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‘Life ain’t pretty . . . I can testify to that s--t,” opined Billie Joe Armstrong early in last night’s Green Day concert at Barclays Center.

The last eight months have seen him suffer a drink- and prescription-drug-fueled meltdown onstage in Las Vegas, enter an outpatient rehab program, and have his band’s big return come to a screeching halt before it could even get into second gear.

You get the feeling that his testimony on life’s ugliness would indeed be compelling, but Armstrong would never dream of ruining anyone’s night out with such self-pitying.

Instead, he and his Berkeley punks turned in the kind of 2 1/2- hour celebration that has long been their calling card. But before the real pleasure, the band understandably felt the need to deal with the unfinished business of “Uno!” “Dos!” and “Tres!” — their triple whammy of new records that got lost behind the darkened haze of Armstrong’s personal issues. Although Green Day could have done with some quality control on those albums, they front-loaded the show with a smart selection of new songs and proved that the power pop of tracks like “Stop When The Red Lights Flash” and “Stay the Night” could compete with their hit-filled back catalog.

Once the dust has settled, these newer tunes will undoubtedly become part of the

It was clear that he expected his second participant later in the show to be around that age as well. However, while searching the crowd for someone to sing the final verse of slacker anthem "Longview," he found a kid that could not have been more than 10 with a sign asking specifically to sing that song with the band. Armstrong broke his ringmaster character asking the kid if he really truly knew the lyrics. Not only did the child know the lyrics, but he sang them convincingly. The irony of a youngster who has likely never done the act singing "When masturbation's lost it's fun, you're fucking lonely" was not lost on the band and Armstrong and bassist Mike Dirnt fell over laughing as they finished the song.

"That was pretty much the most memorable moment in my entire life," said Armstrong, who gave the kid one of his guitars at the end of the song. It was refreshing to see that for their entire arsenal of effective and well-curated crowd pleasers, that the greatest moment of the show had an element of spontaneity.

Full article at DCist.com: HERE