DALY TV! Green Day, Jonas, Judas, Woodstock...and some really crazy eyes

Hey kids, here's my latest spot with the wily John Thomas at ABC Action News in Tampa. As a bonus, this segment includes rare footage of me on the job at the Green Day gig. Apparently, when I review a show, I have really scary crazy eyes. Psy-cho! Anyway, I'm also talking JoBros, Judas Priest, Woodstock, the Duke and the King and more. HERE YOU GO (vid is on the right)!

5 final thoughts on Green Day's Tampa show

1. Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, pictured with one of the 578 people he brought onstage Monday (which was about 575 too many), is approximately 3-foot-8. Seriously, I just wanna put him in my pocket, the wee hyper lad.

2. I didn't get to tuck it into my review, but Armstrong's best, and downright strangest, story of the night had to do with the band recently dropping acid on a tour bus and then wandering into a hotel -- which just happened to be hosting a twins convention. Man, I so wanna be a rock star. 

3. Green Day spent most of the two-and-a-half-hour show coddling the 8,000-plus in attendance. But at the show's start (the first few songs were mind-blowingly good), Armstrong fired up the throngs by saying, "This is not a computer screen! Get your [bleepin'] [bleeps] outta those [bleepin'] seats!" That's a thoroughly modern admonishment. Love it.

4. Lotta talk today about why the crowd was so thin. Best guess in the newsroom is the logistical toughness of a Monday night show. I dunno about that. Tampa Bay is a helluva music market, and the concert scene has been relatively recession-proof. Plus it's summer. I still think Green Day is one of the biggest bands on the planet, but maybe I'm wrong. Thoughts?

5. I probably like the show less today than I did last night. True, Green Day could have tanked and run after seeing the venue half-filled. But they killed it anyway, busting their butts throughout. Still, with all the zany audience participation -- and tired effects (confetti? really? and a squirt gun? and not even an ironic squirt gun?), I often felt like I was watching a Japanese game show.

ATOYIA DEANS | Times

Review: Green Day at the St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa, August 3

ATOYIA DEANS | Times

Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong at the St. Pete Times Forum

TAMPA – No one gets the "sell-out" tag tossed at them faster and harder than a successful punk band. And no punk band is more successful than Green Day.

Or, if you're one of the boobirds, "Greed Day."

Two decades after their sneery, snotty start, the Berkeley-reared hellions no longer thwart popular culture -- now they dictate it, peddling a chummy rebellion to a mass populace that includes you, your little bro and your dad. Is there still a chance you'll get bloody at a Green Day show? Maybe if you slip in the john.

But for all the crowd participation, hometown shout-outs, fiery 'splosions and special effects at their live shows -- cliche stuff that drives the old punk guard batty -- Green Day, when all is said and done, remains a vital, robustly profane crew, our best challenger for challenging times.

For two and a half hours, and more than 25 songs, at the St. Pete Times Forum on Monday, a jacked-up, dying-to-please Green Day sent 8,572 fans both young and gray into hand-waving, sing-along hysterics. If that attendance seems low, well, it is, especially in a joint that seats more than twice that. You can blame the economy. You can even blame so-so sales of the band’s latest album, the rock operatic “21st Century Breakdown.”

But don’t blame Green Day. Singer Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and superhuman drummer Tre Cool are intent on being the biggest band in the world, and they work that way. There’s never been three dudes who made such a swarming, assaulting racket as these scruffs, and now they're even louder, adding extra guitars, a keyboard, even a saxophone during "The Static Age" (which, to be honest, blended in like a nun at a nudie joint).

Led by the wee winning Armstrong, who sprinted across the stage -- and even vaulted up into the stands, still picking his axe -- the band mixed message, mayhem and every trick taught in Crowd Management 101. They blurted "Florida" about 50 times too many, shot squirt guns into the crowd, even busted out Bono's old spotlight-into-the-audience bit. Heck, they even did "Shout"!

There were a few nice subversive touches. For the new "East Jesus Nowhere," which bashes religious hypocrisy and a "Godless nation," Armstrong invited a grade-school kid onto the stage and infused him with the spirit, knocking the tyke on his tuchus. (The kid also got to lead the crowd in the wave, so don't worry about him being scarred.)

For all the shenanigans, it was easy to overlook the great booming musicianship of the band. Intricate chunks of "21st Century Breakdown" were played with awesome vigor (including the Queenly "Before the Lobotomy" and "21 Guns"). They also dipped into 2004's Grammy-gobbling "American Idiot" for incendiary anti-war anthem "Holiday" and the title track. And they finally got around to earlier hits like "Longview," which eventually featured a gaggle of lucky fans rocking the big hit onstage, and a show-closing "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)."

It would have been nice to have more straight-up rock and rage. But while Green Day is older and safer, the group is also a lot wiser -- and maybe making the masses happy is ultimately the best way to sell the message and make them think for themselves.

Do you know your enemy? Green Day, Dylan, Springsteen and Public Enemy certainly do

Green Day vs. George W. Bush!

Marvin Gaye vs. Mrs. Marvin Gaye!

Public Enemy vs. John Wayne! 

In anticipation of Billie Joe Armtrong & Co. coming to the St. Pete Times Forum on Monday, I wrote about some of rock history's greatest album throwdowns (for instance, Fleetwood Mac vs. Each Other!).

Prepare for battle and go RIGHT HERE.  

Lady Gaga naked -- almost

I haven't subscribed to Rolling Stone in years -- it seemed too messy, scattered, lost. Trying to please too many people, via all the wrong ways. But I bought the last coupla issues with Bob Dylan and Green Day, and they were damn entertaining, lotta nice writing. (Anyone see the Sasha Grey story?) Unlike my pal Stephanie Hayes, I'm pretty over Lady Gaga. But I'm thinking of going out and buying the latest ish, too. The Hot List is usually entertaining, if totally off-target. Plus there's another saucy snap of Gaga, and, well, I'm a big fan of bubbles. New issue on stands now. Here's a peek. 

St. Pete Times Forum gears up for Green Day, Metallica, JoBros, Judas Priest & more

If you're wondering where all the big summer concerts are, well, they're coming. You just gotta wait a bit longer. The St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, one of the busiest venues in the world, will host a slew of big boys (and girls) in the next few months. You folks up north might poo-poo a summer show being staged indoors, but we don't really give a crap what you think. We want AC, and we want it for six straight hellacious months.

Anyway, I'll be there for most of the following SPT Forum shows. It's a good place to cover a concert, plus the press liasons are supa-hot, and I say that journalistically. (Love ya, Nashira and Jennifer.) Here's the rundown:  

JULY 28: American Idols Live 2009 (TICKETS) Adam Lambert will have to wait until the Idol tour is over to join Queen. In related news, "Big Oil" Michael Sarver will have to wait until the Idol tour is over to sob and wonder why God smote him into the folds of oblivion.

JULY 31: Demi Lovato & David Archuleta (TICKETS) Kid Lulu is begging for  this one, which would be the only way I'd go. I don't mind Disney Channel's Lovato so much, but Archuleta? The smirky, shirky Muppet? Yikes. I'm not that good of a Dad.

AUGUST 3: Green Day (TICKETS) Green Day's new album, 21st Century Breakdown, keeps sounding better and better in my headphones -- mainly because drummer Tre Cool keeps the beat with a sledgehammer. By the way, the top ticket is only $46.75.

AUGUST 16: Judas Priest & Whitesnake (TICKETS) This is one of those shows where I don't want to review it -- I just wanna drink cheap beer, bang my head and punch Steve Spears in the codpiece. Breakin' the law, breakin' the law!!!!

AUGUST 18: Jonas Brothers (TICKETS) I remember it like it was yesterday: Nick, Joe, Kevin and Sean, the four of us gamboling in the suburban wilds of Tampa. Think they'll remember me?

OCTOBER 3: Metallica (TICKETS) I've never seen Metallica, so I'm pretty jacked about this one. Really looking forward to chanting "DIE! DIE! DIE!" with 20,000 of my closest friends.

Billie Joe Armstrong, Rob Halford: Associated Press