Jonola14

Last Sunday I went up to the Milton Keynes Bowl (a vast hole in the ground with an enormous stage in the dip) with Debs to witness a sold out Green Day gig. 65,000 people on a boiling summer's day in the height of a heat wave, it was warm.

Three hours after the gates opened and the sun had been allowed to frazzle people's skin and send others into dehydrated dementia, Hard-Fi took to the stage to warm up the crowd. As if there wasn't enough warmth out there already! Anyway, the west London band played their singles - Tied Up Too Tight, Cash Machine and current mega-radio-airplayed tune Hard To Beat as well as others from their forthcoming album Stars of CCTV and also a cover of the much-coveted White Stripes smash 'Seven Nation Army' which was a tad unnecessary. Frontman Richard Archer swore needlessly but sang well and playing to a sold-out MK Bowl is hardly a bad day's work. He even managed to camcord the crowd to show his unwell mum.

Taking Back Sunday and Jimmy Eat World both wowed the crowds with their pop punk sensibilities and high voltage riffage, the latter's regular appearances on MTV2 clearly familiar to many in the sun-drenched mosh pit crush as they cruised through old and new material with serious aplomb.

By the time Jimmy Eat World had finished rocking the Bowl, the sun wimped out, bade the masses goodnight and cowered behind the horizon in trembling anticipation of the main event - rejuvenated punk rock sensations Green Day. There could not have been a better setting - dusk on a Sunday night in one of the country's best outdoor venues after one of the warmest, soul-satisfying afternoons of the year.

Milliseconds after breaking into the opening riff of album opener 'American Idiot', any feelings of relaxation were discarded as 65,000 people erupted into a fiery punk rock fireball. Singer Billie Joe growled into the mic, reinforced his band's anti-Bush ideology and whipped the crowd into a psychotic frenzy.

Tonight's performance is a gig of two halves, starting off with the album promotion side of things then ditching that and concentrating on the more important aspect of live music - entertainment! Fireworks exploding around the stage; teenagers invited to play along with the band; spraying the crowd with a water pistol; moaning ecstatically with his hands down his trousers; encouraging sections of the crowd to roar at different times - you name it.

When Billie Joe was picking the teenagers from the crowd, he was asking them how long they had been playing their instrument and how old they were. A drummer was plucked from the crowd and immediately took up rhythm duties, he then searched for a bass player. The crowd had come prepared - some people had signs saying 'I'm a bass player' but Billie Joe tended to ignore those and pick at random. The cameras focused on the individuals in the front rows and Billie Joe selected a half good-looking girl for bass duties. The security guys struggled to help her onto the stage however as it appeared she had a rotund, wobbly frame attached to her good-looking head. People in the crowd went a bit silent in a kind of 'oh dear' shush as she wobbled onto the stage, prompting me to shout 'PUT HER BACK, PUT HER BACK' from my place at the back of 65,000 people, completely embarrassing Debs and causing her to question why I always have to say what everyone is thinking. Anyway, a guitarist was soon added to the makeshift band and they did their bit. After showing off the song's ending, the teenage guitarist was told he could keep Billie Joe's guitar (lucky sod) and as a consequence of his big finale, was jokingly told to 'get off my f*cking stage you little bastard'. The blubbery bass player was then instructed to do a stage dive - highly entertaining to absolutely everyone in the Milton Keynes except the ten people she dived on...

It's a surprise to be told that Green Day have been together for 16 years now. Sure, they've had a line-up change or two, but that same underlying notion of punk rock mentality still anchors the band. Billie Joe and fellow founder member Mike Dirnt are well practised in the art of entertainment and as long as Green Day can continue to produce high quality tunes like Holiday, Boulevard of Broken Dreams and new single Wake Me Up When September Ends, and in doing so continue to attract the sizeable early-teen market which dominates the crowd today, there can be no reason for their success to wane.

And if we hadn't been exhilarated enough by the brilliance of Basket Case, Billie Joe stayed on stage at the end of the encore to play solo on Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life). A moment that I will remember not only for experiencing the live performance of one of my favourite ever songs, but the hairs on my arms rigidly standing on end as I was completely overwhelmed.

Sounds brilliant, i was at Glastonbury this weekend, which i can safely say was one of the best experiences of my life!! I strangely enough wanted to see Hard-Fi, but they cancelled due to the lead singers unwell mum! Although Keane, Coldplay, New Order, Brian Wilson and Basement Jaxx certainly rocked my boat in the watery fields of Glasto... If you've never been...GO, you'll never regret it!

I was at milton keynes saturday and ive been total awe since then, its almost 3 weeks! Im going again paris just to feel the power those guys hold, its taken me 7 years to see those guys and i have to say i love them even more now.

They are superb - American Idiot has found its way back into my CD player and seems to be on everlasting repeat...

So. How was your national meeting then?

Hii! I went to see them in Milton Keynes on Saturday 18th June! It was amazing! I loved every second of it and it was the best night of my life!

June 25, 2005

GREEN DAY