Awesome as Fuck

Reception

At Metacritic, the album received a normalized score of 64 out of 100, indicating generally favorable reviews. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic wrote that the album satisfies without surprising, noting the set list leans heavily on the band's new millennium standards and that the bandmembers hit their marks with enthusiasm, making it fun if not a live album for the ages. David Fricke of Rolling Stone described the set as a contagious account of the power-fun streak still running through the band, with Billie Joe Armstrong enjoying the spotlight by shouting, cursing, and letting audiences take whole verses of 'American Idiot' and 'Good Riddance,' and drummer Tré Cool mixed prominently, channeling the Clash's Topper Headon and the Who's Keith Moon with precise demonic glee.

Chris Conaton of PopMatters said the album has a bit of the odor of a record-company stopgap, noting the five-year gap between the band's last two studio albums that was filled by the live album and DVD Bullet in a Bible. He observed that the band was at least trying to do something different with this second live album: Bullet in a Bible documented a single two-night stand in England, while Awesome as Fuck's album draws from sixteen different concerts worldwide and the video from a single show.

Conaton remarked that the track list contains treats for longtime fans in the form of lesser singles and deep album tracks, including the previously unreleased 'Cigarettes and Valentines' and older tracks 'Burnout', 'Going to Pasalacqua', 'J.A.R.', and 'Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?', stating that this quintet of songs sets the album apart and gives it a kick as a live set. He criticized that hearing the songs played live was not that different from hearing the studio recordings, calling them generally the same beyond Armstrong telling the crowd to sing this part or that, and remarked that Green Day's arena show is a wonderful experience in person but understandably loses something in the translation to CD and DVD.