I hadn't realized how much Green Day, and Billie Joe in particular, was emulating Queen.
Not only did they cover songs very similarly to Queen at Wembley, Billie did "Day oh"'s with the crowd, came out in regal gear, played a Red Special, had crazy pyrotechnics, and, for ever concert except the one I was at, played WATC as the finale.
It was odd to watch.
yeh...i noticed this too. i think its nice that they are...erm..."influenced" by Queen. they keep them...well, alive in a way, because the kids today that listen to GD and see them act like Queen will be like "oh...maybe i should look into Queen if Green Day likes them..." or something. im actually wondering when my friend, Katie, will finally get into Queen because she is OBSSESSED with Green Day. maybe i have to prod her along, though...^.^
You know how Queen did You're So Square (Baby I Don't Care), Big Spender, songs like that?
Maybe that's what Green Day's sort of doing, digging down and playing some classic 50's rock tracks or something like that.
It could be sort of tongue-in-cheek for Greenday. If they are a "punk" band, they are supposed to thumb their nose at everything, right? Well, when punk bands first starting making noise in 76-77, they really went after Queen (and Zeppelin and Pink Floyd...sadly I am old enough to have seen it). Maybe it has come full circle and some of the newer punk bands actually see these great bands for the music they made. I think I read that Billy Joe Armstrong said they do it partly as a goof, but also partly because they do enjoy the crowd reaction.
I don't know that it's poking fun ... a lot of the music is really influenced by classic rock, in particular the Kinks, whom the album Warning is basically an homage to.
... and I know Queen didn't invent doing covers, but the particular covers are ones that Queen play.