GREEN DAY‘s UK tour thundered into
LONDON last night (January 24) with an intimate show at
BRIXTON ACADEMY.
After beginning the tour at Birmingham NIA on
Sunday, the punk superstars are playing two nights at the venue before
returning to arenas for the rest of the dates.
And the sense of occasion saw frontman Billie Joe
Armstrong give away his guitar to an audience member. During
the now-traditional segment of the show where the band bring fans onto
the stage to play after ‘Brainstew’, the chosen
guitarist was a girl called Katy, who walked away
with the prized axe.
And when he dragged two more fans onto the stage to shower the
front rows with water cannons, one of them threw up! Billie
Joe told him, “Sid Vicious would be
proud.”
Later on, he would dedicate ‘Wake Me Up When September
Ends’ to Johnny Ramone, who died last September.
The set drew heavily on their current international Number One album
‘American Idiot’. After opening with the title track,
Billie Joe declared “This house is mine! And this is
dedicated to everyone who took the train”, before launching into the
five-part epic ‘Jesus Of Suburbia’.
The show ended with a straight, rousing version of Queen‘s ‘We Are The Champions’
followed by a final version of ‘Good Riddance (Time Of Your
Life)’ from a solitary Bilie Joe.
The setlist was:
‘American Idiot’
‘Jesus Of Suburbia’
‘Holiday’
‘Are We The Waiting?’
‘St Jimmy’
‘Longview’
‘Hitchin’ A Ride’
‘Brainstew’ / ‘Jaded’
‘Knowledge’
‘Basket Case’
‘She’
‘King For A Day’
‘Wake Me Up When September Ends’
‘Minority’
‘Boulevard Of Broken Dreams’
‘When I Come Around’
‘We Are The Champions’
‘Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)’