Green Day - Chicago, IL

Even after 20 plus years attending a rock concert can still be as awe-inspiring and wondrous an experience as it was the very first time. From intimate club settings to cramped record store promos to street festivals to outdoor and indoor arenas, I've been to them all.

However, nothing beats being present when an artist (or in this case, a band) becomes something more than merely a musician, but an icon. Green Day's recent show at the Allstate Arena outside of Chicago was such a moment and it holds a place among the best I've ever attended.

Green Day's transformation at this show, the tour's kickoff, is the culmination of 16 1/2 years of groundwork laid by the band. Bassist Mike Dirnt, drummer Tre' Cool, and guitarist/vocalist Billie Joe Armstrong have gone from being smart but malcontented youths to smart, yet still malcontented, but socio-politically locked-on adults.

It is through the Phoenix-like rise from the ashes (2000's crash-and-burn Warning) of last year's 3+ million selling American Idiot, that Green Day finds themselves in this exalted state. The album, a double-barrel blast at politicians, media, and a nation of unimpassioned slackers, caught fire instantly with both young and old. Finally there was a rock band willing to lend a voice to citizens' outrage and make it fun at the same time.

Straying from the pop-punk milieu the band helped bring to the mainstream, the album features sweeping rock arrangements that skirt the edge of the musical. Included in this are two mini rock operas ("Jesus of Suburbia" and "Homecoming") that really throw a wrench into the mindset of the hardcore elitists. Though the central plot of the album is displaced by the potent self-titled first single and a tribute to Billie Joe's father's passing ("Wake Me Up When September Ends"), thematically it all links together.

With boundless energy, the band jumpstarted the show with four songs from the year-old album in succession ("American Idiot," "Jesus of Suburbia," "Holiday" and "St. Jimmy"), successfully driving the crowd into a frenzy. Introducing "Holiday" Armstrong said, "This song's a big fuck you to ALL the politicians." Armstrong later echoed the album's themes of fighting what is fed to us through the media by saying, "You have the power..." to decide for yourself what is truth.

But the concert was not delivered via the pulpit. Armstrong was energized to the nth degree, never once wavering in the slightest as he raced around the stage belting out songs with equal parts ferocity and tunefulness. Much like he did during the band's recent performance in Berlin for Live8, Armstrong repeatedly yelled out war cries, keeping the crowd revving for the show's entirety.

Like sharks, the band was in constant motion. If not performing a song from their now significant catalog, they were ratcheting up the entertainment quotient.

At one point, Armstrong sprayed the audience with a water gun, blessed them and then pulled a kid from the audience to assist him. During a cover of an Operation Ivy song, Armstrong asked for recruits to play bass, drums and guitar. The three teens recruited were damn good for non-professionals thrown to the wolves in front of 16,000 people.

Cell phone lights have replaced the age-old lighter as de rigueur for waving around at arenas. A sea of blues and greens lit up the arena during "Wake Me Up When September Ends," the set's emotional climax.

To see Green Day embrace both the stature they have attained and the commercial success they've been rewarded with over the past decade and to reciprocate every ounce of love back to their fans was a spectacular sight to behold. Green Day manages to appeal to the masses while still maintaining its integrity and artistic instincts. And for one night at least, it felt like the world was still ruled by rock 'n roll.