Green Day Stage '21st Century' Punk Revival in New York

In his 20-plus years as a frontman, Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong has perfected the art of connecting with an audience. Throughout Tuesday night's show at New York's Webster Hall -- the band's second small-venue gig in as many nights -- Armstrong covered every inch of the stage, commanding the crowd like a punk rock preacher over the course of two sets split between '21st Century Breakdown' -- the band's new album -- and classic material.

Right from the start, Armstrong jumped on the monitors at the front of the stage, holding his guitar vertically as though he's taken more than just songwriting cues from Pete Townshend. "I want to see every motherf---er dance" he screamed. And the audience obeyed to the point where he said, "I think this whole floor is caving in." Undeterred, the crowd only danced harder as Armstrong made sure to point out, "We're the Green Day band."

One fan took Armstrong's wants -- even lyrical ones -- literally. After Amrstrong screamed the "And I just want to bum a cigarette" line from 'Murder City,' someone tossed a butt onstage that Armstrong took a drag off, saying "Mmm, I love PCP!"

The intimacy of the 1,400-person venue apparently wasn't enough for the band, as Armstrong commanded the stage crew to remove all the monitors and barriers from the front of the stage. "Come closer" he yelled. "I want to f---ing feel you! Let's be desperate together!" The only song the band performed with no rock star antics was the ballad '21 Guns,' causing the crowd's hysteria to momentarily subside. The band then kicked back into the climax of the new album, finishing 'See the Light' with huge drum hits by Tre Cool, and an impressive five-part harmony from Amstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt, and supporting musicians Jason Freese, Jason White and Jeff Matika.

The band walked off for a quick break then returned with a set full of many of their hits, beginning with 'American Idiot' -- which Armstrong supplemented with a few lines of James Brown's 'I Feel Good' -- followed by a massive singalong to 'Jesus of Suburbia.' During the 'Tales of Another Broken Home' section, Armstrong looked even more like a holy man, stretching his arms upward and looking towards the sky, seemingly in ecstasy. After a rapid rendition of 'St. Jimmy,' the band hit classics like 'Longview' -- featuring a fan taking vocals for the second verse -- and 'Coming Clean,' before taking requests. Armstrong admitted "we don't have much of a setlist," which led to a rendition of 'At the Library' from the band's first album, and '80' from 'Kerplunk,' which Armstrong mentioned was "about my wife before she was my wife, before she let me f--- her."

The band then tore through the hits 'Basket Case' and 'She,' before doing a surprise medley of Cheap Trick's 'Surrender' and the Replacements' 'Bastards of Young.' Armstrong remarked, "That was a bit of a trainwreck, but f--- it, it's rock 'n' roll." As they've done at their previous informal gigs, the band went into an 'Animal House'-inspired version of 'Shout,' before heading into their 2000 single, 'Minority,' featuring a long guitar solo and brief harmonica interlude by Armstrong,. As the song wrapped, he thanked the audience nearly 20 times before getting in one final "hey-o" chant with the fans. You know, for the road.