Billie Joe Armstrong

What an amazing night!

I'm talking of course about the Orlando Green Day performance at the Amway Arena. The night was filled with explosions, lights,lasers and all around a rocking good time.

First off, let me start by saying sorry for the delay in getting this review out to you guys. As you could imagine I had a lot of notes to weed through in order to get the most information out of it. That being said, we first need to start with Kaiser Chiefs.

Although not being that well known here in the United States, they certainly blew everyone away with their energy. The band's lead singer, Ricky Wilson, ran from right to left several times attempting to induce loud cheering. Wilson also ran off the stage into the audience to get them to cheer even louder for Green Day. As he leaned to one of the audience members sitting in our section, he said "I don't think they're ready for Green Day" causing the audience to roar even louder.

The Chiefs kicked off their set with the rocking tune, "I Predict A Riot", also they sang the upbeat dance song, "Ruby". To finish off, they ended things with "Oh My God" before walking off the stage leading us to the next band. Other songs performed included "Everything is Average Nowadays" and "Everyday I Love You Less And Less".

Right before all the chaos started, the drunk pink bunny came out in a Green Day t-shirt with a bottle of beer. The puppet kept lifting up its shirt and also rolling in both sides of the arena. Along with this, he got off the stage and went into the right side of the audience and slid down some stairs backstage again.

After waiting a couple of minutes, Green Day came out to a roaring crowd and began their set with "Song Of The Century" which led into the album's title track, "21st Century Breakdown". After that, they rocked out with the first single off their eighth album, "Know Your Enemy". At one point, Billie Joe called for all the lights to be turned off and used a spotlight to shine down on his audience.

During "East Jesus Nowhere",the screen behind them had colorful religious imagery. The band's frontman called for a volunteer that was "young and not quite ripe yet" to come on stage and be what he called, "saved". After receiving instructions, 10 year old Patrick fell to the floor just as fireworks went off as to show that his sins were forgiven.

From this tune the band played straight into "Holiday", which featured an impressive screen filled with stuff about CNN and war. From there it went to "The Static Age". Before it started, Billie seemed to imply for everyone to put their technical devices away as he said, "To hell with tv, to hell with computers, this is our moment!". This particular song also had one of the back up band members, Jason Freese, playing an amazing saxophone solo!

Billie Joe also told his adoring fans a story about how he and Ricky Wilson got drunk while in their hotel room and how the Kaiser frontman wanted to get a tattoo the night before. To this Billie replied that he can give tattoos, however Wilson was surprised when instead of a tattoo gun, all Armstrong had was a needle and pen ink. When he was done, the trio went on with "Before The Lobotomy". In this song, they stop playing on parts and encouraged crowd participation during some of the verses.

When this song was over, a small disco ball accompanied the screen to coincide with "Are We The Waiting". After performing, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", the group briefly played a little bit of "You Really Got Me". Then, immediately started playing, "Hitching A Ride" from 1997's, "Nimrod". Green Day also did a medley of several heavy metal covers including: Black Sabbath's, "Iron Man", Motley Crue's, "Shout at the devil", The Doors "Break on Through" and Metallica's, "Master of Puppets".

It wasn't all about the music, Armstrong called up a volunteer to spray down the audience with an enormous super soaker. Following this, Billie Joe pulled out a toilet paper reel and a t-shirt canon. He also asked the general admission to start a mosh pit for their next song, "Jaded".

Going way back to their very first hit, Armstrong asked for three volunteers to sing to "Longview" on-stage. Some of which even took a stage dive as directed by Billie!

These Oakland rockers also did another medley to "King For A Day" with everyone on stage wearing a different funky outfit. Freese dressed up like the late Michael Jackson in a red jacket, black wig and did a moonwalk just before they started. This segment included covers of "Shout" and "Free Falling" by Tom Petty.

Just before the evening closed, the encore included older songs "American Idiot" and "Jesus of Suburbia" which included a audience member that played lead guitar. Everyone on stage took a final bow and left Billie Joe by himself as he serenaded the crowd with acoustic versions of "Christie Road", "Waiting" and finally, "Good Riddance".

Overall the show was super impressive and there was never a dull moment, it was even more magical than the 2005 show when Amway Arena was known as the TD Waterhouse Arena. All goes to prove once again, Green Day are the greatest band in the world!

Stay tuned for more information on our continuing coverage of the 21st Century Breakdown tour.

Add to our tour thread here.

See the official Orlando set list here.

Howdy ho everyone, how are you all doing today?

Billie Joe is on the cover of NME Magazine, and features a Green Day exclusive in this month's issue. The punk rocker discusses his lyrics, and is quoted as, "my lyrics come from a really dark place." The mag is available on newsstands now!

Also, John Buccigross from ESPN.com mentions "21 Century Breakdown" being the best album of 2009, and no other record is going to stand a chance against it. Check out the article here!

Those of you familiar with Record Store Day, here comes Vinyl Saturday! That's right, the creators of the yearly event have decided to make it monthly. The third Saturday of every month, there will be exclusive releases at your mom and pop's record shops.

Starting June 20th, the first 7"inch release will come from "Wilco (The Album)" for their song, "You Never Know". Not only that, Green Day's "Know Your Enemy" is also set to release, along with a collaboration with Pete Yorn and Scarlett Johansen.

Musicians getting involved are:

• Al Green
• Earth
• Patterson Hood
• The Woggles
• Those Darlins and Wolves in the Thorn Room
• Modest Mouse

Green Day were the musical guest for the new Tonight Show with Conan O' Brien Tuesday evening. Here's an article from The Orlando Sentinel about how well they performed.

If you happened to have missed the guys, watch the video below!

Howdy everyone, how's everybody doing? Glad you're you could join us!

Guitar playing extraordinaire Billie Joe Armstrong is on the cover of this month's Guitar World, it's on stands right now! Find out his secrets behind playing those super awesome riffs!

Green Day reach the number one spot yet again! This time their album, "21st Century Breakdown" goes number one on the European Top 100 Albums! Read all about it on Billboard.com!! Huge kudos guys!

An article from NBC has been posted about the guys appearance on Comedy Centrals' The Colbert Report about the interaction between the guys and the host, Stephen Colbert. The trio made the political pundit laugh, admit he was a fan of their music, and left him lost for words for a couple of seconds. Check out the full article on NBC.com!

GreenDay.com has a great selection of photos from when the punk rockers were in New York City. There's even one with them posing with Stephen Colbert, one picture snapped during band practice and tons more! While you're at it, take a look at the amazing photo gallery!

The guys were recently interviewed and featured on VH1 News, check out the video below!

For more awesome interviews with Green Day check out our New Interview Videos thread on our forums!

Have a great day everyone!

Good afternoon everyone, hope you're all doing great!

Green Day were on CBS Sunday Morning at 9 am EST, they discussed their first show, their new album, and their plans for the future.

CBSnews.com also provided a whole transcript of the interview in case you didn't happen to catch today. When asked about their first gig, Billie Joe replied, "I think we ended up playing our first show together and we played I think it was the seventh grade at, like, the-like, the middle school dance or something like that. And it ended up being really fun."

Well, with time their shows got even bigger and soon by the 90's, the trio were touring nonstop. Tre Cool's father even helped out by driving their bus.

Interviewer Tracy Smith asks Tre how the experience was, "what was it like having your chaperone dad with you on tour?" To this Cool cleverly replies, "it was fun until he started like crossing the line of-of like being a father and being a bus driver. Like he would complain about dirty socks and stuff. It's like, 'Dude, we're a punk band. We-we are dirty socks."

The guys also talked about their first major hit album, 'Dookie' which came out in 1994, " 'Dookie' came out and it was, like, the most dramatic thing that ever happened to us at the time,  you know?" Armstrong says.

Cool looks back at it like a happy memory, "we got a roadie. Everything was stepped up-you know, another notch. And then, you know, there's-we had fans."

To this, the band's bassist, Mike Dirnt adds on, "everything was new. Every day, everything was new."

Let's veer away from their careers, and focus on their more personal lives. Dirnt is part owner of his very own restaurant, Rudie's Can't Fail Cafe. Named after a tune by his favorite band, The Clash.

"I grew up hanging out in coffee shops at one and two in the morning and I thought it'd be really cool to have a place open seven days a week where we could get a coffee or a beer and also bring a kid in and hot have to wait an hour and a half for a waffle," says Mike.

He also says spending time away from his children is tough, but tries to keep optimistic, "it could be worse. I could have to go overseas and go to war and not come back at all. And as long as you keep those things in mind you're going to wake up on the right side of the bed with a purpose."

Billie Joe, who also fathers two children, speaks about parenting while trying to balance the biggest band in the world, "I consider myself a conservative parent, believe it or not, in a lot of ways. There's different sides of everybody. I think I just worry like every other parent does. You worry about education; you worry about where they're getting their information from. You hear things you never thought you'd hear coming out of your baby's mouth. But it's a trip. It's all part of it, you know?"

Smith asks him about his concerns with education since he dropped out of high school himself. Armstrong explains his logic, "you know, my oldest son, I talked with him about it recently I never brought it up before. And what I told him was I'm the luckiest bastard on the planet for doing what I've been able to do. As a musician and get to the heights we've gone to or at least the level we've gone to and it's something I never take for granted and it doesn't happen to everybody and, you know, my kids like music too."

Back to their music career, their previous album, "American Idiot", also was the topic of discussion. Smith asks about this epic work of art, "there's a succession of albums, and then comes the-and I've heard this term over and over again-masterpiece 'American Idiot'. What do you think of that term?"

Armstrong goes on to joke about it, "it's not really strong enough. In the term to describe such an opus of sorts."

And how about their current record, "21st Century Breakdown"? It's the number one record in the nation, and also more ambitious than it's predecessor!

"It's chaos and desperation and, you know, there's an angry mob, there's a city on fire while you're making out with your girlfriend in the middle of it," Billie Joe said.

One might think their music seems angry, desperate and possibly even depressing at times, but the band members assure you they're doing fantastic.

"This is a good journey that always starts with the music, you know? Whether it's live or just with an acoustic guitar in your room. I think at the end of the day, if you follow the music, it'll take you on a really, really great journey," Mike says summing up their entire musical career, past and present!

There's more Green Day coming at you during the next few weeks! On Tuesday June 2nd, the guys will appear along side Tom Hanks on The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien. Also, later next month, the guys will be performing their awesome tunes on Late Night with Carson Daly for a whole week. So make sure you set up those Tivos and DVR's!

In another article, according to undercover.com.au, Eminem has defeated Green Day selling 27,971units of his album, "Relapse". He has the number one record on the Australian charts for this coming week, as well as conquering the UK charts. It is also expected to sell 600,000 plus units in the United States as well.

Here's a clip that was left out of the televised interview for CBS, the guys discuss an incident that involved their bass player getting very sick onstage.

Join the listening party on our forums! We'll be streaming "21st Century Breakdown" until midnight May 29th, 2009. It's also featured on Nimrod Radio!

Have a wonderful week Nimrods!

Hello peeps, what's happening? Glad you could join us!

If you have been searching for Green Day's new album, "21st Century Breakdown", at Wal-Mart, you may be surprised to know that the disc is banned from the retailer.

According to The Associated Press, the record is stirring some controversy due to Green Day's refusal to edit the album for content. Billie Joe Armstrong says it's ridiculous what the company asks of artists. I fully agree with the guys and have to give them kudos for not giving in!

"Wal-Mart's become the biggest retail outfit in the country, but they won't carry our record because they wanted us to censor it. They want artists to censor their records in order to be carried there...we just said, 'No.' We've never done it before. You feel like you're in 1953 or something."

As you may already know, the chain does not stock albums that contain the parental advisory sticker, offering a cleaner alternative by removing profanity and questionable content. 

Associated Press quotes Wal-Mart spokeswoman, Melissa O' Brien on the matter, "as with all music, it is up to the artist or label to decide if they want to market different variations of an album to sell, including a version that would remove a PA rating. The label and artist in this case have decided not to do so, so we unfortunately cannot offer the CD."

Don't think the guys are spending a minute of their time worrying over it, they're more than happy to deal with it, "if you think about bands that are struggling or smaller than Green Day...to think that to get your record out in places like that, but they wont carry it because of the content and you have to censor yourself. I mean, what does that say to a young kid who's trying to speak his mind making a record for the first time? It's like a game that you have to play. You have to refuse to play it," Armstrong told AP.

A spokesperson for Reprise Records could not be reached to speak about the issue. Read all about the shenanigans on MTV.com!

On a different subject, the new video for "Know Your Enemy" is back on the world's largest video site, You Tube! Sure you can find the video itself and the live version, but other clips seemed to be disabled in a way. You just gotta know where to look as a matter of fact!

Last December, Warner Music removed all their videos and songs off the site due to a licensing dispute. Any official comment from WMG, or You Tube has yet to be stated.

Take a look at the article from mediamemo.allthingsd.com, it contains the video for Green Day's new single. What's better is Viacom's video site has a legal version of the tune that won't get taken down.

The trio are on the cover of this June's Big Cheese Magazine. The guys are quoted confidently on the front page as, "we're not politicians-we're a rock 'n' roll band!" Check out the link here.

GreenDay.com has an image on their site for the song, "21 Guns". Could it be the next single off "Breakdown"? We shall see what happens, the site doesn't give any official word. I do have to add that it's a great song, and we wont be disappointed if it is released, keep your fingers crossed!

Here's a clip with Green Day speaking to MTV about their video. It also features their Rhapsody commercial before the interview starts!

Hola everyone, how are you doing today? Hope you're all doing swell!

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Green Day's new album "21st Century Breakdown" is number one on the US album chart this week. Billboard.com reported the news earlier today! Nimrod Street would like to give the guys a huge congratulations!

Now let's give a quick run down of the losers, at number two is the soundtrack to "Hannah Montana: The Movie", at number three Cam'Ron's "Crime Pays", "The Fame" by Lady GaGa is number four and ending the top five, "Unstoppable" by Rascal Flatts at number five.

Wait, there's more! "Together Through Life" by Bob Dylan comes in at number six, Taylor Swift's "Fearless" at number seven, "Epiphany" by Chrisette Michele's at number eight, Rick Ross's "Deeper Than Rap" at number 9, and last but not least, "Fantasy Ride" by Ciara at number ten!

In other Green Day news, the guys will be on Zane Lowe's Radio 1 show beginning at 7pm until 9pm GMT. Check out the link to listen in. You'll hear live session tracks recorded from BBC Maida Vale Studios in London, England!

MTV.com have posted an article about Green Day admiring hip-hop records. The trio have been blasting it while they tour, some of the records they've been listening to have been Eminem, who will have the number one record next week.

It's long been rumored that singer, Billie Joe Armstrong couldn't stand the Detroit native, but it looks like that could very well been false.

"Looking at a guy like Eminem, the way he put his records out and how he goes from character to character and how a lot of hip-hop artists use different names, conceptually, I think that's really important to put into records. I think that's why a lot of hip-hop records become so eventful. All of a sudden a character will come up. A dialogue will come up. The ambition a lot of hip-hop records have, that's something I can relate to."

The article also was kind enough to provide a video clip with Armstrong telling you in his own words, enjoy!

The fun's not over yet, join our listening party on our forums! We'll be streaming the entire "Breakdown" album until midnight May 29th. It's also playing on Nimrod Radio as well!