Green Day puts on explosive show in Orange County, California

August 31, 2010, at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater

By Melissa Bobbitt
Published: September 3rd, 2010 | 11:45am

Sellout.

It's the most poisonous word to use against a punk rocker. It insinuates being compromised for fame, girls, clothing deals, whatever. It means relinquishing one's radical beliefs just for a taste of the mainstream. It means you're dead to your peers and supporters.

Sell out is exactly what Green Day did this week. That is, they sold out the entire Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine on a Tuesday night. Sixteen thousand people ventured to that isolated ravine (among those sighted, actor Bob Saget—who knew Danny Tanner was a rioter?) to watch a trio that started out over 20 years ago in Berkeley and became, arguably, the most important band of the last decade.

Somehow, Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tré Cool have ascended from the sellout pyre and masterfully defied logic: As they became bigger, they got more political. Their 2004 opus, American Idiot (Reprise), was one of the only successful and genuine protest albums during the Bush era. And now, it's inspired a sellout Broadway musical. The multi-platinum Dookie may have put them on the map since its release in 1994, but with age, they've become real artists and entertainers.

Who else among Green Day's ilk could put on a three-hour (yes, you read that right) concert encompassing nearly two dozen years of classics and still have the energy of teenagers on Red Bull? With a touring lineup that features keyboardists, extra guitarists, and accordionists, the hits sound fresh, and the anthems (such as the lighters-out bombast of "Wake Me Up When September Ends") can shake the heavens.

Most importantly, the Bay Area punks have fun onstage. Like tatted-up gazelles, Armstrong and Dirnt jumped atop their monitors and smiled widely during their set. For the bonkers "King for a Day," the whole crew wore costumes ranging from fat Elvis to Cool dressed as a tranny Southern belle, scurrying about like a Benny Hill sketch.

This wasn't a performance; this was a party. Any fan who could make it onstage was encouraged by the band to join them in the zaniness. Among the ranks was a shy boy dressed like the singer's mini-me, a tall blonde who cradled Armstrong like a baby, and a teen girl invited up to sing "Longview," who promptly fainted after leaving the stage. (She was revived and rocked out in the pit for the remainder of the gig.) T-shirts and toilet paper were shot into the vast audience. The closest concertgoers got hosed down with water. And all the pyrotechnics just added to the effervescence of the evening.

Like the terrific flashback medley Armstrong and the gang played (Guns N' Roses, Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, the Beatles), Green Day is a live act that this generation will brag to their children about seeing. If you're going to "sell out," you might as well do it spectacularly.

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Green Day official site

Green Day MySpace page

Reprise Records