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Green Day played a radio festival in Las Vegas Friday night to promote Tuesday’s release of ¡Uno!, the first album of a trilogy, titled ¡Uno! ¡Dos! ¡Tre!.
In an effort to ensure pop star Usher would receive his full stage time, the show’s producer cut Green Day’s set short leaving the band with little or no time to get in their groove. An enormous digital sign mounted to the back of the arena faced the artists announced their remaining time. In the middle of Green Day’s performance of “Welcome To Paradise,” frontman Billie Joe Armstrong noticed the countdown clock had accelerated, leaving a mere “1 Minute” left.
The shortened set time not only rattled the singer but provoked him to end the song abruptly saying “Ahh f*** this s**t!” Armstrong called the audience’s attention to the countdown clock saying “Gimme a f**kin’ break, one minute?! One minute f**kin’ left? You’re gonna give me one f**kin’ minute? Look at that f**kin’ sign right there. One minute. Let me f**kin’ tell you something. I’ve been around since f**kin’ nineteen eighty f**kin’ eight. You gotta be f**kin’ kidding me. I’m not Justin Bieber you mother f**kers! … This is a f**kin’ joke. Let me show you what one f**kin’ means!” Incensed, Armstrong and bassist Mike Dirnt proceeded to slide off their guitars, swinging them around as a lumberjack would with an axe. Two wound up and smashed the stage repeatedly as fragments flew into the audience.
In true punk rock fashion, the Armstrong big the audience farewell saying, “God f**kin’ love you all. We’ll be back,” before sending the microphone hurling into the air.
Watch the destruction on YouTube.
See a real performance from the punk heroes this Monday, live from the Red Bull Sound Space. The webcast begins at 3:00PM PT/6:00PM ET.
– Jay Tilles, CBS Local
