green day concert at the barclays center

katie and i went to see green day at the barclays center in brooklyn sunday night.  it was our first trip to the barclay's center (pat had gone there to see barbra streisand last year) and katie's first green day concert.  in a word - the show was terrific.  billie joe seemed no worse for the wear from his sting in rehab (which forced a major cut back for the group's promotional effort for uno! dos! tre! trio of albums).  he poured out almost 2 and a half hours of non-stop energy - and had a crowd that was as equally animated. 

i had seen green day perform in central park in 2009 as part of the good morning america summer concert series.  they put on a great show there, in somewhat cramped quarters (rumsey playfield) and given the constraints of fitting the performance into a morning t.v. show format.  in that brief performance they managed to pull a spectator out of the audience and up on stage.  at barclays, billie joe had three fans up on stage over the course of the show.

the first, a kid who came up during the second song - "know your enemy" - and, after a few lines made a successful jump back into the audience!  the second, brought up and handed a guitar to strum the 3 chords for "knowledge," exited stage left after the song.  the third and final one came up to sing the 3rd verse of "longview."  she really took over the stage - to the astonishment of all!  but her jump back into the arms of the audience was less successful... oops!

in what could only be viewed as camping it up, billie joe sprayed water on the audience, fired tee shirts into the crowd and even wielded a toilet paper gun to boot.  the slowest moment of the night came when the band took down the volume for "shout" - and morphed into some stone and beatles - before bringing it back to life.  earlier they had teased out the intro to "highway the hell," before going into "brain stew."

they saved "american idiot" and jesus of suburbia" for the encore.

here is the setlist:

99 revolutions
know your enemy
stay the night
stop when the red lights flash
letterbomb
oh love
holiday
boulevard of broken dreams
burnout
welcome to paradise
geek stink breath
knowledge (operation ivy cover)
when i come around
going to pasalacqua
highway to hell > brain stew
st. jimmy
longview
basket case
she
king for a day
shout > (i can't get no) satisfaction > hey jude > shout
x-kid
minority

encore:

american idiot
jesus of suburbia
brutal love

green day's "american idiot" on broadway

we went to see green day's "american idiot" tonight. it's unusual for us to go out on a school night, but since this has been on the top of katie's "must see" list, we couldn't pass up the tickets. in brief - the show was fantastic! a combination musical, music video, and media barrage, it's ninety minutes of total immersion in green day! surprisingly, there were a few of songs that clearly weren't from "american idiot" - most notably, "know your enemy" and "21 guns." if you're a green day fan, don't miss this!

green day concert in central park: photos, video and setlist

thanks to good morning america, central park hosted a concert by green day this morning! while concert might be an overstatement, from 7 until 9:15 rumsey playfield was all about green day. they played a 40 minute sound check(!), 30 minute set in the final hour of good morning america, and an extra 15 minutes after the show signed off (which included bringing a little girl on stage and then an audience member to sign part of "jesus of suburbia")!

excluding the soundcheck, green day played "know your enemy," "longview," "21st century breakdown," "american idiot," and then, after the sign off, tossed off "jesus of suburbia" to close their show.

here are some of the photos i took: