Show Notes: Green Day lead singer drives fun at power-packed show
By Michael Deeds
The Idaho Statesman

Shirts, shoes and bras were strewn everywhere. Speakers were overturned. Smashed drums were impaled on bent microphone stands. And a bass guitar was marinating in a pool of beer.

You sort of got the feeling Green Day wasn’t going to do another encore Sunday night.

But if it looked like there had been a party onstage, it was with good reason. The three goofy twentysomethings had just put on one of the best bashes the Bank of America Centre has survived.

The concert started about 20 minutes late after the California-based punk band required extensive searching of all 2,714 fans as they entered. But once things got rolling, it was easy to understand why Green Day wouldn’t let the crowd bring projectiles — even lipstick or ice cubes — into the show.

The concert was more a nutty shindig than a musical performance. Vocalist Billie Joe Armstrong ran wild onstage, bringing multiple personalities along.

Although Green Day is a power trio, Armstrong was the band. Dressed (briefly) in a sport coat and tie, the diminutive 25-year-old attacked the microphone, shouting his lyrics with eyes wide open, mouth agape, cheeks shaking with Richard Nixon abandon.

After setting the tone by urging the crowd to do drugs and get drunk, Armstrong tore into “Nice Guys Finish Last,” off the group’s latest album, Nimrod.

Green Day’s songs quickly blurred together; each was a three-minute, three-chord wonder with a catchy chorus. But it didn’t matter. Armstrong harmonized sweetly with bassist Mike Dirnt, drummer Tre Cool kept the mosh pit in high gear and heads bobbed everywhere.

Armstrong hammed it up constantly, posing like a ballerina while perched high on a stage monitor, using a puppet to get the crowd clapping.

He picked a kid out of the crowd and let him play his guitar. He begged everyone to throw their clothes onstage, then wore shirts on his head.

A steady stream of bodies, Armstrong’s included, surfed on top of the audience.

And somehow in the midst of this madness, Green Day cranked out 90 minutes of punchy singalongs like “Basket Case” and “When I Come Around.”

The group brought a modest club set-up — this venue was larger than most on the tour — and the smaller sound system delivered surprisingly good results in the arena. Most of the time.

Opening act D Generation degenerated, all right, into a blanket of white noise that irritated even the most seasoned punk ears. You got the feeling that if these glam boys weren’t buddies with Green Day they would have been performing in a garage Sunday night.

Opening Band(s): D Generation

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Tour Statistics: Nimrod tour
Show Reviews: 0