Concert Review: Green Day earns a 21 Gun Salute

Review and Photos by Stephanie Baldwin
View the Concert Gallery Here: http://fromthecrowd.com/984/concert-photos-green-day-august-22-2009/

Green Day, the punk rock trio, consisting of Billie Joe Armstrong (vocals, guitar), Mike Dirnt (bass guitar, vocals), and Tré Cool (drums, percussion), brought their latest dynamic, and literally explosive concert experience to US Airways Center on August 22.

Green Day Performed at the US Airways Center August 22 2009. Photo Credit: Stephanie Baldwin

Twitter was flooded in to the early morning tweets from pumped concertgoers amazed by the epic performance delivered by Green Day. The concert was that good and well, that long. In fact, Green Day performed for nearly 2 hours and 45 minutes, with the concert concluding just before 11:45pm.

The superb set list provided a mix of songs from their latest release “21 century Breakdown”, their 2005 “American Idiot” as well as songs from their previous releases and a few covers that were masterfully arranged.

Impressive stage production combined: fire, fireworks, spectacular lighting, video backdrops and more. It was visually hypnotizing and while it could have been considered over the top or distracting for any other artist, Green Day was able to command the stage and remain the center of attention, with their powerful vocals, lyrics and musical expertise. Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool shined on stage and it was brilliant to see Billie Joe Armstrong play riffs with skill that would rival any other guitar great.

The trio was able to change the tempo of the performance without missing a beat. It didn’t matter if the band participated in various onstage shenanigans (which included water guns, toilet paper blowers, various costumes and a full mooning of the audience) or if there was a single spotlight on stage for an acoustic solo, the crowds’ energy was invested for the entire set.

Green Day delivers musically, instrumentally and provides an eye catching stage show, however this is not what makes their concert, quite possibly, the best touring today. The bands uncanny ability to get the audience deeply involved in their performance, is what sets them apart. Armstrong, not only yells, motivates and speaks to the crowd, he goes one step further and gains active participation. He is very aware of the crowd and seems to have a gift for plucking the most entertaining concertgoers out of the audience. At a Green Day concert the crowd is just another instrument that the band utilizes during their performance.

Often, these crowd interactions generate some of the most memorable moments of the show, as was the case at this evenings concert. Tonight, Armstrong selected a handful of crowd members to

A fan shows Armstrong some love on stage at the August 22 Green Day Perfomance. Photo Credit Stephanie Baldwin

join him on stage at different points of the performance. Perhaps the most memorable, was a female concertgoer that laid a big fat kiss on Armstrong immediately after joining him on stage as he performed, “East Jesus Nowhere”. After recovering from the shock, he then proceeded to convince her to leap of the front of the stage to crowd surf among the other fans who were eager to participate. (You can see her leap in the concert gallery)

Kissing wasn’t the only talent Phoenix fans had to offer. Two concertgoers made their vocal debuts singing “Longview”, the female chosen was obviously nervous but quickly navigated her way through the first few versus. It was then her male counterpart’s opportunity and he rocked the stage. I think everyone’s jaw dropped a bit, including Armstrong’s as this guy knew how to sing and had stage presence to boot. At the end of the song Armstrong announced that the two had been the best they’d seen on tour so far!

The final audience participant joined in on playing guitar for “Jesus of Suburbia” which was one of the four songs performed as an encore. Armstrong raised the bar and required it t0 be someone that actually knew how to play the song, and even challenged a few of those eager to participate to name the key it was in. The guy finally selected, proved his worth and performed as if he belonged with the band and did not miss a beat.

The concert ended appropriately with Armstrong singing “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)”, which everyone in attendance could agree that they had. Overall the performance was epic and the best concert to come to the Valley this year and for that, Green Day deserves the highest honor of a 21 gun salute.

Green Day August 22 Set List:

“Know Your Enemy”
“East Jesus Nowhere”
“Holiday”
“The Static Age”
“Before the Lobotomy”
“Are We The Waiting”
“St. Jimmy”
“Boulevard of Broken Dreams”
“Hitchin a Ride” Foxboro Hot Tubs aka Green Day (check out the review on this side project)
“Brain Stew”
“Jaded”
“Longview”
“Basketcase”
“She”
“King for a Day” (which included excerpts covers of “Shout”, “Break on Through (to the Other Side)”, “Suspicious Minds” and “I’ll Be There.”)
“21 Guns”
“American Eulogy”
“21 Guns.”

Encore
“American Idiot”
“Jesus of Suburbia”
“Minority”
“Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)”

If you attended this concert; feel free to share your experience and comment below or send us your review! contribute(at)FromTheCrowd.com