SAN DIEGO — Foxboro Hot Tubs hit the tiny stage of the Bellyup Tavern on Monday night as part of their brief tour in support of their debut release, Stop, Drop and Roll!!! — and put every Green Day show I've attended to shame.



From the opening guitar riff of "Stop, Drop and Roll," the 600-plus attendees knew it was time to dance. As "Mother Mary" and "Alligator" followed, Billie Joe Armstrong's vocals sounded better than ever, and the entire band seemed thrilled to be performing onstage.

Three themes defined the night, showing the many sides of Billie Joe: stage-diving (which he must have done 27 times); drinking too many beers while performing (and dumping many of them on the audience); and bringing people onstage to dance with him (many of them didn't even know the lyrics, and many of them were girls who groped and provocatively danced around him).

I'm still unsure if Billie Joe was completely hammered or if it was just part of the show — but it was great to watch! Billie Joe danced around the stage with more energy and spunk than any 20-year-old emo band could and frequently went on rants that were sometimes hard to decipher. During the breakdown of  "27th Ave. Shuffle," Chris Cote, of the band Kut U Up — who toured with Green Day back in 2002 — found his way onstage and created an impromptu song with Billie Joe. Cote even took control of the bass, while Mike Dirnt stage-dived. It was during "27th Ave. Shuffle" that the band also launched into two verses of The Who's "My Generation," a cover of which appears on the band's 1992 album, Kerplunk.

The band returned to the stage for a two-song encore. "Red Tide" was first, followed by a cover of The Who's "A Quick One, While He's Away." Foxboro Hot Tubs turned this nine-minute mini-opera into a 20-minute long performance — chanting the words "you are forgiven" for seemingly forever. Every time the band "finished" the tune ... it would start right up again at the exact same point.

If there were one word to sum up the entire performance, it would be "fun." Green Day shows are famous for featuring a high-level of audience participation, but the Foxboro Hot Tubs took that level of interaction and gave it two shots of adrenaline. It was definitely worth the eight-hour wait on line for tickets, as well as the four-hour wait in the venue before the band actually played.

And the best part is ... I get to do it all again tonight in Los Angeles. Stay tuned.