''Awesome as Fuck'' (marketed as ''Awesome as F**k'', ''Awesome as ****'', or ''Awesome: Live'') is a
live album by American
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band
Green Day, released on March 22, 2011, by
Reprise Records.
The album is composed of tracks recorded during Green Day's 2009–10
21st Century Breakdown World Tour
21st Century Breakdown World Tour was a headlining concert tour by American punk band Green Day in support of the group's eighth studio album, ''21st Century Breakdown'', which was released in May 2009.
The tour began with an eight-week leg thro ...
in support of their eighth studio album ''
21st Century Breakdown
''21st Century Breakdown'' is the eighth studio album by American rock band Green Day, released on May 15, 2009, through Reprise Records. Green Day commenced work on the record in January 2006 and forty-five songs were written by vocalist/guita ...
'' (2009). It includes a
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
of a concert recorded at the
Saitama Super Arena
is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Chūō-ku, Saitama, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. It opened preliminarily on May 5, 2000, and then was officially opened on September 1 of the same year. Its maximum spectator capacity is 36,500, making i ...
in
Saitama, Japan.
It is also available in
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...
.
Reception
At
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, which assigns a
normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an
average
In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...
score of 64, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".
of
Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
remarked that ''Awesome as Fuck'' "satisfies without surprising
..The set list is a good mix that leans heavily on Green Day's new millennium standards and the bandmembers never sound tired playing: they hit their marks with enthusiasm, which is enough to make ''Awesome as F**k'' fun, if not quite a live album for the ages."
David Fricke of ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'' commented "This set is a contagious account of the power-fun streak that still runs through the band even after the two punk operas
..Billie Joe Armstrong thoroughly enjoys his spotlight: shouting, cursing and letting audiences take whole verses of '
American Idiot' and '
Good Riddance.' And drummer Tré Cool is way up in the mix, channeling
the Clash
The Clash were an English rock band formed in London in 1976 who were key players in the original wave of British punk rock. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they also contributed to the and new wave movements that emerged in the w ...
's
Topper Headon
Nicholas Bowen "Topper" Headon (born 30 May 1955) is an English drummer, best known as the drummer of punk rock band the Clash. Known for his instrumental contributions to the drumming world, Headon was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fa ...
and
the Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered ...
's
Keith Moon with precise demonic glee."
Chris Conaton of
PopMatters
''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...
said that the album "has a bit of the odor of a record-company stopgap about it", noting the five-year gap between the band's last two studio albums, ''
American Idiot'' (2004) and ''
21st Century Breakdown
''21st Century Breakdown'' is the eighth studio album by American rock band Green Day, released on May 15, 2009, through Reprise Records. Green Day commenced work on the record in January 2006 and forty-five songs were written by vocalist/guita ...
'' (2009), that was filled by the live album and DVD ''
Bullet in a Bible
''Bullet in a Bible'' is a live album by American rock band Green Day, released on November 15, 2005, by Reprise Records. It was directed by Samuel Bayer, who was the director of all the videos from '' American Idiot''.
Background and release
' ...
'' (2005).
He noted that the band was "at least trying to do something different" with this second live album: ''Bullet in a Bible''
's album and video documented a single two-night stand in England, while ''Awesome as Fuck''
's album draws from sixteen different concerts around the world and the video is taken from a single show.
He also remarked that the album's track list contains "treats for longtime fans" in the form of "some of the band's lesser singles and even some deep album tracks"—including the previously unreleased "Cigarettes and Valentines" and the older tracks "Burnout", "Going to Pasalacqua", "
J.A.R.
"J.A.R." is a song by the American rock band Green Day. The song was a previously unreleased track from the ''Dookie'' sessions but it was later featured on the soundtrack to the movie '' Angus'' in 1995.
In August 1995, the song reached number ...
", and "Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?"—saying "It's this quintet of songs that really sets ''Awesome as F**k'' apart and gives it a kick as a live set."
He criticized the fact that hearing the songs played live was not that different from hearing the studio recordings, calling them "generally the same beyond Armstrong telling the crowd to sing this part or that" and remarking that Green Day's arena show is "a wonderful experience in person, but it understandably loses something in the translation to CD and DVD."
Track listing
Album
Video
80 Mins Approx.
Personnel
Band
*
Billie Joe Armstrong
Billie Joe Armstrong (born February 17, 1972) is an American musician who is the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Green Day, which he co-founded with Mike Dirnt in 1987. He is also a guitarist and vocalist for ...
–
lead vocals,
rhythm
Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular re ...
and
lead guitar
Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featu ...
s
*
Mike Dirnt
Michael Ryan Pritchard (born May 4, 1972), better known by his stage name Mike Dirnt, is an American rock musician who is the co-founder, bassist, backing and occasional lead vocalist, and former guitarist of Green Day. He has also played in seve ...
–
bass guitar
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
, backing vocals, co-lead vocals on
Jesus of Suburbia and American Eulogy
*
Tré Cool
Frank Edwin Wright III (born December 9, 1972), better known by his stage name Tré Cool, is a German-born American musician, singer, and songwriter best known as the drummer for the punk rock band Green Day. He replaced the band's former drumme ...
–
drums, backing vocals
Additional musicians
*
Jason White – lead and rhythm guitars, backing vocals
*
Jason Freese
Jason Freese is an American musician and multi-instrumentalist. As a professional studio musician he has performed on over 50 albums, including for artists Green Day, Dr. Dre, Pitbull, Avenged Sevenfold, Goo Goo Dolls, and Jewel. He is the so ...
–
keyboards,
horns Horns or The Horns may refer to:
* Plural of Horn (instrument), a group of musical instruments all with a horn-shaped bells
* The Horns (Colorado), a summit on Cheyenne Mountain
* ''Horns'' (novel), a dark fantasy novel written in 2010 by Joe Hill ...
, backing vocals
*Jeff Matika – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Production
Album
*
Chris Dugan
Chris Dugan (born May 11, 1973) is an American Grammy-winning audio engineer, cinematographer, record producer, musician, and singer, best known as the drummer of the Effection and as an audio engineer for Green Day. In 2018, along with Green Da ...
–
mix engineer
A mixing engineer (or simply mix engineer) is responsible for combining ("mixing") different sonic elements of an auditory piece into a complete rendition (also known as "final mix" or "mixdown"), whether in music, film, or any other content of a ...
*Ted Jensen –
mastering
*Kevin Lemoine –
recording engineer
*Brad Kobylckzak – recording engineer
*Mike Manning – assistant engineer
*Kumar Butler – assistant engineer
*Sergio Almonte – assistant engineer
*Nick Tresko – assistant engineer
*Ben Hirschfield – assistant engineer
Video
*Chris Dugan – director
*Bill Berg-Hillinger – director, editor, colorist
*Ryan Cooke – additional editor
*Michael Mastrangelo – additional editor
*Carl Jordan – additional editor
*Tammy Berg – additional editor
*Bill Butterfield – additional editor
*Chris Johnston – post-audio mixing
*David May – post producer
*Justin Lomax – editor of "Cigarettes and Valentines"
*Shane Ruggieri – colorist of "Cigarettes and Valentines"
Artwork
*Chris Bilheimer – art direction
*Chris Dugan – photography
Charts
Certifications and sales
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Awesome As Fuck
Green Day albums
2011 live albums
2011 video albums
Concert films
Reprise Records live albums
Reprise Records video albums
Live video albums
Albums recorded at Saitama Super Arena