Bay Area punk rockers Green Day caught everyone off guard when they played a show at the Independent with 500 of their closest friends without telling anyone.
The band was trying out material from their new album "21st Century Breakdown," as well as playing some of their classics such as "Longview" and "Welcome to Paradise."
The one problem with the surprise show was few got to enjoy it or know anything about it beyond the set list since the concert was closed to media types. But now you can pretend you were one of the 500 at the show, thanks to our friends over at Jambase and YouTube. God bless camera phones and YouTube.
Jambase was able to get a good look at the show and was kind enough to take notes and share them with us. They summed the show pretty well when they said:
Green Day staged a surprise attack on The Bay for both themselves and the fans. Growing tall from grass roots, Green Day may be one of the biggest bands on the planet, but they are doing it their way - and that means keeping it close to the source, which in this case means playing a tiny club in their backyard. Taking the stage just after 10 p.m., the band opened with the battle tested "Welcome to Paradise" before launching into a song-by-song rendition of the upcoming album 21st Century Breakdown (arriving May 15 and produced by Butch Vig). "We have a new album coming out, and we're gonna play just about all the songs from it tonight," announced Billie Joe. The band tore into the new album, playing with a definite sense of confidence and pride in their new material.
Check out some of the videos here, including one of their new songs, and for a full review of the new album check out Jambase.
