Last Night on Earth

There are plenty of bands who have made the transition from raw punk or indie act to mainstream arena act, but few who have embraced it so wholeheartedly as Green Day has over the last 20 years or so. The Bay area group burst on the scene in the early '90s as a power trio blasting out catchy punk pop ditties, but about six years ago reinvented itself as an ambitious purveyor of rock operas/concept albums/Broadway shows.

Last night at the Comcast Center in Mansfield, Mass., the band displayed both ends of that evolutionary chain in a nearly three-hour show to a packed amphitheater of teens, pre-teens, families with small children as young as 5, and even the occasional geezer such as myself. I first got into the band in my mid-20s with the release of 1994's Dookie, a classic collection of snotty punk. The following albums were less compelling until the band was pretty much reduced to just playing those old mid-90s tunes at smaller venues. Then came 2004's American Idiot, a sprawling concept album that struck a chord with disaffected youth who were pissed off at the Bush administration and suddenly made the band relevant again. American Idiot was a huge success and last year, Green Day returned with 21st Century Breakdown, another concept album that was good but not great, IMHO. They also rolled out a Broadway musical based on American Idiot. In all that time, I had never seen Green Day live. I almost went to the band's free show at the Hatch Shell in '94 but didn't for some reason; just as well because the thing turned into a small riot after 20 minutes.

The band played the area right after the release of the latest album but I didn't really have any desire to go. When my buddy Gary said he had an extra fairly cheap ticket for last night's show, I figured it'd be fun to finally see them. Unlike the other Mansfield concerts we've seen in the last few years, this time we brought along his 16-year-old daughter and her friend, who sat a section over from us. We walked in just as Green Day took the stage and right from the start, you could tell that frontman Billie Joe Armstrong knew how to work the crowd. He constantly shouted out "New England!" or "Boston!" whenever he could work it in, pulled out a few anti-New York references and generally pandered to the crowd at every turn. It was sorta-family friendly rebellion, with plenty of f-bombs for everyone. He pulled out every rock cliche in the book: Bring up a young fan on stage to sing a few verses; encouraging crowd singalong sections during nearly every song; getting the crowd to do the swaying arm thing during every slower song; and generally just bringing the cheese. And the crowd loved every second of it.

There was plenty of actual rocking going on. Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool are an excellent rhythm section and Armstrong still kicks ass on guitar when he wants to. Still, I wish I'd caught them back in the early days just to see them as a trio. They played a few tunes from Kerplunk, their first album, including "2000 Miles from Home" and "One for the Razorbacks," as well as a healthy dose of their '90s output, which received the biggest cheers. The band has tons of energy and Armstrong and Dirnt were all over the place on stage. Pretty impressive, really.

Green Day is basically the rock equivalent of a Vegas lounge act, and I mean that in the best way possible. They know how to put on a show. There was tons of 'splosions, big lights and video. The trio was augmented with three extra musicians, including a keyboard/sax player, which allowed Billie Joe to ham it up even more. At one point, the band played snippets of "Iron Man," "Sweet Child o' Mine" and "Highway to Hell" before launching into the old GD staple "Brain Stew," which kind of ripped off all of those songs. A guy wearing a "green man" costume was brought up on stage to sing "Longview"; he did a half-decent job and then was given Armstrong's guitar (which I guess the band does at every show). At one point, about 50 people were brought onstage to jump around while the band played a song. There was a 15-minute section near the end of the show in which the band dressed up in wacky costumes, played a little bit of Benny Hill's "Yakety Sax" theme, played the Animal House anthem "Shout" with each member of the band singing while Billie Joe played their instrument and then wrapping up with Armstrong singing parts of "Satisfaction" and "Light My Fire" while lying on top of a speaker. The show ended with Armstrong on acoustic guitar playing "Good Riddance," arguably the band's biggest hit. I was hoping for a rocker to end the night, but it was still a great show.

Yeah, Green Day's playing for a wider audience now. They're kind of like a punk-by-numbers kit for mall teens. But if you're okay downing a little cheese with your rock, you'll like 'em just fine.

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