Green Day: "21st Century Breakdown" inspires street-art exhibition, "American Idiot" the musical

Wed, 23 Sep 2009

Fresh from their VMA victory, and near-on riot causing performance of the same night, Green Day have now commissioned various street artists, to interpret their “21st Century Breakdown” album, and create original artistic pieces for exhibition.
LickLibrary has learned that lyrics to songs from Green Day’s latest album were sent to the individual artists in order to inspire their works. This has led to a joint tour, as the exhibition will be following Green Day around the world. Starting with their UK tour, “The Art Of Rock” will be exhibited in Shoreditch, London from Oct 22nd until Nov 1st

This is not the first time that Green Day’s music has been used to inspire other mediums of artistic expression.  Their highly acclaimed “American Idiot” album, which saw a return to the limelight for the group some five years ago, has been adapted for the stage. Berkeley Repertory Theatre began running American Idiot last week, and the show will be staged until Oct 11th. 

Speaking of “The Art of Rock” exhibition, Armstrong has said, “We’re really excited to be associated with this incredible show. Seeing the pieces that our new album has inspired is very exciting We feel a strong connection to that type of creative expression; we think the fans coming out will love it.”

Artists contributing works to the show will include: Broken Cow interpreting “Song of the Century”, Ron English’s “21St Century Breakdown”, Chris Stain’s version of ”East Jesus Nowhere” (Green Day’s controversial VMA live performance track) and Pisa 73’s interpretation of “21 Guns,” for which Green Day won VMA awards.

The launch of “The Art of Rock” exhibition based on Green Day’s “21st Century Breakdown” will be coincide with Green Day’s two O2 Arena, London shows shown from Oct 22nd to Nov 1st at StolenSpace Gallery, Dray Walk, The Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane, London, UK.

Green Day will tour Europe and the UK from Sep 28th until Dec 11th. Tickets are now available.

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