Green Day - Live In Singapore Concert Review

Who: Green Day

What: 21st Century Breakdown Tour

When: 14th January 2010, 8pm / 23rd October 2009, 6:30pm

Where: Singapore Indoor Stadium / The O2 Arena, London

SINGAPORE Setlist (courtesy of setlist.fm)

1. Song Of The Century (Intro)

2. 21st Century Breakdown

3. Know Your Enemy

4. East Jesus Nowhere

5. Holiday

6. The Static Age

7. Give Me Novocaine

8. Are We The Waiting

9. St. Jimmy

10. Boulevard Of Broken Dreams

11. Burnout

12. Hitchin' A Ride

13. Welcome To Paradise

14. When I Come Around

15. Iron Man/Paranoid/Highway To Hell (covers)

16. Brain Stew

17. Jaded

18. Longview

19. Basket Case

20. She

21. King For A Day/Shout/Love Me Tender/Satisfaction/Hey Jude

22. 21 Guns

23. Minority

Encore

24. American Idiot

25. Jesus Of Suburbia

(Billie Joe Armstrong solo on acoustic guitar)

26. Last Night On Earth

27. Wake Me Up When September Ends

28. Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)

LONDON setlist

1. Song Of The Century (Intro)

2. 21st Century Breakdown

3. Know Your Enemy

4. East Jesus Nowhere

5. Holiday

6. The Static Age

7. Before The Lobotomy

8. Are We The Waiting

9. St. Jimmy

10. Boulevard Of Broken Dreams

11. 2000 Light Years Away/Maria

12. Hitchin' A Ride

13. Welcome To Paradise

14. When I Come Around

15. Iron Man/Crazy Train

16. Brain Stew

17. Jaded

18. Longview

19. Basket Case

20. She

21. King For A Day/Shout/I Fought The Law/Teenage Kicks/Break On Through (To The Other Side)/I'll Be There/(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

22. 21 Guns

23. Minority

Encore

24. American Idiot

25. Jesus Of Suburbia

(Billie Joe Armstrong solo on acoustic guitar)

26. Last Night On Earth

27. Wake Me Up When September Ends

28. Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)

21 years after releasing their debut EP, Green Day finally made it to Singapore, performing to a capacity crowd of 10,500 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Thursday night. It would have been perfect if the concert was held on Friday instead, as the party would have lasted all night long and continued in the pubs, with people recounting their favourite moments from the concert.

I had the good fortune of watching the band twice in the space of 3 months, first in London then again on home soil. And I must say the second time was even better!

The concert started punctually at 8pm, with opening act Prima Donna taking the stage in front of an enthusiastic and appreciative audience, even though they were clearly rooting for Green Day.

At about 8:50pm, a pink bunny sauntered up on stage, clutching 2 bottles of beer and appearing "intoxicated". He/It jiggled to the music and also ran down the aisle at the floor, giving high fives to the mostly young fans who were at the front of the barricade.

And by 9pm, the opening strains of Song Of The Century streamed through the PA, the lights went out and the audience went wild. One by one, the band members ran up on stage and took up their instruments before launching into 21st Century Breakdown.

It proved to be too much for the barricades on the left side of the stage as part of it literally suffered a breakdown and buckled under pressure. Seeing this, Billie Joe immediately stopped the music halfway before the incident turned into something nasty and people got hurt. He told the audience that he wanted us to enjoy the concert, but to also do it safely. The security got it fixed within three minutes and the music resumed.

And the band played on for a solid 2 hours before taking a short break after Minority. As the audience chanted for an encore, they got more than what they asked for and were treated to another five songs, extending the set to 11:30pm.

As a testament to the band's longevity, they were able to perform 15 songs from their last two albums (21st Century Breakdown and American Idiot), enough to be a concert in its own right, AND play another 13 songs from the earlier albums.

As a result, you had two groups of audiences that night - the younger, teenagers who started out with American Idiot, and the older fans who liked Green Day since the beginning of their career. The band recognised this and structured their setlist to cater to both groups of fans. They started with 10 songs from the two most recent albums before going to the older stuff midway, and ending with the new stuff again.

However, there was never a dull moment as the showmanship of frontman Billie Joe took the spotlight, left, right and centre. At 37 years old, he was still a bundle of energy, running up and down the stage, jumping all over, shooting Super Soakers, toilet roll and T-shirt cannons into the audience, who were only too happy to lap it up. He also pulled up several members from the audience to share the microphone with him, and persuaded them to stage dive to the mosh pit in front. Hell, he even mooned the audience at the end of Jaded!

I was especially proud of the green-haired mohawk guy who got up and sang Longview entirely. He knew all the words, was in tune and never missed a cue. He had pretty good showmanship too. Finally, someone to do Singapore proud! Compare this to the London show, where Billie Joe actually asked the fan to get off because he didn't know the words to the song, and had to find another fan to replace him. You rock, green-haired Mohawk guy!

It's hard to pick a favourite moment from the concert because there were so many. I particularly enjoyed When I Come Around and Basket Case because they were the songs that got me into Green Day in the first place. Jesus Of Suburbia was pretty damn solid too. And of course, when the whole stadium sang along to Wake Me Up When September Ends and Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life), you couldn't help but feel super high too.

The Singapore show is now one of my top 3 favourite concerts of all time, right behind Foo Fighters in Perth 2008 and The Cranberries/No Doubt in Singapore 2002. I enjoyed the Singapore concert much more than the London one, and I think it's because I was in the standing pit in Singapore, with my equally Green Day-crazy friend, while I was in the seated section in London and the people around me were not as crazy or jumpy.

However, the London show was much more impressive in terms of backdrop and pyrotechnics. They brought all the bells and whistles to London, with several large LED displays that could put up all sorts of cool graphics and backdrops. They also had real fire pyrotechnics on stage, so during songs like Know Your Enemy, they really brought the song to another level. But in terms of atmosphere or residue feeling of "high-ness", Singapore's show was way better. Like I said, Singapore rocks!

Here are some pics I took from the Singapore concert. Contrast the backdrop against the London pics!

And here are some pics from the London concert, some of them courtesy of my dear friend Jasper, who had a much better camera than me!

The O2 Arena, formerly the Millennium Dome

It was especially poignant for me knowing MJ would have performed there had he not died

"Drunk" bunny goes on stage

Before The Lobotomy...wish they had performed this in Singapore too

Boulevard Of Broken Dreams

Those are real fireballs!

The saxophonist wore a red MJ Thriller jacket and glittery Billie Jean socks.

He later weaved the Billie Jean chorus into his sax solo

21 Guns...the visuals from the music video were projected on the screen, very cool

Green Day rocks! Can't wait for the next album and tour!