Why is Billie Joe the best frontman ever?

[tubbyfox]

He is great but there is no frontman like Freddie.

I agree that Freddie was the best and Billie learnt a lot from him, but I still say Billie connects more with the fans. Also, he is happy to still play small venues where he can interact even more so. Queen were great at putting on a big show, Green Day can play anywhere and be fabulous.

Ps I am a massive Queen fan too.

[Oxymore]

To sum up: thanks to everything he does on stage. The list is way too long

I remember a live where he told a girl that she was beautiful. And when he brings his mom, wife or son onstage...

[Guest]

As good of a frontman as Billie Joe is, there are some real knocks on him. For one, if you watch multiple shows on the same tour, you'll quickly realize that 90% of what he says is canned, if not more, with just the city name changed. Maybe a lyric or two as well. By comparison, look at Queen (I'll reference them many times here). Freddie Mercury went out of his way each night to make sure audiences got a lot of conversation just for them, even when the band played multiple nights in the same city. Brian May would go so far as to learn a few sentences in the native language for non-English-speaking countries, and address the audience with them at some point. Freddie did the same, to a lesser extent, and did occasionally change a lyric here and there if an opportunity to fit a city/state/country's name in came up. There was still plenty of canned dialogue, yeah, but lots of customized dialogue too.

Two, and this was more true on the 21CB tour than on the 99 Revs tour from what I've seen, he doesn't drive and carry the show by himself. By the end of the 21CB tour, the main event was the flashy lights and massive pyro behind him. He was almost drowned out at points by it. I mean, come on, four pyro cues in Minority, including three huge explosions in the last 45 seconds of the song? It seemed like the band crammed in every explosion and wall of flames they could, and played so many different videos and visuals on the massive screen behind them that it was just hard for Billie Joe to compete. Again, going back to Queen, virtually every show they ever played employed a huge lighting rig and loads of pyro (though not nearly as much as Green Day, and usually only a handful of cues vs. the dozens that Green Day had by the end of the 21CB tour). They couldn't play the opera in Bohemian Rhapsody. Just couldn't do it, so instead, they played it from tape. Over time, as the lighting rigs got bigger, they built a massive, jaw-dropping lightshow around the opera. There were an infinite number of ways that Freddie could have been lost in the mix, so to speak, but he never was.

Three, hey-oh. I mean, come on. Does every song need a dozen hey-ohs in it? Everyone does a hey-oh now, but Billie Joe just abuses them. Freddie is exempt from this criticism because he invented the day-o exchange. The best day-o out there today comes from Dave Grohl. There's only one exchange, and instead of shouting "day-o" back and forth, Dave just screams at different pitches, and the audience figures it out and screams back. I get that Billie Joe loves to interact with the crowd, but he overuses hey-oh in particular.

On the whole, I think there are several better frontmen than Billie Joe out there today. I won't bother listing them, but I will say that I disagree with your thesis.

With that behind us, there are some things about Billie Joe as a frontman that he does extremely well. Maybe first and foremost is that the man leaves it all onstage. How often do you see a frontman take a bow at the end of the concert, and he's barely even broken a sweat? Look at video of Billie Joe at the end of the concert. The man looks exhausted and beat. My theory on the extremely long Shout medleys is that they're not just an entertaining interlude before the show kicks into closing gear; they're also a chance for Billie Joe to rest. At Chula Vista in 2010, he spent most of the Shout medley lying down onstage. I don't believe there's a frontman out there today who puts as much into his performance as Billie Joe, and it shows.

Billie Joe also excels at getting the audience involved. There's a difference between my criticism of his canned dialogue and audience involvement. Lots of bands will pick someone from the crowd to come up and play guitar for a song, or the frontman will walk out along the rail and pick someone to sing a duet with. Billie Joe doesn't even come close to stopping there. He brings people up to sing parts of songs, he always has people come up to play instruments, and he'll even just randomly point at someone and tell security to get them onstage. He seems to love having fans up there with him, and it says a lot about him as a performer that he gives back to his fans by trusting them to come on up and mess around with the band.

Billie Joe is also strong in another area that maybe doesn't get noticed too much. As a frontman, he has incredible command of his band. If the setlist says Are We the Waiting, but Billie Joe feels like Geek Stink Breath instead, by God, that band is going to play Geek Stink Breath regardless of whether or not it's on the printed setlist. I've seen plenty of instances where the frontman abruptly changes the song that's going to be played, and the band either looks at him like he's an idiot, or they all get a look on their face that says, "When we get back to the dressing room after this show, your ass is dead." When Billie Joe turns to the band and says, "Let's play Brain Stew," the band plays Brain Stew, and no one seems to mind in the least.

That's what comes to mind immediately. I don't think there's ever been a frontman better than Freddie Mercury, and there never will be. In terms of the best frontmen out there today, Springsteen tops my list. Dave Grohl is up there as well. Billie Joe's certainly a very good frontman, but he's got his flaws.

[LudeBoy]

he's not.

end of presentation.

[WhiteTim]

As good of a frontman as Billie Joe is, there are some real knocks on him. For one, if you watch multiple shows on the same tour, you'll quickly realize that 90% of what he says is canned, if not more, with just the city name changed. Maybe a lyric or two as well. By comparison, look at Queen (I'll reference them many times here). Freddie Mercury went out of his way each night to make sure audiences got a lot of conversation just for them, even when the band played multiple nights in the same city. Brian May would go so far as to learn a few sentences in the native language for non-English-speaking countries, and address the audience with them at some point. Freddie did the same, to a lesser extent, and did occasionally change a lyric here and there if an opportunity to fit a city/state/country's name in came up. There was still plenty of canned dialogue, yeah, but lots of customized dialogue too.

Two, and this was more true on the 21CB tour than on the 99 Revs tour from what I've seen, he doesn't drive and carry the show by himself. By the end of the 21CB tour, the main event was the flashy lights and massive pyro behind him. He was almost drowned out at points by it. I mean, come on, four pyro cues in Minority, including three huge explosions in the last 45 seconds of the song? It seemed like the band crammed in every explosion and wall of flames they could, and played so many different videos and visuals on the massive screen behind them that it was just hard for Billie Joe to compete. Again, going back to Queen, virtually every show they ever played employed a huge lighting rig and loads of pyro (though not nearly as much as Green Day, and usually only a handful of cues vs. the dozens that Green Day had by the end of the 21CB tour). They couldn't play the opera in Bohemian Rhapsody. Just couldn't do, so instead, they played it from tape. Over time, as the lighting rigs got bigger, they built a massive, jaw-dropping lightshow around the opera. There were an infinite number of ways that Freddie could have been lost in the mix, so to speak, but he never was.

Three, hey-oh. I mean, come on. Does every song need a dozen hey-ohs in it? Everyone does a hey-oh now, but Billie Joe just abuses them. Freddie is exempt from this criticism because he invented the day-o exchange. The best day-o out there today comes from Dave Grohl. There's only one exchange, and instead of shouting "day-o" back and forth, Dave just screams at different pitches, and the audience figures it out and screams back. I get that Billie Joe loves to interact with the crowd, but he overuses hey-oh in particular.

On the whole, I think there are several better frontmen than Billie Joe out there today. I won't bother listing them, but I will say that I disagree with your thesis.

With that behind us, there are some things about Billie Joe as a frontman that he does extremely well. Maybe first and foremost is that the man leaves it all onstage. How often do you see a frontman take a bow at the end of the concert, and he's barely even broken a sweat? Look at video of Billie Joe at the end of the concert. The man looks exhausted and beat. My theory on the extremely long Shout medleys is that they're not just an entertaining interlude before the show kicks into closing gear; they're also a chance for Billie Joe to rest. At Chula Vista in 2010, he spent most of the Shout medley lying down onstage. I don't believe there's a frontman out there today who puts as much into his performance as Billie Joe, and it shows.

Billie Joe also excels at getting the audience involved. There's a difference between my criticism of his canned dialogue and audience involvement. Lots of bands will pick someone from the crowd to come up and play guitar for a song, or the frontman will walk out along the rail and pick someone to sing a duet with. Billie Joe doesn't even come close to stopping there. He brings people up to sing parts of songs, he always has people come up to play instruments, and he'll even just randomly point at someone and tell security to get them onstage. He seems to love having fans up there with him, and it says a lot about him as a performer that he gives back to his fans by trusting them to come on up and mess around with then band.

Billie Joe is also strong in another area that maybe doesn't get noticed too much. As a frontman, he has incredible command of his band. If the setlist says Are We the Waiting, but Billie Joe feels like Geek Stink Breath instead, by God, that band is going to play Geek Stink Breath regardless of whether or not it's on the printed setlist. I've seen plenty of instances where the frontman abruptly changes the song that's going to be played, and the band either looks at him like he's an idiot, or they all get a look on their face that says, "When we get back to the dressing room after this show, your ass is dead." When Billie Joe turns to the band and says, "Let's play Brain Stew," the band plays Brain Stew, and no one seems to mind in the least.

That's what comes to mind immediately. I don't think there's ever been a frontman better than Freddie Mercury, and there never will be. In terms of the best frontmen out there today, Springsteen tops my list. Dave Grohl is up there as well. Billie Joe's certainly a very good frontman, but he's got his flaws.

You sir are brillant

[Heather.]

Meh, Billie Joe is a GREAT frontman. He's not the best ever.

I need not repeat what has already been proven re Freddie.

I think what makes Billie Joe great is that he emulates Freddie's greatness in spite of his tiny stature/lesser vocal talent. Freddie was NATURALLY great because he had the look, the voice, the body habitus. Billie Joe has had to work REALLY REALLY hard to project the way he does, given he has a relatively small voice and less-than-imposing physical presence So it's more impressive that he's managed to be so good because by all accounts he shouldn't be. Sometimes I'll watch clips of other big deal bands that I don't care a whole lot about (Coldplay, Killers) and the first thing I notice is how much better Chris Martin and Brandon Flowers look on stage because they're just tall enough to look legit. I don't think they're better frontmen, but it's easier for me to take them seriously because they're taller. Billie has had to make up for a lot.

Another point I want to make is that Billie talked about how around Nimrod forward he actually started thinking more deeply about HOW to be a frontman. All the Dookie stuff was kind of "whatever bull shit I feel like doing or not, who cares". He started thinking more about "Hey ohs" and projecting and calculated crowd interaction in the late 90's onward. For better or worse.

[Blond-O-Sonic Shimmer Trap]

Because he's body swapped with Bruce Springsteen?

I think the best answer I can give as that he just gets it. He just gets rock n roll, he gets the showmanship, he gets the elements that make up excellent showmanship and he gets how theatrical and inherently ridiculous his job is, and I think his natural personality is to be bratty and outgoing so he just launches himself full on into that ringleader persona. There are singers you get the impression don't even enjoy music all that much, but he is definitely one of the guys who absorbs it all, appreciates the history of rock n roll and to some extent that dictates his musicianship. No one would ever accuse him of being hugely original after all!

[Spike]

'Cause there's no other frontman who can dance better than him. That's why

I beg to differ

[Tubbie Head]

'Cause there's no other frontman who can dance better than him. That's why

Hell yes!

[James!]

Thanks everyone

[beejeezee]

To answer the title question; because he's Billie fucking Joe Armstrong, that's why.

[The Grohl]

I think he's one of the best because it doesn't matter how big or small the venue is where they are playing he makes that connection with the audience and turns any performance into an intimate show.

[BCap]

Billie Joe is the man because he has energy, because he looks out for the crowd (witness the video in which he told the band to stop playing "Homecoming" to tell some obnoxious people in the crowd to stop being dicks to the other concertgoers), because he goes out for 2.5-3 hours at a time, because he sometimes is part of the own opening band, because he likes to have fun on stage - he's just amazing!

[tubbyfox]

...and because he has the unique confidence and belief in his fans that he can leave the stage for a poo and know that a member of the audience will carry on singing Longview until he comes back.

[Oxymore]

Or because, you know, it's like, you know, he's the only frontman who can have some language twitches, you know, very annoying, but always remaining bearable, you know.

[IcyMoffatt]

I'm not going to repeat all the reasons already mentionned on why BJ is a great frontman. They are all good reasons. But I would like to add another one. He interacts a lot with the band while on stage. I've seen frontmen who didn't even care that the other bands' members where there on stage too (like it was a concert of a solo artist). BJ always shows that he isn't doing the concert alone. He has fun with everyone on stage. And he makes sure that Mike, Tré and Jason share this fun with the crowd too. He's like the connection between the crowd and the band. (I don't know if my idea is clear, but I hope you got my point.)

[Oxymore]

Yeah. I never have been to any show, of any band, but I think there's something special in the air with them, something that others don't have.