I don’t know, and hopefully never will, why a pink bunny came out on stage with a beer in hand and proceeded to engage in random acts of drunken debauchery to a soundtrack consisting of The YMCA and Hey, Ho, Let’s Go.  What I do know is that this was hilarious, and set the tone for what would become the greatest concert I have ever attended; Green Day’s American Idiot Tour 2005 at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA.             

Does the music of such a world famous band even need to be discussed?  While the band ran onstage to get instruments in hand, the opening music to 2001: A Space Odyssey boomed majestically over the stadium PA as the Green Day banner rose over the stage.  After Billie Joe conducted the last four chords into a spine tingling resolution, the band launched into American Idiot, to the roar of a crowd which threatened to drown out the music.  42,000 people screaming along with fists pumping in unison is awesome to behold, and the spectacle continued as we moved into Jesus of Suburbia, Holiday, and on into hours of pure, unadulterated Green Day.  Of course they played a great deal of their new album, but they also dug back into the past and brought out all of their greatest hits, including Basket Case, Longview, Minority, and the forever appropriate closing song, Good Riddance (Time of Your Life).  But they also mixed in some covers, including a medley of songs over a funk/jazz beat, and their now trademark rendition of We Are the Champions.

On top of the phenomenal collection of songs was a stupendous pyrotechnics and light show, capped off by a gargantuan fireworks show following the band’s encore.  There was enough fire on and behind the stage that it could have been seen as over the top or cheesy, had it not been for the almost magical manipulation of the crowd by Billie Joe.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  A point and raising of the arms was all it took to get the crowd in a screaming battle, and a single disapproving look made every member of the audience scream louder than they had ever thought possible.  With all the running he did from side to side of the football field width stage, I am amazed the he did not pass out from sheer exhaustion.  But all of that is typical for a world famous superstar band.  Atypical was:

            -Hosing down both sides of the floor audience
-Inviting two little kids onstage to continue hosing down the audience so the band  could continue to play.
            -Inviting three kids onstage to replace the band; one drummer, one bassist, one                                     guitarist
            -Letting the guitarist keep the guitar
            -Telling the drummer that in order to get off stage, he had to stage dive
            -Demanding almost constant audience participation
            -Wearing a crown and royal purple cloak during King For a Day

Watching Billie Joe work was like watching the Sistine Chapel being painted, a masterpiece in the making.  He fed off of every rise and fall of the crowd, connecting with each and every member in a way that should have been impossible.  Every move, every word he spoke was calculated to draw a predetermined response from the crowd, and yet seemed to be the most natural thing in the entire world.

The most fitting tribute to the band’s sensational performance was the call back for an encore.  A low rumbling filled the stadium, and at least the people around me looked up, thinking that jets were flying overhead.  There was nothing there, and as the rumbling intensified, I realized that it was the sound of 42,000 people banging on the chairs in front of them, eventually making the stadium sound like an earthquake.  Everything about the concert fit and blended to form an equilibrium rarely established between a band and their audience.