Wake me up when September ends.

A dreamy thought, but not light-hearted. The verse, sung by Green Day front man Billie Joe Armstrong during a sold-out Mellon Arena show this past Saturday, is actually the story of finally coming to terms with a father's death.

Pretty heady stuff for a Top 40 band. But early on during two hours on my feet, fist pumping, body swaying, I realized these guys were something much deeper, masquerading as a pop band.

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
Wake me up when September Ends

The real eye-opener was something my sons had warned me about. This band was very political. The words, the emotions, the messages are raw, demanding to be paid attention to.

I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
On holiday
Hear the drum pounding out of time
Another protester has crossed the line
To find the money's on the other side
Can I get another amen?
There's a flag wrapped around a score of men.
A gag.

About as anti-war, anti-establishment, anti-administration as it gets, as it ever got in the Vietnam years. So why is it that no one in the mainstream media is paying attention?

Thousands of people, mostly in their teens and 20s, are packing arenas to see this band. Millions are buying, downloading and listening to their powerful songs. Enough already, they say. We don't trust anyone any more. We walk alone. Your world with your values means little to us.

I'm the son of rage and love
The Jesus of suburbia
From the bible of "none of the above"
On a steady diet of soda pop and Ritalin

I read the newspaper columnists cry and watch the cable ranters rant. I've heard the arguments, pro and con, for pretty much everything that makes our government tick. But a rock concert, where thousands of comfy, privileged people waved open, lighted cell phones to bring the band back instead of matches and lighters brought it home for me.

Things are pretty comfortable for most of us. As long as gas prices don't go too high, too fast, as long as no one we know is hurt or worse in Iraq, most people will stay quiet and stay the course.

But be careful. Because underneath the seemingly calm surface is a bubbling, emotional stew that is a tick-tock away from spilling over.

From my view in the stands, the generation fighting our wars overseas doesn't like it. And they don't buy it. And they want to be heard.

Are we we are, are we we are ... the waiting. Unknown.