October 20, 2004

Green Day Promise Hits, Not Politics, On Idiot Tour

By Corey Moss (MTV.com)

Green Day have recorded a collection of holiday songs, although the chances of anyone actually hearing them are slim.

"[We found] a CD of all these Christmas standards that was music only," frontman Billie Joe Armstrong said recently. "And Mike [Dirnt] and Tre [Cool] came in and wrote new lyrics to all of them, some of which are inappropriate to say."

"Most of them," bassist Dirnt clarified.

"Yeah, most of them," Armstrong agreed.

The inappropriate holiday songs were a direct result of the band's philosophy while recording the hit concept album American Idiot.

"The main idea was just to keep on moving and if anything was getting too old or stale, move on to something else," Armstrong said. "Tre, get the accordion -- you know, do a polka, that sort of thing."

It's widely believed those sessions also yielded a new-wave album released last fall under the alias the Network, although Green Day have never confirmed it.

What has not been disputed, however, is that the philosophy had a profound effect on American Idiot, which recently gave Green Day their first No. 1 debut on Billboard's albums chart.

The record has garnered rave reviews and at least one hit single (American Idiot follow-up Boulevard Of Broken Dreams is also faring well so far), and that's with only a handful of supporting shows. A full-scale tour kicks off Tuesday (October 19) in Fort Worth, Texas, with New Found Glory and Sugarcult.

"This whole record was written from a live perspective," Dirnt said. "If you're not singing in the crowd, then you should be playing air guitar or air drums or something. It's just got that feeling all throughout the record, that type of energy."

For their shows last month, Green Day played American Idiot from beginning to end and then encored with past hits, but this outing will be a more standard affair. "We're doing most of our catalog," Armstrong said. "We'll see how it goes. I mean, if we get a wild hair, we could just play American Idiot some nights or we could just play covers."

One thing not to expect is a lot ranting against George W. Bush, something Armstrong has done a lot of lately in interviews and even indirectly on American Idiot.

"We like to stick it in our music [rather than in between-song banter]," the singer said. "We don't really have an agenda or anything like that, so we really want our live shows to be about having a good time. That's the most important thing. And if people get something out of it, it's just the same as getting something out of the records on their own. It's a personal thing."

"We're leaving it up to you, the fans, to stick it to the man!" drummer Cool added with a smirk.

Green Day tour dates, according to Warner Bros. Records:

10/19 - Fort Worth, TX @ Convention Center
10/20 - Houston, TX @ Reliant Arena at Reliant Park
10/22 - Duluth, GA @ Arena at Gwinnett Center
10/23 - Cincinnati, OH @ U.S. Bank Arena
10/24 - Louisville, KY @ Louisville Gardens
10/26 - Hershey, PA @ Giant Center
10/28 - Worcester, MA @ DCU Center
10/29 - Philadelphia, PA @ Liacouras Center
10/30 - East Rutherford, NJ @ Continental Airlines Arena
10/31 - Fairfax, VA @ Patriot Center
11/2 - Toronto, ON @ Air Canada Centre
11/4 - Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre
11/5 - Rochester, NY @ Blue Cross Arena
11/6 - Detroit, MI @ Cobo Arena
11/8 - Chicago, IL @ UIC Pavilion
11/9 - Milwaukee, WI @ U.S. Cellular Arena
11/10 - Minneapolis, MN @ Target Center
11/12 - Denver, CO @ Pepsi Center
11/13 - West Valley City, UT @ E Center
11/16 - Everett, WA @ Everett Events Center
11/17 - Vancouver, BC @ PNE / Pacific Coliseum
11/18 - Portland, OR @ Rose Garden Arena
11/20 - Bakersfield, CA @ Centennial Garden
11/21 - San Diego, CA @ Cox Arena
11/23 - Long Beach, CA @ Long Beach Arena
11/24 - San Francisco, CA @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium