This show was the show we really wanted to see this year. For over 15 years, BLT & The Dogg have been Green Day fans. However, fate, scheduling, etc. always screwed up our plans to see the. Well tonight is the night. GREEN DAY!!!

The Knob was packed to the brim with kids from 4-20 yrs. mixing well with the elders in the crowd (of which we were two) and overall, extremely festive mood permeated the entire place. Except the VIP area, which was real slow and only 1/2 full. Cool for us to chow and drink prior to showtime.

“Detroit Motherf**kers! F**k California I’m stayin’ here!” – Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong yelled at Pine Knob to open their 3 hour long, exausting set. After about 1 minute, Billie Jow halted the band and ordered the kids from the hill to rush the stage and party like they have never partied before! The overwhellmed ushers let another 1,500 or so to pack the aisle front to back. When the "blue shirts" tried to push them back, Billie Joe yelled "hey you in the blue fuckin shirt, let them alone"! The party was on BIG TIME!!!!

My feet hurt. My mouth was desperately in need of some beer. My body was ready for a five hour deep tissue massage. But the Detroit Rock Dogg sucked it up for this show.

These were three complaints I had coming out of a Green Day concert that we got to witness at Pine Knob on Monday. But other than those three, you would be hard pressed to find any more for us, at least relating back to the concert that we had just witnessed. When Billie Joe, Mike Dirnt, Tre Cool and co. took the stage, I knew we were in for a great time. What I didn’t know was that I would be watching one of the best concerts we've ever been to. It definitely had the potential going in we thought, but we didn’t know it would happen.

I will note that this has been my first time seeing Green Day. An amazing band, who continue to thrill and wow audiences with their live performances. You can ask anyone who has seen Green Day; they give a show that is out of this world.

Following AFI, the traditional Green Day bunny hit the stage, drinking beers, goofing off, and having fun. At 8:00 p.m., the lights dimmed, the crowd erupted, and “Song of the Century” played, leading into “21st Century Breakdown.” The band then continued with tracks from their current album, “Know Your Enemy” and one of my personal favorites, “East Jesus Nowhere.”

At this point in time Billie Joe asks for a child from the audience to be “saved.” He pulled up one that made absolute sense; the child’s shirt read “Save Me.”

The band then blasted out “Holiday, ¡Viva la Gloria!, Give me Novocaine, Letterbomb (so glad they played this, another one of my personal favorites), Are we the Waiting, St. Jimmy, and Boulevard of Broken Dreams.”


Then Mr. Armstrong began the “old school” Green Day part of the set list. You could tell because not only did he announce it, but Billie Joe pulled out “Blue,” his signature guitar. Starting with “Burnout (the first track off “Dookie”) made my jaw drop; it was unexpected to say the least. They then broke out with “Nice Guys Finish Last” and “Who Wrote Holden Caulfield (at this point AFI lead singer Davey Havok came out to sing)?”

Hearing Billie Joe yell Michigan or Detroit whenever he could, singing “Living on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi, and “I’m On Fire” by Bruce Springsteen all added to the overall fun, and also the band did a medley of songs featuring “Iron Man, Highway to Hell, You’ve Really Got Me, Ain’t Talking About Love, Sweet Child of Mine,” sending the crowd into an uproar. In addition during the course of the evening the frontman invited a mass amount of people up on the stage with him, which was just awesome.

The boys then continued to blow the roof off Pine Knob with “2000 Light Years Away, Paper Lanterns, When I Come Around, and Brain Stew/Jaded (Tre Cool and Billie Joe squirted the audience with water gun while the two songs were transitioning).” When the band played “Longview” following that, they normally call people up to sing a verse of the song. What happened during “Longview” on this night, however, was something extraordinary. For this song, Billie asked a young chick in the 4th row if she really knew all the lyrics to the song. Once confirmed, she took the stage and did all proud with her stage antics, however her voice was beyond horrible. At the end of the song, Billie Joe proudly handed her his guitar saying she wanted her to have it, after telling the her that she was amazing.

Then the band proceeded on with “Basket Case, She,” the show stopping “King for a Day/Shout cover,” then a brief part from “Extraordinary Girl,” leading into “21 Guns,” and ending with their “hold that note” political anthem (Billie Joe belts out a musical note of a hard-to-estimate time, and asks the audience to do the same during this song) “Minority.”

The set list that Green Day just provided for us would’ve been enough; at that point we already realized we had just witnessed something amazing. But no, as Billie Joe said, he would play all night long, and while he didn’t really follow his own words, the band did continue for a two piece encore (to start), blasting “American Idiot” and the 9 minute epic “Jesus of Suburbia” out into the center. Then it was solo Billie Joe, armed only with an acoustic guitar, singing “When It’s Time,” a number from the American Idiot musical. He followed that up with “When September Ends,” getting joined again by his band mates as the crowd erupted for their re entry. When the song ended, the all of the band except for one promptly left, leaving Mr. Billie Joe Armstrong to end it all with the classic conclusion piece, “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life).”

At this point I checked my cell phone for the time and just couldn’t believe it; it was 11:04, which means Green Day was THREE MINUTES over playing a THREE HOUR CONCERT. When Billie Joe said during the night’s events that the band was going to give the audience the best show they’ve ever been to, he meant it in sincerity. For the money we paid for this concert, we honestly would state that we got a bargain.

Weather A+
Atmosphere A+
Lighting A++
Staging A++
Crowd A+++
Sound A
Set List A+

Overall, shit I must give an A+! A new concert of the year! This has truly been an amazing summer season for the Dogg & The ever lovely, BLT