greendayvideos.com -- Avenches concert review

10:15 PM, Green Day enters the stage with sirens. After Welcome to Paradise and Hitchin' A Ride, they play Iron Man, a cover from Black Sabbath. Then Brain Stew, Jaded with Jason White playing the guitar in place of Billie Joe, and Longview.

To finish Knowledge, they ask a fan from the public to play the guitar. Marc* comes up, and plays also with Kurt and Alex on horns. He then stage-dives before Billie begins Basket Case, letting the public sing the whole intro. On King For A Day, he wears a crown, Jason plays guitar in his place, and with Kurt and Alex on horns.

Jason White still plays second guitar on Waiting and Minority. After When I Come Around, Tré Cool pours gas on his drum kit and sets it on fire. Mike Dirnt empties water bottles on the audience, and Billie encores with Good Riddance. That's a fantastic moment! Great show, with an hour setlist. About 7,000 attended.

* « My experience playing on stage with Green Day », by Marc Hottinger

Before the show, just as a joke, I wrote on a piece of paper that I could play all Green Day songs - which is, let's be honest, almost true - with the plan to make a paperplane with it, but I simply forgot it and put the paper in my pocket.

While Billie was asking for a guitar player, I remembered that I had a piece of paper in my pants. So I took it and held it in the air. As Billie saw it, he asked my for my age - I said 18, but I was cheating a bit 'cause I'm 17 - and took me on stage. Now I was sure that this must be a dream! But as he embraced me and gave me a kiss - what he does with everyone who comes on stage, I am not gay! (nothing against gay people) - I was nervous as never before in my life, I guess. He then showed me how to play, and I played as he told me. After two minutes running around on stage playing Knowledge, he asked me to stage-dive and, of course, I jumped into the audience while he was saying my name like on a hockey game.

So this was (one of) the greatest day in my life! Thanks Billie Joe, Mike and Tré!

Marc Hottinger

The set (with live MP3 recorded on radio Couleur3):

01. Welcome to Paradise
02. Hitchin' A Ride
03. Metal jam
04. Brain Stew
05. Jaded ♫ (MP3, 1:27, 1.4 MB)
06. Longview ♫ (MP3, 4:37, 4.2 MB)
07. Knowledge ♫ (MP3, 6:22, 5.9 MB)
08. Basket Case
09. King For A Day
10. Waiting
11. Minority
12. When I Come Around
13. Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)

More pictures of the show:

Photo credits: top (Billie Joe), black & white photo and article from 24 Heures (08/18/01), bottom (Mike throwing water) from Le Matin (08/18/01), first four photos with previews by Daniel Rihs (from rockozarenes.com), then two next from Zero magazine (sept-oct 2001 issue), photos #01-04 by Alexandre, Marc's photo and #05-10 by Hervé.

François Bonzon, 11/25/2001

Check out also this other review of the show (in french only), with more photos.