Green Day at the North Shore Events Centre

Green Day

Young autograph hunters scurry round outside the Carlton Hotel in central Auckland. They're after Green Day. Many of them would have been just starting primary school when Dookie, the band's hugely successful and quite often stupid third album, came out in 1994.

In the hotel foyer drummer Tre Cool and bass player Mike Dirnt are waiting for main man Billie Joe Armstrong to come down from his room so they can do a few interviews before the gig.

Cool is the best dressed, wearing a black suit with sneakers. Dirnt stands against the wall, hands behind his back, round shouldered and the only one of the trio who looks his age of early-to-mid-30s. Armstrong graces us with his presence and lets out a loud whoop.

With Dookie they reached success levels three guys in their early 20s could only dream of. More than 10 years later, and after 15 years as a band, the release of American Idiot has seen Green Day reach phenomenon status in New Zealand.

Their show at the North Shore Events Centre sold out months ago, a rarity for New Zealand. And fans, keep calm - they're back here in December to play a much bigger venue.

American Idiot has sold as many copies as U2's latest album and it could go on to outsell Eminem's latest, Encore.

"From my standpoint I don't know why it sells that much," says Armstrong, who sits in this dour interview room like an obedient school boy. He's far from the beady-eyed little devil he'll become on stage.

"But what I think of the record is that it's probably the clearest statement that we've ever made on an album, and it's the most ambitious we've ever been musically on an album. The kind of rock album that it is, it probably hasn't been done, ever."

In the past year, blatant politicking by bands such as REM has worn thin. But shouting a more political line on American Idiot has made Green Day one of the biggest bands in the world. Okay, Armstrong might tell us to use the F-word lots when talking about George Bush, but he's no bandwagon hog like REM's Michael Stipe.

"If you write a song that has something political in it, for me, it has to come from the same place as when you write a love song. It's something that just comes natural, comes out of instinct, and something that you're passionate about. And the whole album isn't just about politics, it's about the struggle of human relationships, too."

His desire to write the Bohemian Rhapsody of the future also meant a change in musical direction, with the composition of two nine-minute, punk-rock opera tracks.

"It was a matter of breaking our own rules and going for it," he says of the songs Jesus of Suburbia and Homecoming. "Our main goal was to try and make sure they still maintained the energy, and something that was good for a short attention span, like a two-minute song is.

"But what really comes across in this album is the real raw passion that goes into music. I think a lot of rock bands try to find their inner child. But just like, let's go full on and make a statement, right upfront," he concludes, with a handshake.

Five hours later, with the Ramones' Blitzkreig Bop blaring, the lights smash down, and the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey heralds the coming of Green Day.

After Armstrong exhorts us to "sing so loud that every redneck in America hears you", they crack straight into American Idiot.

Armstrong wears his trademark skew-whiff red tie with a black shirt. One minute he's singing beautifully, the next he's standing on a speaker, poised like an eager pitbull, counting "1, 2 ... 1, 2, 3, 4" into the next song.

A highlight of the concert is selecting three guys from the heaving moshpit to play guitar, bass and drums. A tall lad is hauled out of the audience and takes over on the drums from Tre Cool effortlessly, the punter chosen to play bass slips into the groove just as well, and the new guitarist takes over Armstrong's guitar like a born rock star. Excellent.

The nearly two-hour show is a trawl through their substantial back catalogue, including songs from Dookie through to Minority from 2000's Warning. But it's the new songs from American Idiot that sum up where Green Day are at.

They still play fun, two- and three-minute bangers, but with new songs like the epic Wake Me Up When September Ends (dedicated to Johnny Ramone) and recent single Boulevard of Broken Dreams, they're far more ambitious and able.

That new direction has obviously gained them a wider fan base, because all around are band shirts as diverse as the Clash, the Mars Volta, Blink 182, Pennywise, Simple Plan and the Ramones.

And from the number of parents waiting anxiously outside the venue doors it's obvious that some of the kids in the audience weren't even born when Green Day formed 15 years ago.

But that doesn't matter. After all, Tre Cool is childish to the point of being a pain, and Armstrong still looks like one of the kids up there on stage.