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Glenn Gamboa

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Green Day @ Madison Square Garden, 7.27.09

Tuesday July 28, 2009 8:39 AM By Glenn Gamboa

Singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong of the

Photo credit: AP Photo

    You could love the Green Day show at Madison Square Garden last night without figuring out all the motives.
    Flame pots, fireworks, Billie Joe Armstrong running around, scream-along punk rockers, loud guitars, protest songs and touching ballads. What’s not to like?
    Add in the additional layer of the Bay Area band bringing their overarching themes of equality, unity and acceptance to life and you don’t just get a great show, but a great reminder of how powerful a concert can really be.
    Rock stars often pay lip service to the idea that they feel that they’re just like their fans. Green Day went out of their way to prove it. Armstrong brought all sorts of fans onstage to get a piece of the spotlight – from Elijah, who was “saved” during “East Jesus Nowhere,” to Stephanie, who powered her way through the winding “Jesus of Suburbia” on guitar, to the final guy who sang “Longview” and Armstrong told “You’re taking the Long Island Expressway” to get him to stage dive. But turning every song in the two-hour, 35-minute set (Curfew? What curfew?) into a sing-along and trying to get everyone involved in the arm-waving and screaming is just as important at making fans feel special.
    “Thank god for (expletive) New York City,” Armstrong said early on. “God bless your soul.”
    And for their part, Green Day – Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool, along with three touring musicians – sure makes rebellion look like fun.
    Though they taken on the serious topics of war, religious hypocrisy, economic disparity and political failures in their last two albums – “American Idiot” and the
recent “21st Century Breakdown” – they have they’ve done it in the catchiest and most inclusive way possible, with bouncy melodies and sing-along choruses.
    The concerts are just an extension of that. They also offer a fun little glimpse in the way Armstrong’s mind works. Who else would lie on his back after pairing the punk classic “King for a Day” with The Isley Brothers’ “Shout” and start singing bits of “Earth Angel,” “Swanee,” “If They Could See Me Know” and The Jackson 5's “I’ll Be There”?

SETLIST: Song of the Century / 21st Century Breakdown / Know Your Enemy
East Jesus Nowhere / Holiday / Static Age / Before the Lobotomy / Are We The Waiting / St. Jimmy / Boulevard of Broken Dreams / 2000 Light Years Away / Welcome to Paradise / Castaway (snippet) / When I Come Around / Disappearing Boy (with snippets of Sweet Home Alabama / Thank You / Sweet Child o’ Mine / 99 Bottles of Beer / Take Me Out to the Ballgame / Ironman) / Brain Stew / Jaded / Longview / Basketcase / She / King For A Day (with snippets of Shout / Earth Angel / Swanee / If They Could See Me Now / I'll Be There) / 21 Guns / American Eulogy // ENCORES: American Idiot / Jesus of Suburbia / Minority / Drama Queen / Last Night On Earth / Good Riddance