An American eulogy

the next few numbers were still recent material, mostly from american idiot where things didn’t get frenetic until they got to st. jimmy. it wasn’t til midway of their set that the first few older tracks were played. billie joe armstrong got out his sea foam green fernandes and welcome to paradise was a welcome break in the set to the old school. cop out tune was next (see intro above) and they played a couple of tunes from insomniac.

i was hoping the band would get people from the audience to play longview, but billie joe wanted someone who could sing instead. the volunteer he got was pretty decent, and the bloke owned the stage too (he played the roksta better than that prima donna fella) much to our surprise. not bad, considering he had bits of his locks chopped off by billie joe before he was handed the mic! they did the usual mickeying about with king for a day seguing into well known covers like shout and teenage kicks.

the better stuff came during the first encore – was so looking forward to american idiot and they didn’t disappoint. the second encore was mainly acoustic and they finished the set with the eponymous good riddance. i thought the set was decent despite them playing literally half of both rock operas they had written in the last 5 years. as i alluded earlier, with a catalogue containing short-ish songs i guess it was probably difficult to disappoint any punter that night.

sheffield arena 26.10.09 set: song of the century / 21st century breakdown / know your enemy / east jesus nowhere / holiday / the static age / give me novacaine / are we the waiting / st. jimmy / boulevard of broken dreams / murder city / hitchin’ a ride / welcome to paradise / when i come around / jam (photograph/iron man/rio/crazy train) / brain stew / jaded / longview / basket case / she / king for a day + (shout/stand by me/i fought the law/teenage kicks/satisfaction) / 21 guns / american eulogy / [encore 1] american idiot / jesus of suburbia / minority / [encore 2] last night on earth / wake me up when september ends / good riddance