Why everyone said it was such a fabulous evening? Easy! 'Cause Green Day was playing.

It's 7 pm when the Volkshaus doors open. Lots of teenagers with green hair are already packed there waiting to enter the palace. A sign over a concert poster says the show is sold out. About 1,500 people will attend.

D Generation is supposed to play first, but I don't know why they don't. A local band which I can't remember the name shows up. They play shit for 20 minutes.

At 9:15 pm Green Day enters the stage. Tre Cool with green hair and his black T-shirt with the big yellow "nimrod." circle on it runs to the drum kit, Mike Dirnt with short red hair and Billie Joe Armstrong step to their microphones and smash into Going to Pasalacqua, Welcome to Paradise and Geek Stink Breath without a break. While playing Billie makes grimaces to the photographers that try to shot him. He also keeps standing on one leg and doing these strange poses.

Mike switches bass and Billie switches guitar - a copied Blue with just the red BJ sticked and two stickers on it. "This is brand new song. This song's called Nice Guys Finish Last" gives Billie off. Here we go for the first 3 tracks of their last album "nimrod.", the crowd is wildly enthusiastic. Billie also brings out this little puppet and makes his hands clap to the beat, so everyone follows. He finishes The Grouch with just the guitar and "The world owes me so fuck you. The world owes me so fuuuuuuuuuck you!"

Billie and Mike take their previous bass and guitar back. "HaHaHaHa... This an old song" and they play the great 2,000 Light Years Away. In the middle of the song Billie goes backstage, cames back behind Tre - we don't really understand what's going on at that point - and empties a whole bottle of water on him. Tre Cool keeps playing with that smile.

"Do you like heavy metal songs?" The crowd cheers. Billie starts singing "The beautiful people... The beautiful people..." and acting like Marilyn Manson, trying to sound satanic. "We're gonna play heavy metal songs for the rest of the evening. ... Ok, we're just kidding." They go into their old hits Chump & Longview, with such an energic sound. Then they play Brain Stew / Jaded at high speed.

Billie attracts attention to himself by doing his famous spitting thing. He spits high in the air but doesn't catch it in his mouth, and must dry his chin. As for Mike, he throws picks between songs to the front row groupies. Tre Cool also keeps throwing after each song his sticks behind him, even once 20 at the same time!

The band begins Knowledge. "Hmm. Does anyone know how to play the guitar tonight? To come up and play here right now. You? (pointing at an excited guy) You don't know how to play! You? (pointing at another guy) How many years have you been playing? (the guy says 5 with his hand) Come up!". They end the song with that boy playing the 3 chords. As always, they urge him to stage dive.

Billie plays the opening line of Basket Case and then lets the crowd sing. That's the moment everyone was waiting for! After they play She Billie Joe goes behind, comes back with that hideous mask on and begins playing F.O.D. with it. He then throws the mask behind.

They continue with Paper Lanterns, and play some shit in the middle of the song like part of "Eye of the Tiger". Billie ends with "Thanks for coming up tonight. We are gonna come back here in a few months. Bye!" and quits the stage.

After a while when Billie Joe is back onstage and ready to play, a group on the front row sings him "Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you Billie Joe!" All the crowd follows. During that time Billie stands at his microphone with that big smile and says "Oh! Thank you very much. I'm sixteen years old today." He probably dreams about being the same age as those front row groupies... The band encores with Scattered, Prosthetic Head, When I Come Around.

Then to mean the audience the show is coming to an end, the trio manages to destroy the whole stage. Beginning with Tre who can't leave a cymbal or a tom in its original shape. Mike offers special refreshments shaking and emptying his Feldschlösschen beer bottles all over the crowd. Tre Cool climbs on the side amps and empties Evian water bottles on the crowd. He does that several times from all the stage.

Mike knocks the big amps over and then smashes his bass handle into the drum kit with such rage. It ends minutes later, with Billie Joe kneeling in front a strange stack of amps, basses and drum elements, heavily reverberating chord again and again.

Billie comes over and ends with electric solo Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life). "It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right. I hope you had the time of your life." It sounds great! They played for about 1:30 hour.

The set: [01] Going to Pasalacqua [02] Welcome to Paradise [03] Geek Stink Breath [04] Nice Guys Finish Last [05] Hitchin' A Ride [06] The Grouch [07] 2,000 Light Years Away [08] Chump [09] Longview [10] Brain Stew [11] Jaded [12] Knowledge [13] Basket Case [14] She [15] F.O.D. [16] Paper Lanterns Encore [17] Scattered [18] Prosthetic Head [19] When I Come Around Stage destruction [20] Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)

Concert ticket Concert poster