Palm Coast-originated musicians Eric Dangerfield and Donald Bryant opened for one of the biggest rock bands of all time last week: Green Day, on their 2024 Saviors Tour. Dangerfield and Bryant, now based out of Atlanta, performed with their band the Paradox at Truist Park as one of a series of opening bands before Green Day took the stage themselves. Both the two musicians attended Matanzas High School in Palm Coast before taking their musical aspirations to Georgia.
Dangerfield said their band popped onto Green Day's radar when singer/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong noticed a social media cover of one of the band's hit songs. From there, he followed the band and reposted their content, helping fuel a quick rise in popularity for the Paradox (they have over 130k followers on TikTok as of the writing of this article). "He taught me how to play the ending riff of 'Basket Case'," Dangerfield said, referencing one of Green Day's most popular singles. Dangerfield plays guitar and sings lead vocals in the band, while Bryant plays bass guitar.
Things changed from a mutual admiration to a co-performance slot the week before the August 28th Atlanta performance. Dangerfield and the band were hanging out with the rapper Lil Nas X, who he says also connected with their group through social media. They were discussing plans to perform for the hip-hop star's sister, when Armstrong reached out to Dangerfield with a once-in-a-lifetime offer: to perform in front of the massive collection of Green Day fans as one of the opening acts before their Truist Park show. It was an impossible proposal to turn down.
"We said f**k yes," Dangerfield said, not hiding his excitement at the opportunity. "And that's how that happened." The show was loaded with musical prestige: following the Paradox were performances by the Linda Lindas, Rancid, the Smashing Pumpkins, and finally, Green Day. The California-borne rockers were touring for the twentieth and thirtieth anniversaries of their two most iconic albums: 'American Idiot' and 'Dookie', both of which they performed in full.
“He used to enter the Bobcats’ Got Talent talent show and won several years in a row,” recounted Abbey Cooke, an educator who remembers Dangerfield at Belle Terre Elementary School. “He used to enter the ‘Bobcats Got Talent’ talent show and won several years in a row. Because of him, they changed the rules and if someone won, they could not compete anymore.”
The performance by the Paradox was full of energy, with the aspiring musicians looking fully at home on a stage reserved for the biggest touring bands in America. Their showmanship translated completely and visibly to their audience, who were responding with enthusiasm to a band they may or may not have heard of coming into the venue.
