Artist: Green Day

Album: “Bullet in a Bible” (Reprise)

Compare to: Weezer, Operation Ivy, the Living End

After 16 years, Green Day has achieved the status of one of the biggest bands on the planet. “American Idiot” has sold more than 9 million copies worldwide, and gave them their four highest charting singles to date. Their newest release, “Bullet in a Bible,” stands as a symbol of everything they have accomplished up to this point.

The CD offers a live version of nearly every hit the band has ever had, including classics “Brain Stew” and “Good Riddance.” The DVD accompaniment has two hours of footage, including band and fan interviews and the band’s entire live set at Milton Keynes, a show that was voted best gig ever by Kerrang. The DVD is top-notch, and Green Day fans will gobble it up like an all you can eat buffet.

The band is renowned for its live performances, and claims this is the best one it has ever had. There are several props, guest musicians and fancy pyrotechnics that make the sold-out show in front of more than 65,000 fans all the more exciting.

Billie Joe Armstrong’s between-song commentary is very political, but “American Idiot” is a very political album. The CD portion of the set is something that only the hardest of the hardcore Green Day fans will fully appreciate. It’s a great disc, but most people probably have copies of every song on it in one form or another and the live renditions don’t differ much from the album versions.

The DVD is what really makes this compilation worth buying. It captures all that is Green Day, and it does it with stylistic grace and excellent cinematography.

“Buy It”