Philips Arena

"Reading throught the previous reviews, I now know why Billy Joe screamed 'How are you Atlanta' 40 plus times during the show. It is the ONLY way to distinguish this show from any of their earlier shows. They opened with a blistering run through of the first half of American Idiot. I buckeled in and was prepared for the ride of my life. They were tight and the crowd (of mostly teens and pre-teens with parents) were eating it up. I was too. It was, frankly, the best 30 minutes of rock I have ever witnessed - and I have seen many shows in my 38 years.
They then went 'old school' with 'Longview'. Another great rendition and I was humored by the fact that that the teens in the crowd were unfamiliar. This WAS their breakthrough hit, before 'Basket Case', but these American Idiot fans were confused. This is when the A+ performance went sour. They turned a rock concert into a carnival - which the vast majority of the crowd wanted. I wanted to hear GD play their extensive catalog. What I got was a serious of 'Eh, Oh', waves, 'Everybody scream', 'Hello Atlanta', 'We love Atlanta', 'How are you doing Atlanta' (if I did not know where I was, I would have a pretty good idea 5 minutes into the show and continuing every 5 minutes). They completely pandered to the crowd. They pulled 3 people from the audience - same as every previous show - and they all played very well - too well, in fact, as I bet they were handpicked. Perhaps I am just Jaded - which they played. Again, when they played their songs, they ROCKED. Among the best performances I have ever seen. But there was too much bullshit for me. They are too good to play to the crowd like this. By the time they got to their 'Shout / Stand by Me' medley, I was at my wits end. Any other time, I would have enjoyed the cover tunes - I really dug 'We are the Champions' - but by this point I was ready for them to get back to it. After, of course, I was reminded 7 more times that I was in Atlanta and I competed a few more times with the other side of the arena to see who could make a bigger noise - felt like I was back in the high school auditiorium. I was waiting for the 'We got spirit, yes we do' cheer...
As for the setlist, they did represent most of their albums but not many of my personal faves made the cut. They played their hits and a huge chunk of American Idiot - which was fine by me. It is truly their masterpiece, althought I love all their albums, first buying Dookie in '94 and quickly discovering Kerplunk and 39 Smooth. Anyone looking for some deeper tracks like Waiting, Westbound Sign, Prosthetic Head, etc will be disappointed. They did play 'King for a Day' but the carnival approach turned me off. I think I was the only one, however.
In short, when they played, it was incredible. Best you will ever see. If you are looking for an event or a show, it will be right up your alley. Looking for a concert, then you may be disappointed like I was - but it was still worth the money."

stupidthingsspellsalzburg: "This concert was amazing. Me and my friend had been looking forward to it for months and it was finally here. We were on the floor and we met a lady who worked for Verizon. We talked to her and she knew Green Day and we found out some things that a lot of people don't know. We got really close to the front. Jimmy Eat World came on. They were ok, but after awhile I was ready for Green Day to come on. The pink bunny came on and did his YMCA thing, and then I almost peed in my pants. Green Day came on and started playing American Idiot. It was awesome. They played Jesus of Suburbia, Holiday, Are We the Waiting, St. Jimmy, and then they went into their classics. It was funny because we were like around these people and this one girl was like, "I'm Green Day's biggest fan." and all she knew was the American Idiot stuff. They played Longview which was awesome, then they went into Hitchin' a Ride. Billie Joe kept coming over to our side of the stage and I was jumping the highest whenever he came over. It was cool because he waved at me and blew a kiss at me! Mike came over too and I jumped really high again and he stuck his tongue out. Billie Joe did his jacking off thing and I was about to lose my voice, but then it came back. They played a lot more and the lighting made a really cool effect too. When he called the three people up, the guitar player was the kid right next to me! I've been playing the guitar only for a few weeks so I didn't want to go up there and make a fool out of myself. As usual, the guy got to keep the guitar. They played many other songs then left the stage. For the encore, they came back and I can't remember if they played Minority during or before the encore, but I was happy because that's my favorite Green Day song. They played Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Good Riddance, and We are the Champions. When they left the stage, I wanted them to come back on so bad, but I knew the concert was over. Me and my friend were one of the last ones in there and we just stood at the edge of the stage hoping for them to come back. It was an amazing concert and I would definitly recommend that you go see Green Day in concert. So go buy your tickets! Now!"