations and obscure tracks being released as independent singles. Manspeaker books tours himself and flies to the first city to meet up with regional band members to play the shows, so depending on where in the country (or the world) you may be seeing them, the other musicians on stage may change. While this can lead to comical posts on social media, the fact that there is no rehearsal, rarely a soundcheck, and seemingly little planning involved makes for an especially sloppy and sometimes even cringy performance.
Green Jelly is certainly a comedy band, and part of the humor of their shows is how poorly performed and under rehearsed they are, but their studio recordings, especially their two most-successful albums, are much tighter and mostly well-produced by comparison. Someone who knows the records would get to a gig and still hear many recognizable songs, but they often sound like amateurish attempts on stage compared to the studio versions. (As McBain would remind us, "That's the joke!")
Having seen the band a number of times, it's safe to say the quality of each show can also vary, but there are engaging moments in each, even when the show gets shortened to only 15 minutes due to rain at an outdoor venue or shows that are being conducted with half the number of musicians who may have appeared the previous time they performed at the same venue. At a recent club show at The Music Factory (formerly Planet Rock) in Battle Creek, Michigan, some songs sounded pretty good while others were abandoned half-way through, with entire verses and choruses sometimes performed without vocals and seemingly little concern among the players. Again, if someone knows about all this going into the concert, that's fine because it's expected, but if they're expecting the arrangements and delivery of the recorded versions of the songs, they would most likely be disappointed. (Manspeaker often jokes during shows that "if you're not drunk or on some kind of medical marijuana, this is really gonna suck!" and even if you are...it's still so-so at times.)
The Battle Creek show also ran shorter than other recent appearances (under an hour), and the numbers of people on stage as well as in the audience were fewer. While the small turnout also led to jokes and an overall comical reaction from the band, the situation was exacerbated by the seemingly endless parade of local and regional artists who quickly make a 7pm doors/8pm music time seem like they occurred an eternity ago, with the headliners finally taking the stage over four hours after the advertised start time. Obviously, the goal is to get patrons to buy drinks all night while they stand around, waiting and waiting for Manspeaker and co. to take the stage, but it also dampens the excitement and anticipation if a person has to wait for several hours, through as many as nine opening acts, after they've arrived.
The band has other material from throughout their 46-year history, but the song selection on stage only or nearly only includes tracks from their two most successful albums and occasionally bits of unreleased parodies and mash-ups, such as "We are the Losers" sung to the tune of Queen's "We Are the Champions," and a much more clever piece that sets the lyrics of "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain" to the music of Jane's Addiction's "Mountain Song," much in the way they bastardized The Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the U.K." with lyrics about The Flintstones and created an original, metal arrangement for the children's classic, "The Bear Went Over the Mountain" (as "The Bear Song"). Fewer band members may make some songs unable to be played.
Most recently, colorful foam pool noodles, passed out by the band before they start and collected again after they finish, have added a random silliness to the action and visual of the show in addition to their traditional "punk rock puppet heads" which allow some attendees a more participatory role in the performance, often including dancing and singing along to one or two songs on stage before continuing on the venue floor. Patrons are still commanded to form a circle around whomever is wearing the Cowgod puppet head to worship at his feet during "Obey the Cowgod" and to spin in the circle, hand-in-hand, to a call-and-response chant of "Ring Around the Rosie," with the original lyrics, which KoRn reminded us years ago are already pretty fucked up anyway.
Even if the negative elements don't take a person out of the show, the somewhat abrupt conclusions can feel rushed and sometimes disappointing. Giving a fan 52 minutes of music after they've waited around four-to-five hours to see you might be seen as frustrating to some, though, like some of the early punk that inspired the band in the first place, it's not necessarily out of place. It's just important to understand you can't really compare a Green Jelly show to any other rock concert because you're simply not going to get the kind of effort that goes into most touring productions. It's unfortunate because there really are lots of people who enjoy Cereal Killer and 333, and who would probably enjoy tracks from the band's other albums as well, once they'd heard them, but the care just isn't put into learning more material or providing a longer, more complete concert experience. If you consider yourself a fan and haven't seen them live, it's definitely worth going once, but Manspeaker's approach just doesn't hold up to repeat attendance.
Opening acts in Battle Creek included:
Dum Ugly Music Television (DJ/MC)
Meat Hammer
Siamese Goat God
Wavy Awakening
Bethani Rogue
Midwest Syndicate
Heartsick
Anybody Killa
Green Jelly set list (4/23/26, Battle Creek, MI):
Lights (Journey) (tease)
I Was Made for Loving You (Kiss) (tease)
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Green Jello Theme Song
Carnage Rules
Cereal Killer/Sponge Bob Square Pants Theme
Anarchy in Bedrock (Sex Pistols/Green Jelly)
Electric Harley House of Love/Enter Sandman (Metallica)
Three Little Pigs (pt. 1) / We Are the Losers (Queen/Green Jelly)
Comin' Round the Mountain Song (Jane's Addiction/Green Jelly)
Obey the Cowgod/Ring Around the Rosie (trad.)
Three Little Pigs (pt. 2)/Green Jello Theme Song (reprise)
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