Concert review: A Green Day reckoning

Anthony Souffle, Star Tribune

Billie Joe Armstrong, lead singer of the band Green Day, performs Saturday evening at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

• Fans got a teasing sample of the group's new rock opera.

By Jon Bream, Star Tribune

Last update: July 11, 2009 - 10:22 PM

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For a photo gallery of Saturday's concert, and for Jon Bream's review of the show, go to www.startribune.com or Monday's Variety section. For a set list, go to www.startribune.com/poplife

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Green Day has mastered the disparate notions of punk rock and rock opera.

The Berkeley, Calif., trio's 2004 opera "American Idiot" propelled them to new artistic heights with several radio payoffs. Their followup, this year's "21st Century Breakdown," is an even more ambitious rock opera but it hasn't garnered the radio support.

Hence, maybe only 9,000 faithful turned out Saturday night at Target Center for Green Day's return. They got opera out of context as well as a sampling of Green Day favorites, dating back to 1994's landmark punk album, "Dookie," and, of course, ferocious energy, passion and pyrotechnics.

Green Day opened with several songs from "Breakdown" sandwiched around the "Idiot" hit "Holiday." While the enemy in socio-politcical "Breakdown" is not as clear as it was in the Bush-bashing "Idiot," singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong made it clear Saturday who his target was.

Before singing the current radio fave "Know Your Enemy," he said, "The day we recorded this song was the first day of the Republican Convention. The Republican Convention was here, right? We got those [bleep] out of office, right?"

The ensuing visceral music matched the vitriol of his introduction.