Austraila, Melbourne Rod Laver Arena, March 9th, 2005
I'll confess I missed out on tickets to the show when they went on sale in December, but I was stupidly fanatical enough to buy them off eBay for way too much ($175AU each for mosh pit tix) . Anyway, Simple Plan were up first and to their credit, they played a pretty energetic set, they did a cover of the Darkness' "I Believe In A Thing Called Love" which was cool. What wasn't cool was their backdrop which ripped off Green Day's bleeding heart grenade with a graffiti style heart which was split down the middle, next to big letters saying SIMPLE PLAN. They were also pretty cheesy in what they said "Australia's our favourite place to tour!" and "You guys kicked Sydney's (the previous night's show) ass!"
But anyway, that was that and then there was a long wait until Green Day came out, and when they did it was crazy. They launched straight into American Idiot and being a metre from the front of the mosh was very hectic indeed, with the whole pit crushing forward when they came out and played. When they finished Idiot, the whole crowd went crazy and a chant went up, simply going "Jesus! Jesus!". It didn't last for long because they then launched into Jesus Of Suburbia and played the whole thing very tightly, including a very long pause right at the end "Tales from another broken...........Home!" Then came Holiday with a little note at the start from Billie Joe "This song's a big fuck you to George W. Bush. This song's called Holiday, alright! This song is not anti-american, it's anti War!"
I could go on for ages but I'll just note a few highlights.
About halfway through the set, Billie Joe said "I wanna form a band on stage, right now!" He got three kids up on stage and they played Knowledge by Operation Ivy. The guitarist already knew the song, which was cool, so he played it well and followed Billie Joe around the stage from one mic to another and sang with him. At the end of the song, Billie Joe let him keep the guitar and then said "Now get the fuck off my stage!" A roadie dragged him backstage. Giving away the guitar is obviously part of the set because it was a Squier Strat, not nearly expensive enough for Billie Joe seeing as he'd been playing Fenders and Gibsons all night.
Basket Case was an awesome moshpit, everyone just spontaneouly decided to crowd surf during that song, Minority was also an awesome crowd song, i think just because of the tempo. There was plenty of pyrotechnics and explosions too. One disappointing thing I thought was the fact that there was also another rythym guitarist on stage (I forget his name, Billie Joe introduced him), and there was nothing wrong with that, but a lot of the time he played the solos and Billie Joe played the easier rythym parts. Anyway, that's my thoughts. It was an awesome show, one of the best concerts I've ever been to. And by the way, I caught one of Billie Joe's guitar picks, i think he chucked it into the crowd after Basket Case.
Here's the setlist.
American Idiot
Jesus of Suburbia
Holiday
Are We The Waiting/St.Jimmy
Longview
Hitchin A Ride
Brain Stew
Operation Ivy - Knowledge
Basket Case
She
King For A Day/“Shout” by Isley Brothers
Wake Me Up When September Ends
Minority
encore:
Boulevard of Broken Dreams
When I Come Around
Cover of “We Are the Champions” by Queen
Good Riddance (Billie Joe solo acoustic)
But anyway, that was that and then there was a long wait until Green Day came out, and when they did it was crazy. They launched straight into American Idiot and being a metre from the front of the mosh was very hectic indeed, with the whole pit crushing forward when they came out and played. When they finished Idiot, the whole crowd went crazy and a chant went up, simply going "Jesus! Jesus!". It didn't last for long because they then launched into Jesus Of Suburbia and played the whole thing very tightly, including a very long pause right at the end "Tales from another broken...........Home!" Then came Holiday with a little note at the start from Billie Joe "This song's a big fuck you to George W. Bush. This song's called Holiday, alright! This song is not anti-american, it's anti War!"
I could go on for ages but I'll just note a few highlights.
About halfway through the set, Billie Joe said "I wanna form a band on stage, right now!" He got three kids up on stage and they played Knowledge by Operation Ivy. The guitarist already knew the song, which was cool, so he played it well and followed Billie Joe around the stage from one mic to another and sang with him. At the end of the song, Billie Joe let him keep the guitar and then said "Now get the fuck off my stage!" A roadie dragged him backstage. Giving away the guitar is obviously part of the set because it was a Squier Strat, not nearly expensive enough for Billie Joe seeing as he'd been playing Fenders and Gibsons all night.
Basket Case was an awesome moshpit, everyone just spontaneouly decided to crowd surf during that song, Minority was also an awesome crowd song, i think just because of the tempo. There was plenty of pyrotechnics and explosions too. One disappointing thing I thought was the fact that there was also another rythym guitarist on stage (I forget his name, Billie Joe introduced him), and there was nothing wrong with that, but a lot of the time he played the solos and Billie Joe played the easier rythym parts. Anyway, that's my thoughts. It was an awesome show, one of the best concerts I've ever been to. And by the way, I caught one of Billie Joe's guitar picks, i think he chucked it into the crowd after Basket Case.
Here's the setlist.
American Idiot
Jesus of Suburbia
Holiday
Are We The Waiting/St.Jimmy
Longview
Hitchin A Ride
Brain Stew
Operation Ivy - Knowledge
Basket Case
She
King For A Day/“Shout” by Isley Brothers
Wake Me Up When September Ends
Minority
encore:
Boulevard of Broken Dreams
When I Come Around
Cover of “We Are the Champions” by Queen
Good Riddance (Billie Joe solo acoustic)
