"F-ck it, I'm gonna keep playing" was Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong's motto Saturday night (September 15), as the band played its way through a nearly three-hour set at New York City's 1025-capacity Irving Plaza. There were costumes, kazoos and crowdsurfing as the pop-punk trio jumped between new material from their upcoming album "¡Uno!" (due September 25), hits from "American Idiot," classic rock covers and more well past midnight.
After opening act Lipstick Homocide got a warm reception from the crowd, the sounds of the Ramones' "Blitzkreig Bop" filled the club marking Green Day's turn to take the stage. Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool had barely kicked off the night with "Welcome to Paradise" before a mosh pit started in the center of the crowd and bodies began flying through the air toward the band. A teen fan, a dark-haired mini-Billie Joe of sorts wearing an "American Idiot" T-shirt, crowdsurfed his way to the front, jumped on stage and with the real Billie Joe's encouragement, made a big stagedive back into the pit.
During the extended set, Armstrong had the thousand-plus attendees -- which included celebs Dane Cook and Ellie Goulding -- hanging on his every word, and shouting and chanting and pogoing at his command.
