Green Day - Awesome As F**K - Amazon.com Music (original) (raw)

If you're a Green Day fan, this is the best live package yet. The word "awesome" is not hyperbole. You get not only a CD of concert recordings from around the globe (America, Canada, Britain, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Australia) but also the DVD of an unforgettable performance in Tokyo.

Greatest hits as well as longtime favorites are included. Every song is played and sung at full throttle. The stage show is off-the-hook showmanship, a constant stream of flashing images and exploding fireworks and walls of sound. Billie Joe, Mike, and Tré are all over the place, leaping, flailing, belting out one great anthem after another and urging the crowd to go crazy. And what horde of screaming, shouting, moshing fans can match the pure, rabid, raving insanity of the Japanese?

After more than 20 indefatigable years together, from obscurity to the popularity of "Dookie" to criticisms of inauthenticity to "American Idiot" to ensuing superstardom and Broadway success, Green Day has arrived at a creative and professional peak. They are no longer derivative, no more a simple rock or punk band: they are themselves, an original phenomenon. No one's going to forget The Who, The Ramones, The Clash, or The Replacements, but Green Day is making vital music that speaks to the world today.

Does this album surpass the live "Bullet in a Bible" from 2005? That's a matter of taste, but I think it does. "Bullet" was recorded during the "American Idiot" tour, so half of the set list was from that CD. The new album is longer and more diverse, with songs from the length and breadth of the band's catalog, so it's a worthy purchase even if you already have "Bullet." Since the CD and DVD have different tracks, a total of 24 tunes are covered. And unlike the previous DVD, this one doesn't break up the momentum of the concert with interviews and documentary footage between musical numbers.

As we await the next studio album, the time is right for another release that reveals how electrifying Green Day is live. Now get this thing, crank it up, and bang your head!!!