May 20, 2009 10:01

Green Day play another secret New York show

Epic setlist spans punks' entire career

Photo Gallery: Green Day

Green Day played another small scale show in New York last night (May 19) in front of just over 1,000 fans.

Just one day after another tiny show at Bowery Ballroom, the punk superstars played a 'secret' MySpace gig, held at Manhattan's Webster Hall, that saw them storm through a two-hour set which was divided into two halves; one of material from new album '21st Century Breakdown' and the other of classics and requests.

Rather than play the whole of the new album as they have done recently, Green Day chose to play a select number of tracks, all of which were rapturously received by the 1,400 strong crowd despite the fact the album has only been available since Friday (May 15).

Lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong encouraged crowd participation from the very start and pulled up a fan to sing a chorus of current single 'Know Your Enemy'.

Later on, a member of the crowd responded to the line "I just want to bum a cigarette" in 'Murder City' by actually throwing him one, which the frontman duly lit up before quipping "Hmmmm, I love PCP." After around 50 minutes, the band closed the first half with a soaring version of '21st Century Breakdown' closer 'See The Light'.

The loudest cheers of the night, however, were reserved for the second half of the set which even featured 'At The Library' from their very first album '1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours'.

At one point, Armstrong pulled out another fan out of the moshpit to sing the entire second verse of 'Longview' and also took personal requests from other members of the crowd.

After almost taking the roof off with a rendition of their breakthrough smash 'Basket Case', the trio also threw in a medley cover version of Cheap Trick's 'Surrender' and The Replacements' 'Bastard Of Young'.

Despite being drenched in sweat by the end, Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool rarely stopped grinning at each other, least of all during the anthemic finale 'Minority'.

Green Day played:

'21st Century Breakdown'
'Know Your Enemy'
'East Jesus Nowhere'
'Before The Lobotomy'
'Last Of The American Girls'
'Murder City'
'Viva La Gloria (Little Girl)'
'The Static Age'
'21 Guns'
'American Eulogy (Mass Hysteria/Modern World)'
'See The Light'
'American Idiot'
'Jesus Of Suburbia'
'St. Jimmy'
'At The Library'
'Longview'
'Coming Clean'
'80'
'Basket Case'
'Surrender'/'Bastards Of Young'
'King For A Day'/'Shout'
'Minority'

The band have one more appearance to make in New York this week when they play at Rumsey Playfield on Friday morning (May 22) at 7am for the breakfast TV show 'Good Morning America'.