[The following post was written by our friend Omar De La Rosa who was able to attend Green Day's surprise show. Our thanks to him for taking the time to write this for us. You can follow Omar on Twitter (@Xoram) or add him on Facebook]

If there's one thing I learned from Billie Joe Armstrong's recent incursion into the Broadway musical scene, it's to be alert and prepared for anything. With the 21st Century Breakdown World Tour reaching a glorious-yet-saddening end in Costa Rica's paradisiac shores, thousands of Green Day junkies were left fighting against depression, and getting to see everyone's favorite front man on a New York stage proved to be the closest thing to getting a fix for those who could afford to feed the addiction.

When it was first announced that Billie was crawling into St. Jimmy's skin for a week only (an unprecedented event), it was like kicking the hornet's nest of dormant punk-rock and Green Day lovers. In a matter of minutes, hundreds of tickets we're bought, thousands of dollars spent, flights and hotel rooms booked, and vacation requests were being dropped in offices all across the world by fans who scrutinized their calendars and bank accounts trying to figure out a way to get the most 'beef' for their buck. After a week of tremendous success, Broadway had found its favorite son, and Billie Joe was summoned to the battlefield on two subsequent occasions, both of them much longer runs than the original, and both of them announced with the same 'short notice' urgency to them. They were both huge box office successes as well.

Now, I am guilty of all of the sins mentioned above, I participated and helped orchestrate three different trips to New York in an attempt to satisfy my deepest and most basic Green Day needs, and I know exactly how stressful it can it be to make these unexpected trips work out, but no amount of experience could have gotten me ready for the Costa Mesa affair.

click here to read the full recap