Awesome? As Fuck

Wow. Where to begin with Green Day’s new gargantuan live album? The beginning, the title. To understand the title of the cd/dvd, you really have to see the dvd. Walking past it in Fopp or HMV, the average customer would be forgiven for passing it over, as completely “arrogant” and “unnecessary”, but the title “Awesome As F**k” (literally how it appears, no I’m not making it up) is 100% justified.
Shot in Tokyo’s Saitama Super Arena in January 2010, it is a perfect setting for Green Day, and all that their superb musicianship has earned them, thousands of adoring fans crammed into the vast space. Not only does the Arena house thier fans superbly, but it gives the film a sense of occasion- majestically filmed Billie Joe appears as a king presiding over his dominion.
It looks great, and sounds just as good. Often live albums are let down by a poor quality set list, not here. Not with Green Day. “Burnout”, “She”, and “Geek Stink Breath” are all included on the dvd, a welcome change from their last effort “Bullet in a Bible”, where older songs were omitted, however the absence of “Longview”, “Brain Stew” and “Minority” do leave a slighlty sour taste. It doesn’t really matter what songs the Oakland trio and their touring band are playing- they all sound fantastic, the songs injected with a new energy and sense of urgency that is quite hard to comprehend for men one year off their forties.
The version of “Holiday” on the dvd is phenomenal. It has the usual interlude in the middle, but Billie’s cry of “Do you want to start a fucking war?!” at the beginning is so perfectly poised, perfectly judged. Therein lies Billie’s true quality as a frontman, he operates the crowd sa though a mere marionette. He implores the crowd to “remember this night!“, and on this form it is unlikely anyone there ever will.
The dvd captures a band at the absolute peak of their game. This tour had been going since 2009, and would continue for another year. That Billie, Tré and Mike are so enthusiastic, energetic and psyched up is testament to their personalities, that after two decades they are still evidently excited to be playing.
But it’s the songs that are really important in a live film, and my goodness do they make the place their own. Their songs just fit on this stage. The scale of the gig is not beyond Green Day, that his songs from earlier releases transfer so easily into this setting shows what a great song writer and performer Billie Joe Armstrong is, creating an epic fest of Green Day love, but also making it feel completely intimate.
That is just how I remember going to see them in London, this dvd is perfect in capturing what it felt like to witness them live on the “21st Century Breakdown” Tour.