I’ll be completely honest and out myself as a Green Day fan, but the latest album, 21st Century Breakdown, just didn’t do it for me. For the St. Pete Times Forum show this past Monday, August 3, I sifted through the punkish, and Hot Topic fashion-entrenched crowds knowing that even if the new album wasn’t my favorite, the band would still put on a good show. They exceeded my expectations … and then some.

Kaiser Chiefs opened, warming up the crowd and drawing in stragglers to the front of the general admission floor section with their hypnotic energy. Front man Ricky Wilson demanded attention and won over the crowd instantly, exclaiming, “You may not know us, but who cares, right?” Kaiser Chiefs played a short but sweet set, leaving the crowd wanting more and antsy to see Green Day.

Between sets the “Green Day Bunny,” adorned in a new tour shirt and chugging Miller Lite, came out to further rile and ready the crowd. A quick scan showed the vast array of the ages of their fanbase: Myself – mid-20s, to my right — high school teens, and my left — a married couple in their 40s and in front — parents accompanying their youngish (ages 9-12) kids.

The lights went off, cueing screams of anticipation and the intro to the show, which was that of the intro to the album: “Song of the Century.” Green Day took the stage adorned in black with random red accents. With his hair dyed a deep black and spiked up yet looking unkempt, Billie Joe Armstrong took center stage in a black dress shirt with rolled up sleeves, a fabulous vest and a pair of black pants that gradually slipped down throughout the show, eventually enabling and provoking him to moon fans. With liberal amounts of black eyeliner on, Armstrong proved that no amount of eye-makeup can cover one’s ability to rock out.

The trio played against a high-voltage backdrop of bright lights, video reels, and the occasional special effects of fire, fireworks or bomb-sounding blasts. After giving ample attention to the album for which the tour is promoting Green Day shifted gears to tracks from their entire catalog, churning out the tunes for which they are known best.

Amidst all these three-chord masterpieces, Armstrong would further captivate the crowd by pulling up fans onto the stage to sing, dance, play with toys or in one lucky teen’s case, play a little bit of guitar. Three fans were given the mic during the performance of “Longview,” to sing in place of Armstrong – hilarious and heartwarming at the same time. While Tre Cool and Mike Dirnt kept the beat going, an orange-haired girl was yanked from the audience to play with a water gun as Armstrong played with a toilet paper blower and t-shirt shooter.

Besides the “Shenanagins,” that Green Day are so well-known for, although played nothing off of that particular album, they played an epic set, leaving Tampa Bay and St. Pete fans generally satisfied. Fans of “Dookie” and “Nimrod” were appeased with selections like “King for a Day” and the encore acoustic rendition of “Scattered.” Hits from the “American Idiot” album kept the audience singing along with fists and “rock on” hand gestures flailing.

Armstrong made a comment about moving away from their stylistic three-chord progressions into now having some “four-and-a-half chord” songs. They played with the energy and intensity of the album itself but took it to an even higher level. Listening to the album was boring in comparison to watching them live. It was seeing them in action as they brought their latest “Breakdown” to life that reminded me of why I was drawn to Green Day in the first place.

Where I thought “21st Century Breakdown” left something to be desired, perhaps I just needed to see them relate to the crowd and deliver the music with such perseverance to really appreciate this new “Rock opera,” and their musical growth.

Green Day dominated the stage at the Forum for almost three hours filled with amusement and anything but restlessness. When the phones came out they were either illegally recording or up in place of lighters, but time was of no consequence to the crowd. Exiting with the masses at almost midnight, a young boy with his tour shirt on and a big smile, said, “Best concert I’ve ever been to.” I left exhausted and elated thinking, “That was amazing. Now how the hell am I going to describe how great that was without saying something lame as, “It was kick ass”?

Set List:

1. Song of The Century

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. Welcome To Paradise

12. Hold On

13. When I Come Around

14. Brain Stew

15. Jaded

16. Longview

17. Basket Case

18. She

19. King For A Day

20. Shout – Break On Through –Free Fallin’ – I’ll Be There Montage

21. 21 Guns

22. American Eulogy

Encore:

1. American Idiot

2. Jesus Of Suburbia

3. Minority

4. Scattered

5. Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)

This article appears in Aug 5-11, 2009.