Green Day - Awesome As Fuck

My youth belongs to Green Day. Not all of it, but they have always occupied a special place in my heart – snatches of memories and melodies floating up from my subconscious every now and then to remind me how much I used to love them.

Travel back to 2004. The iconic landmark album American Idiot had just came out, and as an angsty young teenager at secondary school, it sounded like the most incredible thing ever created by man. Even now, popping Green Day’s new live LP Awesome As Fuck into the CD player and hearing the first few bars of tracks like Holiday, I still get a shiver down my spine at the sheer power present in these songs.

Green Day have always been the voice of the people, and on Awesome As Fuck, they quite literally are. Live albums can go down one of two routes; either clean and clinical displays of technical prowess – or big snarling things full to the brim of crowd noise and raw emotion. This is most definitely in the latter. Take American Idiot, the opening verse is sung entirely by the audience; and it needs to be said, they are in fine voice.

There is no holding back here, no let-up; just an hour of frenetic, passionate rock. East Jesus Nowhere is a definite highlight, featuring chanting sinaglongs and a chorus that ranks up there with the band’s very best. 21^st Century Breakdown might not have reached the immense sales racked up by its predecessor, but then that was to be expected – American Idiot was one of those landmark albums that really are once in a decade moments. With songs from both albums placed together here, they meld together into the triumphant masterpiece the band envisioned. This is their true rock opera, loud, foul-mouthed and let loose before thousands of adoring fans.

It is in the smattering of older tracks however that Awesome As Fuck really comes into its own however. As it draws to an end, we are treated to the bare-bones Good Riddance (Time of your Life), yet it still manages to fill every inch of the venue... and then some. Green Day’s strength is how their songs go beyond the speakers, beyond the CD and strike a chord with each and every one of their listeners. When Billie Joe Armstrong sings, especially on the epic Wake Me Up When September Ends, we feel every word of it.

Whether it be a casually slung expletive (cheekily starred out on the cover of this album), or the vast statement of an incredible back-catalogue this album stands as a testament to, Green Day never fail to make us stop and listen. And judging by the strength of new track Cigarettes and Valentines sandwiched a third into the album, we’ll be stopping and listening to the band for a long time to come. Green Day – Awesome As Fuck? Most definitely.