Green Day
Milton Keynes Bowl (18.06.05)

Picture the scene, you feel ill, exhausted, sunburnt. You’ve just watched 3 warm up bands who all varied in ability and you are surrounded by 60,000 screaming maniacs who like you are getting restless like you because its just gone 9pm and most of them have been there for a good 9 hours waiting for the evenings main event. Then suddenly it happens, Billie Joe Armstrong, lead singer of American rock group Green Day storms on stage and bursts into American Idiot and the night is finally well and truly underway.

For me seeing Green Day live over a year ago was a special day for me, I brought the ticket off a mate a few weeks before the gig purely because I liked a few of their songs and I hadn’t been to a gig in a good couple of years. I came out of it with my musical tastes completely changed and a band that I actually cared about following and wanted to see again and again.

So the gig itself, well ‘the bowl’ as we affectionately named it was pretty packed by the time we got there at half 12, gradually the warm ups came on one by one and they got better and better, from the disappointing Hard-Fi to the promising Taking Back Sunday and the fantastic Jimmy Eat World at the end. Then a good 30 minute wait before Green Day came on. The set was perfectly arranged it started with American Idiot probably the most commercially famous song at the time and ended with Time of your life which is widely regarded as one of the best songs released by the band.

As you’d expect their most recent album at the time, also called American Idiot, was largely promoted with 7 tracks from it featuring, the majority of them at the beginning of their set including the 9 minute long 'Jesus of Suburbia' and the fantastic 'Holiday'. As the gig wore on Billie Joe constantly involved the crowd more than any performer I have ever seen. One memorable moment was when he got people from the audience to play the instruments. I admit these people were probably planted in the crowd but it was still a nice touch. Immediately after this the band launched into 'Basket Case' and didn’t you just know it, all 60,000 people knew every single word.

Id rank the gig as the best I have seen, purely because the music was fantastic, the band were entertainers both in terms of music and personality and the sheer size of the gig was the biggest Green Day had ever played in around 17 years of performing and I was proud to be a part of it.

I give this gig an undoubted 5 stars; we had the time of our lives, that’s for sure!


+ Review by Chris D

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