Melbourne, AUS
12/17/05
Written By: Brodie

Oh, what a night, what a night... what a night. I've seen many things in my life. I've seen the most beautiful beaches around, I've been seen boobs, but really, Green Day topples all over them, and buries them for nothing. Absolutely trashing their March performance in Melbourne, Green Day came out last night in their last night with purpose in mind to kick fucking ass, and kick ass they did.

But first, let's get to the first opening act. At around quarter to seven, or so, My Chemical Romance took the stage. And by this time, we'd been standing around for almost seven hours waiting for a show to begin, and the buzz was enormous. They opened with "I'm Not Okay", which was a surprisingly well performed song. Along with other hits like; "The Ghost of You", "Thank You For The Venom", "Cemetary Drive" and "Helena", I must say, My Chemical Romance surprised the hell out of me and were a very good way to warm up the audience for what was to come. We even sang "Happy Birthday" to one of their roadies, Jeff, which was nice, probably bridging time though.

Next up of course, the band I was looking forward to, was Jimmy Eat World. Let by Jim Adkins, Jimmy Eat World proceeded to absolutely rock my socks off, what more can I say? Jim came on stage at the beginning and began solo singing the chorus of "Futures" as they went into "Pain", this got the crowd up. From that, they crossed straight into "Bleed American", which was quite possibly one of the songs of their set, it was amazing. They then proceeded to run out their time with songs like; "A Praise Chorus", "Work" and my personal favourite "Futures". Jimmy Eat World provided an energy and presence that was great, you could tell they loved what they do, and were thrilled to be playing their last show in Australia. Ultimately, their two biggest songs followed as their finale as "The Middle" played up, which was possibly one of the bigger mosh songs of the night. They then closed with "Sweetness", an amazing set by Jimmy Eat World.

And now it was merely the wait that followed until we'd see one of the biggest punk rock bands in history hit the stage, Green Day. As their typical pre-show ritual goes from this tour, the 'Bunny' came out and danced a little number, and he got forty thousand people doing the Y.M.C.A. which is a beautiful scene in itself. And then came a highlight, the theme to Space Odyssey began to play, as the roof of Telstra Dome began to open, and then, the boys hit the stage as the stadium roared with ovation.

After absorbing the applause, Billie Joe tore into "American Idiot", which was the typical opener for the tour named just that. A very energetic performance of "Jesus of Suburbia" followed, in what Billie Joe described as a song 'very close to my fucking heart'. Up next was Green Day's contribution to anti-war, "Holiday", which was too good for words. Billie Joe's typical stage antics came out during the show; from 'supposed' masturbation, wearing the Australian flag, drinking an Australian beer (Victoria Bitter), and well, just being Billie. I can not express how much stage presence Green Day have, they're just the single most energetic and entertaining bands in this modern era, and I fucking love it.

Following the three openers were other songs from the American Idiot album; "Are We the Waiting", "St. Jimmy", "Give Me Novacaine" and "Wake Me Up When September Ends". During which it began to rain, which was beautiful, cause it was rather hot moshing with fifteen thousand strong, however the rain quickly subsided. In between all of that were mixtures of old favourites aswell, such as "She", "Longview", "Basketcase", "King For A Day", "Brain Stew" and that typical mob.

Green Day's biggest song of the night in a moshing-sense was most definitely, in my eyes (and my knees - ouch), "Minority". As soon as those few chords were picked by Billie Joe, and that bass drum was pounded by Tre, all that was left was to jump, great song. After this, the boys left the stage, as the crowd began cheering chants like "We want more!", and "Green Day", and you just knew they were coming back, it was only a matter of time.

Green Day returned to the stage, ready to play their encore. Billie Joe took this time to thank everyone for coming out, as he did several times during the concert, and he introduced Australia's own Chris Cheney (The Living End) to come out and play a number. They played "I Fought the Law", which was an entertaining sing-a-long, and it was incredible to see Chris up their with Green Day. "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" followed, and was the third biggest sing-a-long of the night. The two songs to follow took second and first, respectively. A light piano melody began to stream over the crowd as Billie Joe began singing the Queen hit, "We Are the Champions", and everyone sang and in conclusion to this song, the sky was masked in confetti, it was amazing.

The band went backstage as Billie Joe remained on stage, he approached the microphone as he began to play the final number of the set, "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)". This was the single biggest sing-a-long I've been apart of, and I loved every minute of it. As he concluded the song, he threw his pick, and took the microphone off the stand and threw that too.

All in all, I can only say this was a simply amazing event, and that I can not wait for the boys to begin touring again, possibly after their next album, when they'll once again rule the world.

The only let down was the slight loss of atmosphere, because of half empty stands. U2 have supposedly sold four times the amount of tickets as were at Green Day last night. But let me tell you, my friends, U2 can not fucking touch Green Day on a live stage, and never will. They're immortal, and will be encased in my mind forever.

Thank you Green Day, come back soon.