American Idiot

Green Day

I got Dookie when it came out but it wasn’t really big with anyone else I was hanging with. Green Day put out a couple of albums that were not as good and then they kinda disappeared. In 2004 they released American Idiot and I bought it immediately without having even heard a track, some things you just know. It was fucking phenomenal. I went home and had a mini melt-up where I played it non-stop and almost got back to jumping on the bed with a tennis racquet days. The family didn’t get it at all. It’s always a damper when you think something is the best thing you have heard in years and everyone else doesn’t. But a year later everybody was a Green Day befok.

In my view Green Day are always best live, the Bullet With a Bible DVD was one of the best live shows I have watched. Bands like Green Day and My Chemical Romance are able to get crowds so wound up that they would give Machine Head a run for their money. There is a bit near the end where they get the crowd to build a big clear mosh pit and then let them loose in it. It is a fantastic example of how bands can work an audience and how people can get caught up in it all. Green Day epitomise that power Trio where everyone is a superstar in their own right. There are no weak links in the band whatsoever.

JAMES DAUBENEY