Green Day, Marquee Theatre, 3/11/13

Maria Vassett

Green Day @ Marquee Theatre

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Green Day @ Marquee Theatre| 3/11/13

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Phoenix is pretty damn lucky. We're one of three cities to host Green Day's intimate "warmup" tour on the band's way to South by Southwest. It's a rare treat to see a band that came up in the clubs before graduating to arenas pack a smaller venue.

It hardly felt like a stretching session for the band. It was Green Day's second show since
singer/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong's stint in rehab, but the frontman was as kooky and energetic as ever. He seemed ecstatic to be back on stage after a five-month break, and Green Day played an airtight, nearly flawless two-hour set, keeping the crowd at its mercy with every "hey-oh," fist bump, and Armstrong-led arm-sway. This was Green Day at its finest.

See also:

-Green Day Didn't Forsake Its Punk Roots; You Just Got Old and Complacent
-Throwback Thursday: Green Day's Dookie

Maria Vassett

Green Day @ Marquee Theatre

The band opened with the rousing, politically driven "99 Revolutions" from last year's ¡Uno! ¡Dos! ¡Tré! trilogy, setting the tone for the rest of the evening. In spite of criticisms about the band selling out, Green Day has as much to say as ever, and continues to have a good time saying it.

Armstrong pulled a young kid in a Ramones shirt on stage during "Know Your Enemy." (Nice shirt, dude!) The kid enthusiastically chanted "Do you know your enemy?" and shyly shook his head "no" when Armstrong encouraged him to take a stage dive. He was eventually swayed, as he crowd-surfed toward the back of the venue with a huge smile on his face. Classic rock move, right?

Green Day played two more tracks from the ¡Uno! ¡Dos! ¡Tré! trilogy before sticking to a hit-filled set. Armstrong said Arizona's mountains reminded him of The Thing, and dubbed our state the "home of the rock monster."

"Do you wanna start a fucking war?" Armstrong inquired to a sea of cheers that grew even louder as the audience recognized the opening strums of American Idiot hit "Holiday." Fans enthusiastically echoed back every "hey" and "amen." The lights dimmed and Armstrong guided a search light as he referred to the "president of Arizona" and fans erupted into a fevered "hey, hey, hey" at the end of the bridge.

Following the album's format, the band launched right into an acoustic version of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams." Before singing, Armstrong noted, "You guys sure are better than Los Angeles," as the lights once again dimmed and Armstrong led one of the many a cappella choruses of the evening.

Next was Nimrod's "Hitchin' a Ride," which still sounds fantastic 16 years after the album's release. Following that, Armstrong strummed Van Halen's "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" and encouraged the crowd to shout song requests.

Met with a flurry of Dookie requests, he added, "Now only request heavy metal songs, thank you very much." With a laugh, he added "We play 'Crazy Train' all the time," before launching into a medley of Metallica's "Master of Puppets" and Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll," which transitioned surprisingly well into "Brain Stew." It wasn't followed by Insomniac's fast-paced "Jaded," though American Idiot's short and fast answer to that song, "St. Jimmy," did just fine.

Armstrong complained about the venue being hot and remedied it by spraying the crowd with a super-soaker. He switched artillery and brought out a toilet paper gun that would put Girl Talk's crew to shame. His last trick was firing a T-shirt gun that made the whole ordeal feel like a sporting event, especially as he launched an "ole!" chorus before tearing into "St. Jimmy."