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On this day 15 years ago (31 October 2009), the Foxboro Hot Tubs played a surprise set at the MEN Arena in Manchester, England, before Green Day came on. They played Stop, Drop & Roll, Mother Mary and Sally. This was such an incredible treat for the fans who thought they were "just" getting a Green Day show. I was 14, it was my fourth show and I was not expecting anything like this. I thought I'd just never see the Foxboro Hot Tubs. Here's what I wrote back then: "It was Halloween. I hung back while my mum looked at merch after Prima Donna. Music was playing inside. It sounded awfully familiar. Was I hallucinating? Because I was sure I could hear Stop, Drop & Roll! I squeezed past people to alert my mum. ‘Prima Donna are playing the Foxboro Hot Tubs!’ My mum stopped. Listened. Then her eyes widened. ‘That’s not Kevin, it’s BILLIE!’ We ran from the merch stand to our seats. In our mad charge down the steps, we knocked over someone’s beer. They just laughed. The steps buckled and we almost fell. Everyone around us looked baffled as we stumbled clapping and singing into our seats. The Reverend Strychnine Twitch, AKA Billie, sprayed Carling beer – a British replacement for his signature Pabst Blue Ribbon – over the front row. His blond head darted all over the stage. Tré wore a leopard print shirt and Jason a fluffy white coat. In Mother Mary, Billie threw down his tambourine to leap into the crowd. Security helped him back up. 'My name is the Reverend Strychnine Twitch and yes, we are the proverbial Foxboro Hot Tubs.’" Another fan who submitted his story for the We Are Revolution Radio book also wrote about this, so I'd like to share that too. The mention of the show is towards the end but I'm including the whole thing because it's a lovely story and it shows how special this was for everyone who realised what was going on (crazily many didn't). More photos: And then Green Day played their show afterwards. My recap: "The intro to 21st Century Breakdown still unleashed butterflies in my stomach. In Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Billie told us, ‘last night in the last song I split my pants. I did that splits thing and my whole butt was hanging out after that.’ It was also the last outing of the leopard print thong. That night, as 21 Guns faded to drum rolls, I expected Minority. Instead, in an explosion of pyros and energy Billie roared ‘MASS HYSTERIA!’ and I was swept up in exactly that; mass hysteria as I screamed along to one of my all-time favourite songs, American Eulogy, that I missed on the second night in Birmingham. In my own blurry video, I’m deafeningly loud as I bellow ‘vigilantes warning ya, CALLING CHRISTIAN AND GLORIA!’ over Billie’s ‘RIGHT HERE IN MANCHESTER!’ It was unreal. Thousands of people were in a shared ecstasy conducted by a tight performance. We watched through moments of quiet while Billie stamped his foot to solos, basking in the band’s talent and energy, religiously echoing ‘heeeeeey-ooooohhhhhh’ as Mike sang his last verse… …and we screamed in unison – ‘I DON’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT THE MODERN AGE!’ …and the song exploded into its final chorus. ‘I don’t wanna live in the modern world! I don’t wanna live in the modern world! I don’t wanna live in the modern world – MASS HYSTERIA! In the modern world – MASS HYSTERIA! In the modern world – MASS HYSTERIA! In the modern world – MASS HYSTERIA! In the modern world…’ Then the music stopped and 21,000 voices, alone with Billie’s and Mike’s, echoed that we didn’t want to live in the modern world, mass hysteria… until Billie sang like an anthem, ‘nobody likes you, everyone left you, they’re all out without you, having fun!’ over Mike and, as Tré conducted with his drumsticks, we joined him. The world could have ended then and I would have felt the bricks crashing down were healing gold dust. I could hear the sound of my own beating heart. The heartbeat of a kid who was stifled but now impassioned, inspired and ready to smash the silence with a brick of self control." More photos: 18 years ago (31 October 2008), The Saints Are Coming was released as a single. 20 years ago (31 October 2004), Green Day played the Patriot Center in Fairfax, VA on the American idiot Tour. 25 years ago (31 October 1999), Green Day played a second night for the Bridge School Benefit at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, CA. 26 years ago (31 October 1998), Green Day played the Parque Sarmiento in Buenos Aires, Argentina on the Nimrod Tour. It was their first show in Argentina. More photos: 27 years ago (31 October 1997), Green Day played Liberty Lunch in Austin, TX on the Nimrod Tour. 29 years ago (31 October 1995), Green Day played the Metro Centre in Halifax, Canada on the Insomniac Tour. 30 years ago (31 October 1994), Green Day played the Sports Arena in San Diego, CA on the Dookie Tour. 33 years ago (31 October 1991), Green Day played Ungdomshuset in Copenhagen, Denmark. "The list of now-superstars who have played in Ungdomshuset is very long. They came there before anybody else in Copenhagen knew who Bjork and Nick Cave were and in 1991 an American teenage punk band called Green Day played in the Ungdomshuset before shooting off to world fame." — Nikolaj Heltoft "After the first week, when they discovered that it's a Danish tradition for punks to throw beer at bands they like, their instruments were toast. Luckily - for him - Armstrong had brought Lawrence Livermore's amp instead of his own. Replacing the instruments was out of the question, as they were barely earning enough money to keep everyone fed and traveling from show to show. The band ended up borrowing new equipment every night. 'Seriously,' says Tre Cool, 'I was using guys' kits where the drummer would say, 'If you screw up my kit, I'm gonna stab you.''" 35 years ago (31 October 1989), Green Day played the Los Robles Lodge in Santa Rosa, CA. "We played this show with them, Halloween 1989 in Santa Rosa. Victim's Family and Green Day. It was a benefit. And people wouldn't give Green Day ten bucks for gas to get home in their fucking VW van. This alleged benefit, and people left them stranded with their van." — Ralph Spight Your most iconic quote. Even better than, "I don't know anything about Turkey, Green Day don't play there (despite having been to Turkey)."

It charted on here too.

Unt doing well https://www.instagram.com/p/DBwiCtTx0mQ/?igsh=cTRsMDg5a2d2OXRq

Misery has been one of my favorite Green Day songs since the first time I heard it. It so clearly influenced one of my other favorite GD songs, Viva La Gloria (Little Girl). Both so underrated!

Yes! I would also add Desensitized to that list. I was really excited to hear a different version of it in the Nimrod demos as well.

Insomniac was insane! I like to time travel on youTube and watch old interviews/Concerts from that era. Their energy was unbelieveable how fast they played songs like stuck with me or jaded. I prefer their 21st shows (and past eras) but damn, it was amazing! Warning was underrated. I loved their goat island show especially the boat part 😂

Yes: Suffocate, Rotting, Ha Ha You’re Dead!🥰

No doubt, and the booklet also provides a long list of albums to listen to to further understand the process behind American Idiot. The 21CB bonus tracks were fascinating in their purpose. It wasn't just influential artists to Green Day, but it also told an abridged version of the history of rock and roll up to that point. It literally started with Elvis' first record and ends shortly before Billie and Mike first start playing together with Social Distortion. I'd call it hubris for most bands to say their album is the next evolution in rock and roll, but 21st Century Breakdown was ambitious enough for it to be warranted.

Halloween 2009 was my fourth and last show on this leg of the 21st Century Breakdown Tour. We were buying our t-shirts for the night when @solongfromthestars said "Kevin's singing the Foxboro Hot Tubs" and I turned and said "that's not Kevin, that's Billie!" and we literally ran to our seats (me knocking someone's beer out their hand on my way) and we were treated to three songs from the FBHT. It was incredible. I never ever for one second thought I would ever get to see them. I'd been following people's stories about their shows on GDC but could only long to be there! The whole show just had this incredible atmosphere. Tre had dyed part of his hair red for Halloween. This time when we saw the buses leaving on that rainy Manchester night it was really sad because we had no clue when we'd see them again.

Good grief. Today the mail person came to deliver the boxset and instead of trying to reach me through the intercom, they just left a notice they had come and for me to go the post office to pick up the parcel on MONDAY (because tomorrow is a holiday, and why even bother on Saturday). They could have left this on Monday this week and I could have picked it up by Tuesday.😭 And it would have been so perfect to get it today precisely because it's a long weekend, I could have consumed the whole thing over these 3 days. Oh well, I'll go continue listening to Black Eyeliner.

This is so true. Shenanigans was one of the first GD albums I got after "discovering" them with AI, and I had no notion of what B-sides were back then 😅, and for months I thought it was a normal album, until I read what it was. There are some songs in it that I really love.

Misery. I feel it's more appreciated here, but don't see much about it in other fan forums.

American Idiot and Basket Case also played! Sum 41 have good taste. You know when some people seem more excited about Bohemian Rhapsody than Green Day? I was that person when American Idiot started. 😂 Regret to report that All the Time didn't win though... people sang much louder to Misery Business and All the Small Things. Anyway, won't go on about it since it's not the right thread, but Sum 41 were amazing. I got the kind of bittersweet closure that people described on the Saviors Tour.

20 years of american idiot docu is the best green day docu since cuatro (sorry heart like a hand grenade docu but you're more of a music video than a documentary)

i hope everyone has an amazing halloween!!! (if you celebrate/enjoy it) and if not I hope your day goes very well!! i love them so much

Thanks, to you and to other contributers, once again, this is a very special thread your developing. You said at the very beginning you are scheduling stories on GDA Instagram. Can I be nosey and ask when finished, will it be generally accessible for fans, like a chronological database or something? Thanks.

From Billie's Instagram story

The main difference between SFTBH and C&V (this also applies to Static Age, the OTHER 2 "lost weezer albums and smile) is that songs from the black hole has a tracklist that it could go off of for Pinkerton 30th and we basically have every track in someform, demo or full band, compared to C&V only having 2 or 3 (depending on when lights out was recorded) songs that are confirmed/recorded around this time

The Insomniac era is my favorite era!! I was told that the band didn't want to make any music videos for that record in particular

does anyone have the download link of the Bluray and DVD?

Yes, that's why I thought about Cologne, but maybe you're right about Amsterdam. Another option could be Hannover. That would be directly on their route from Southern to Northern Germany. And they haven't played there since 2010. Well, we just have to wait and see. I'd love to get a headline show in Germany, but don't want to get my hopes too high

It is low volume. I purchased the album on itunes store

since the conversation has shifted over to our top underrated songs, i may as well share my top 10 1. No One Knows (heh.) 2. Stuck With Me/Dry Ice (Tie) 3. 80 4. Deadbeat Holiday 5. All The Time (this song is actually kinda growing on me, it used to be my least favorite from nimrod) 6. Reject 7. Coming Clean 8. Westbound Sign 9. Jackass 10. Worry Rock (unironically this song and Dry Ice were my TRUE non single introductions to green day)

Hope this get to number 1 it’s getting more momentum!!!

I'm finally getting my box set on Saturday! Allegedly.

This dude says he's that dude but that's like Fink saying he's Jillie Bow Legweak.

American Idiot verse might stem from this song. Check out Fifteen, if you haven't already, loved them ever since I was introduced to them through a Green Day cover of one of their other songs 20+ years ago. Fifteen (before that Crimpshrine) were part of the Bay Area and Gilman Street scene. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-90sL7jp3bY

All the Time is one of my top 2 most underrated GD songs.

I'm at a Sum 41 show and All the Time just played as part of the pre show playlist... and people were singing along! Doesn't surprise me that a Nimrod song is on the playlist because I know Deryck loves Nimrod, but I'm amazed people were singing. Haven't heard them singing anything else.

Crazy to see how this single is climbing the charts almost a year after the albums release. Seems like they’ve had quite a few successful singles from this album charting-wise, could they possibly push another single from Saviors in the near future?

Wasn’t that a new recording and not one from 2004?

We know the band love to recycle ideas. Let's face it, C&V stuff would be prime AI 20th Anniversary fodder to boost sales numbers but since we've definitely heard most of C&V in some guise or another, they've never bothered to put it out. The master tapes story is complete and utter nonsense and I can't believe people are still speculating about it. They'll absolutely still have the session files. The "stolen" thing was either 1: A throwaway comment in an interview that grew legs or 2: a calculated bit of marketing. They've all but confirmed what us Occam's Razor fans have long since thought: C&V was considered poor, so they went back to the drawing board. During this process they wrote the Homecoming demo and the rest is history.

Billboard chart update- Alternative Airplay: stays at 11 Rock & Alternative Airplay: 8 (up from 12) Mainstream Rock Airplay: 13 (up from 17) Canada Rock- stays at 36

Green Day referred to in this tweet

I'm not really into this huge desire to talk about/get C&V but I will add what Rob Cavallo writes in the AI 20 booklet. "So, I got together with the band and they tole me they had written an entire album's worth of material. Wow! Awesome! But there was a problem. The guys were sounding, for whatever reason, just a little bit rusty. The music was good but was it really their best? I took it to my boss (the prescient Tom Whaley . He agreed with me. He said "let's meet with the band". A few days later in the Warner Bros executive conference room, Tom says to me and the guys " we appreciate what you guys have gone through and appreciate this new album. And while we are prepared to release it, we are not prepared to give it the big push (meaning marketing $) because we don't believe this is the best work you are capable of". BOOM! He was so brutally direct! I think I was sweating profusely. Billie looked directly at me and asked "is that what you think too?" "Yes I said, nodding my affirmation. Billie said "ok, let me think about this and process it, and we'll get back to you." Two days later, we were all back in the same conference room. Billie starts "So I';ve been thinking about what you guys said last time....and I think you're right. We want to make out best record and we want you guys to like it and to give it the big push. And we are willing to do what it takes to make that happen. The question is: Tom, are you willing to do it also?" Tom said "sure, what do you need?" The rest is about Rob going to work with them Monday to Friday in Berkeley.