Review: Green Day at Vector Arena

"There are so many dads with their sons here," says one devout Green Day fan in the toilets. He sounds miffed that his beloved punk rock concert has been over run by romper room. Yet it could not be a better summation of what the Californian band has become.

These days Green Day have done what few bands manage to do - span generations. In the 90s they were making catchy, fun and sometimes stupid music for young guys and girls who liked to jump around. Then they reinvented themselves in the 2000s - with punk rock operas American Idiot and latest album 21st Century Breakdown - and it just so happens some of the eight, nine, and 10-year-old kids born to these 90s guys and girls are into them as well.

Which makes Green Day's first of two sold out Vector Arena shows a triumphant and fun family affair, with lots of sweatie youths and 20-somethings thrown in too.

And this show is all for the kids, with super soakers, toilet paper guns, and missles being fired throughout - and best of all, a band still encouraging stage diving in a world where it's really not that common.

Green Day still look like kids themselves. Well, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong especially, whereas the other two could pass as cartoons.

Bass player Mike Dirnt, sporting super short hair rather than his trademark spike, is in typically posturing and cheesy form; then there's Tre Cool, who balances his time between being a poised and beefy drummer and a camp clown; and Armstrong is a small and bouncy ball of power and fun who never misses a note, even on songs like the beautiful Boulevard of Broken Dreams and during the falsetto of 21 Guns.

They start with a chunk of songs from 21st Century Breakdown, with the jagged foot-planting anthem East Jesus Nowhere the highlight, and proceed to trundle through hit after hit for nearly two and a half hours. They play the lot, from the romantic punk rock of Give Me Novocaine, to the shout and bounce along hits of Holiday and Minority, to crowd favourite When I Come Around.

And they even do a short and sweet run of covers, including a cheeky version of AC/DC's Highway To Hell; Satisfaction while lying down on the stage; and best of all the all-in sing-a-long of Hey Jude which, quite frankly, makes you wonder who needs Paul McCartney.

It's a Green Day rock'n'roll review - live and in full effect.

Volunteers from the audience are essential to any Green Day show, and tonight there is young fella Joseph who gets snatched from his folks and taken on stage to be sacrificed by Billie Joe and his cronies early on during East Jesus Nowhere (and Joseph loved it).

It's punk rock theatre and the best is saved for last, with the crazed, five-part epic Jesus of Suburbia giving way after 10-or-so minutes to a final encore of acoustic songs, including Wake Me Up When September Ends. Punk rock opera bliss.