Green Day American Idiot Tour
Green day have been around. They've toured for years, they've sold millions of records and won countless awards so as you can imagine the atmosphere at this gig was electric. Green Day's second and final night at Brixton Academy was something to not be missed.
To start the festivities, a giant pink bunny rabbit appears on stage, making the crowd laugh whilst they dance and sing along to The Village peoples 'YMCA' and The Ramones. Then on to the stage descends the three men who everyone has been waiting for- Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool, they welcomed the crowd and threw themselves into 'American Idiot', whipping the entire crowd into a frenzy. The set up of the stage was fantastic, the lighting, phenomenal. Warming up the crowd with wonders off the new album, they play 'Holiday', 'Are We The Waiting?' and 'St Jimmy' and even the whole nine minutes of 'Jesus Of Suburbia'. By this point, the entire crowd knew it would be an unforgettable night before Green Day even dipped into their back catalogue. Billie Joe's charisma and stage presence are unlike any other front man I have ever seen as he bounded across the stage more times than I can recall.
Then came the old favourites- 'Longview', during which the band paused to attack the crowd with loaded water guns; 'Nice Guys Finish Last' and an unbelievable rendition of 'Hitchin' A Ride'. Now the whole gig was stunning but this song stood out because I have never seen a crowd get so into a song in my life, let alone seen a mosh pit go so wild. To follow the reaction that the previous song had garnered seemed to be an impossible feat, but then Billie Joe and Mike began the first chords of 'Brainstew' / 'Jaded'. Slowly pausing after every single chord of the intro to see how the crowd would react. When they played, the crowd cheered and when they paused encouraging boos resounded. The song came off amazingly as a result.
When Billie Joe questioned "How many old school green day fans do we have in the audience tonight?" before launching into 'Knowledge', some of the younger fans were slow to react, but the Green Day veterans in the crowd could not believe their luck. Then Billie Joe invited up 3 members of the crowd to play each member of the bands instrument- 2 young men and a girl, were beckoned to the stage. Billie Joe grabbed the guitarist and promptly planted a wet one on him and, at the end, gave away his guitar to this lucky member of the crowd. The female bass player was urged by Billie Joe to jump into the crowd, and of course she did so. The entire audience could feel the intimacy that the band had initiated in the venue. This is a band that care about their audience. The boys followed up with 'Homecoming' and a cover of 'Shout', whilst Billie Joe danced, swung and pranced across the stage.
'Basket Case' was stunning as the cannons let loose confetti across the crowd. After 'She', Green day decided it was time to play dress up; Billie Joe donning a crown and a velvet robe whilst Mike, Tre and the other members of the crew visible to the audience adorned themselves with pirate hats, capes and every other costume you could imagine whist playing 'King For A Day'. This was followed by the melancholy 'Wake Me up When September Ends' and a rousing version of 'Minority' before disappearing off the stage.
The band then emerged for their encore to play an epic version of 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams', fan classic 'When I Come Around' and Queen Cover 'We Are the Champions'. Then Billie Joe was left alone with his guitar on the stage and finished the set with the anthem that is 'Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)'. Looking around you could see tears in the eyes of many of the audience members...the feeling was that no one in the venue could ever forget this show.
Green day are talented beyond anyone's wildest dreams. They don't just play their music and leave... They don't just give you a show- they give you a spectacular.