Live Green Day release impressive

Green Day's first live album, the new CD and DVD combo release Bullet in a Bible, captures the essence of the Northern Californian punk rockers.

The album follows the explosive and captivating band during the end of the biggest concert tour in its career this summer. The tour promoted the Grammy-winning, four-time-platinum, chart-topping album American Idiot, a punk-rock epic.

The album demonstrates this riveting band has matured musically, as well as in their performance style, while retaining their punk roots.

Released Nov. 15, the album was filmed during two performances in Milton Keynes, England June 18 and 19 for 65,000 screaming fans.

Although a bit short at only 65 minutes, the CD features songs that true Green Day fans would have chosen themselves.

The DVD portion of the album features a documentary segment in which audiences visit a war museum and various pubs with the band, as well as in-depth insights on the band's 2004 hit American Idiot.

"Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and "Wake Me Up When September Ends" are a few of the better sounding songs from the American Idiot release.

These songs delighted the crowd, as did others like "Brain Stew" off the Insomniac release of 1995, "Minority" from the 2000 hit album Warning and the farewell tune, "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)," from the 1997 release Nimrod.

Included with the CD that features half American Idiot songs and half old songs dating back to the 1990 release, Slappy, are a few covers of the famous Isley Brothers film "Shout" and Queen's "We Are the Champions."

It is easy to discern which songs are the fan favorites, with crowd roars coming at the beginning of "Brain Stew," "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and "Wake Me Up When September Ends."

Lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong turns in an energetic vocal performance.

The band was almost flawless musically, even when Armstrong let the crowd into the performance during the chorus and other key lines.

The covers the band performs in the middle of the CD are particularly entertaining because the crowd responds energetically to these old classics performed a new way by singing along enthusiastically.

Luckily, unlike some live albums, the roar of crowd doesn't effect the sound of the band or drown out any of the lyrics. Instead, the noise supports Armstrong when he choses to go silent for a few lines, since the echoing chants of the crowd pick up the slack in the lyrics.

The DVD section is definitely the weak link of the release because the show and interviews are ntertwined in a way that ruins any chance of continuity during the live show.

The camera work is not fluid because it jumps every few seconds.

The DVD redeems itself with funny and entertaining fan interviews, which give the viewer a glimpse of what it might have been like to be at the show.

The album is worth the money and should certainly find a way into any rock fan's CD carousel, although the DVD section lacks continuity and could have been arranged differently for a better, more fluid effect.