Green Day is set to appear at New York's Bowery Ballroom on May 18, just three days after the release of the band's hotly anticipated eighth studio album, "21st Century Breakdown," according to MTV Germany. The small club show is a rarity for the band whose last album, 2004's "American Idiot," sold more than 12 million copies.

But the group has done some guerilla-style gigs in its hometown of San Francisco this past week, including a show at the 500-capacity DNA Lounge.  According to the New York Times' Artsbeat Blog, the band played "21st Century Breakdown" in its entirety before running through a set of older material.

"Twenty First Century Breakdown" has a narrative structure, telling the story of a young couple, Christian and Gloria.

The album is divided into three acts "Heroes and Cons," "Charlatans and Saints" and "Horseshoes and Handgrenades" and includes tracks like "21 Guns," "East Jesus Nowhere," "Before the Lobotomy," and "Restless Heart Syndrome." The album's first single, "Know Your Enemy," is set to launch April 16. The video for "Know Your Enemy," which was directed by Matthew Cullen of Motion Theory, will debut April 24 on all MTV and VH1 channels worldwide, in the first global cross-channel video premiere for MTV and VH1 networks.

Watch Green Day on tour with Blink 182 back in 2002 below: