IT’S something unpredictable, but in the end it’s right. I hope you had the time of your life.
– Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life), Green Day
IT started with a drunken bunny ... or rather, a man in a bunny costume staggering onstage with two beer bottles in hand, bizarrely dancing to YMCA.
While we will never know who was really behind that bunny suit, we do know that it was the start of a fantastically unpredictable and frankly brilliant rock concert by punk rock veterans Green Day in Singapore last Thursday night.
“STAND UP!” was the first order frontman Billie Joe Armstrong barked out when he came on stage. And immediately everyone in the seated areas obeyed. After all, when Armstrong tells you to do something, you just do it.
And just as soon as the intro to set opener 21st Century Breakdown rang out, everything else was forgotten, including the rather tame opening act Prima Donna (the five-piece band from the United States tried their best, but when you’re opening for a band as big as Green Day, it sure is going to be a losing battle to win the crowd).
Even from that very first song, the unpredictability was there, with Armstrong stopping mid-song so the security guards could fix the mosh pit barricades. Other random and mad things he did – grabbing members of the audience and hauling them up on stage to sing and crowd-surf (one lucky fellow even got to sing the whole of Longview by himself); leading impromptu sing-alongs of Love Me Tender, Hey Jude, Highway to Hell and er ... Pink’s Get The Party Started (“Hey, I LIKE Pink!” shouted Armstrong in response to the crowd’s booing); and most infamously of all, mooning the audience (final proof that this is one band that will NEVER be able to perform in Malaysia).
Never mind Chris Martin. The Coldplay frontman’s much-vaunted showmanship seems almost tame compared to Armstrong’s wildly energetic and insane antics and his ability to get the crowd going with a mere gesture of his hands.
Armstrong was the supreme circus ringleader, playing the crowd like an extra instrument, with us gamely doing whatever he told us to do and singing whatever was asked of us. Heck, he could have told us to eat our shoes, and we would have done it. OK, maybe not, but you get the picture.
And lest you think this is a one-man band, think again. Bassist Mike Dirnt was more or less the quiet one, but still managed some Olympic-grade running up and down the stage throughout the show, while drummer Tré Cool was one of the maddest drummers ever, flouncing around in a red bra during King For A Day and flipping his drum sticks into the air after every song.
“STAND UP!” was the first order frontman Billie Joe Armstrong barked out when he came on stage. And immediately everyone in the seated areas obeyed. After all, when Armstrong tells you to do something, you just do it.
And just as soon as the intro to set opener 21st Century Breakdown rang out, everything else was forgotten, including the rather tame opening act Prima Donna (the five-piece band from the United States tried their best, but when you’re opening for a band as big as Green Day, it sure is going to be a losing battle to win the crowd).
Even from that very first song, the unpredictability was there, with Armstrong stopping mid-song so the security guards could fix the mosh pit barricades. Other random and mad things he did – grabbing members of the audience and hauling them up on stage to sing and crowd-surf (one lucky fellow even got to sing the whole of Longview by himself); leading impromptu sing-alongs of Love Me Tender, Hey Jude, Highway to Hell and er ... Pink’s Get The Party Started (“Hey, I LIKE Pink!” shouted Armstrong in response to the crowd’s booing); and most infamously of all, mooning the audience (final proof that this is one band that will NEVER be able to perform in Malaysia).
Never mind Chris Martin. The Coldplay frontman’s much-vaunted showmanship seems almost tame compared to Armstrong’s wildly energetic and insane antics and his ability to get the crowd going with a mere gesture of his hands.
Armstrong was the supreme circus ringleader, playing the crowd like an extra instrument, with us gamely doing whatever he told us to do and singing whatever was asked of us. Heck, he could have told us to eat our shoes, and we would have done it. OK, maybe not, but you get the picture.
And lest you think this is a one-man band, think again. Bassist Mike Dirnt was more or less the quiet one, but still managed some Olympic-grade running up and down the stage throughout the show, while drummer Tré Cool was one of the maddest drummers ever, flouncing around in a red bra during King For A Day and flipping his drum sticks into the air after every song.
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