Green Day

MEN Arena, Manchester on Sat 29th Jan 2005

If ever there was a band which could guarantee an entertaining evenings worth of entertainment without fail- then Green Day would have to be at the top of that list.

After a cracking headline festival appearance at The Carling Weekend last year, it was quite clear that Green Day are just as passionate about playing live as they were when they first started all those years ago.

The nights proceedings were opened with 'American Idiot', along with the stereotypical fast and furious stage antics- Billie Joe dressed as usual in his black short sleeved shirt and red tie, along with eye liner was as always was running round the stage like a frenzied lunatic, jumping off the speaker stacks as well as doing all of the cliché guitar poses that we have come to expect from these punk rockers.

Green Day

Most of tonight's set was taken up by tracks from their 'American Idiot' album, which at times almost made the show seem like just one big promo for that album I counted at least six tracks that were played including their recent hit 'Boulevard Of Broken Dreams', despite the fact that Billie and crew seem to have a genuine disgust for President Bush, it did get rather repetitive.

Admittedly I am one of those old school fans of Green Day and as much as I like their recent material, it is the older tracks from 'Nimrod' and 'Dookie' which I enjoy the most- sure enough the classic tracks from these two albums were included like 'She' and 'When I Come Around'.

Even today, the biggest crowd reaction always occurs during the opening bars of the immortal classic 'Basket Case', a song that never seems to age.

In short Green Day are one of the best live bands around, admittedly they are predictable as it was practically the same set that they did at the Carling Weekend, and on a technical level Green Day are not really anything special- if you want technical then you would be better off seeing Metallica or a band like that.

Green Day

However if it is great infectious, fun, vibrant, entertaining music you are after then Green Day would be a band worth checking out if you have not already made the effort to see them!! I can guarantee after seeing these play live you will be inspired to go and learn to play guitar as they make it look so easy.

Now I'm off to order some tickets for their Milton Keynes show on June 18th.....

article by: Luke Seagrave

photos by: Luke Seagrave

published: 31/01/2005 09:29



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