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Green Day´s lead vocalist Billie Joe Armstrong performed hits from the band´s recent album, "American Idiot" during a stop in Moline on Wednesday.

Jimmy, Green Day eat world

Jimmy Eat World and Green Day rock the Quad Cities during a recent show

By: Zach Wingerter

Posted: 9/16/05

You know that annoyingly energetic eight-year-old who comes to Thanksgiving every year and runs around screaming non-stop, scaring your grandma? Imagine that same kid 25 years older and you've got Green Day's frontman Billie Joe Armstrong.

Armstrong rambunctiously ran, skipped and jumped across every inch of the stage at Moline's Mark of the Quad Cities Wednesday night. He, as well as bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool, kept the energy level through the roof during their entire two-hour set.

Green Day's set got underway with their traditional bunny routine, during which someone in a pink bunny suit came out and chugged beer in front of a chanting crowd. He left the stage as the crowd sang along with the Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop," and then the lights dimmed and purple light illuminated the stage as the theme from "2001: A Space Odyssey" played over the speakers. At the climax of the song, Green Day emerged to cheers of the almost 11,000 fans in attendance.

From the first crunching guitar sound of "American Idiot" until the last strum of "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)," Green Day had the crowd. Armstrong and Dirnt periodically did the signature jump-kick-land-strum that they've perfected over the last 15 years.

The set had a perfect mixture of old and new songs. Green Day played through the first six songs off "American Idiot" with the exception of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," which was played during an encore.

The first of many huge pyrotechnics went off with a bang at the end of "American Idiot." With the last chord of the song, Armstrong struck an arms-to-the-side pose resembling Jesus on the cross as flames flew 50- feet high behind him. He held the pose for a full minute before introducing the nine-minute "Jesus of Suburbia," dedicating it to anyone from a small town.

Armstrong introduced the third song, "Holiday," by saying "This song is called 'Fuck President Bush,'" which received tremendous applause. During an extended bridge in the song, Armstrong sarcastically recited the Pledge of Allegiance as well.

After the last chord of "St. Jimmy," Dirnt immediately launched into the familiar introduction to "Longview" off the punk trio's breakthrough album, "Dookie." More songs from "Dookie" and "Nimrod" followed, including "Basket Case," "Hitchin' a Ride" and "King For a Day," in which Armstrong donned a crown and pranced around the stage like a spoiled eight-year-old while the rest of the band sported funny hats, a puppet wizard popped up behind a wall of amps and a boxing glove was fastened to the trombonist's slide.

In the midst of all the "oldies," Cool came down off his drum set and entertained the more knowledgeable Green Day fans by singing "All By Myself," the hidden track off "Dookie." About a quarter of the fans in the pit got this inside joke and cheered wildly. The band also delighted longtime fans by playing "2,000 Light Years Away," off the band's "Kerplunk!" album.

Green Day played the crowd throughout their two hours on stage, encouraging singing and pitting sides of the pit against each other in a contest to see who could be loudest. The band brought a kid out of the crowd to squirt audience members with a squirt gun and followed tradition by bringing three lucky audience members up to play an Operation Ivy cover, letting the girl guitarist keep the guitar.

Opening act Jimmy Eat World played flawlessly. The only demerit to its performance was the obvious fact that the crowd had only heard of Jimmy Eat World on the radio, singing along to only the choruses of "Work" and "Pain" before launching into pandemonium during the band's biggest hit to date, "The Middle." Singer Jim Adkins was surprisingly (in a positive way) animated on stage while singing self-help lyrics to an originally uninterested crowd.

Green Day closed their performance with an ironic, yet somehow fitting cover of Queen's "We Are The Champions" before Armstrong played "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" alone, illuminated by a lone spotlight. For a band who rivaled only Weezer in the "loser punk" genre, the line "no time for losers 'cuz we are the champions" speaks truths.

Green Day has definitely grown up, but hasn't exactly sold out. Regardless, they still put on one hell of a show.