Just two-ish weeks after blink-182 and the Foo Fighters played Citi Field, Green Day returned to the Queens stadium on their Saviors Tour Monday night (8/5), and they weren’t the only ones to acknowledge the NYC borough as the birthplace of the Ramones. As the name implies, this tour is supporting their new album Saviors, but it’s more prominently about celebrating the anniversaries of two of their biggest albums: they played Dookie in full for its 30th and American Idiot in full for its 20th.
After their long, drawn-out intro that includes all six minutes of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop,” and Green Day’s own intro theme (with bits of Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll” and Queen’s “We Will Rock You” worked in) played over the PA as clips of Green Day from throughout the years and all of their various logos flashed on screen, Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tré Cool (and their touring members) finally took the stage and went right into “The American Dream Is Killing Me” off the new album. It’s an explosive opener that sounds like something that could fit on American Idiot, and it set the tone for the night right away. Billie Joe especially is still the goofy punk kid that America fell in love with 30 years ago–all those strung-out facial expressions included–but Green Day have long been bonafide rock stars and they reminded the Citi Field crowd of that in the very first song. They really know how to start a show off with a bang.
After just that one song, Green Day went right into Dookie, with the aesthetics of the era projected on the screen, Billie Joe’s iconic Blue guitar in hand, and, later on, the Dookie plane flying around the field. Any Green Day show is gonna get the multiple hits from Dookie, but the other 10 or so songs are rarer to hear, and if you grew up on ’90s punk, there’s a very good chance that every song on this album is ingrained into your brain just as much as “Basket Case,” “When I Come Around,” “Welcome To Paradise,” and “Longview” are. The nice thing about a fast-paced punk album like Dookie is you can speed through the whole thing and still have a good 90 minutes left in your set, and that’s exactly what Green Day did, jumping from one song right into the next with only a handful of moments where they took a breath or elongated a bridge. The record is both of its time and timeless, and it still sounds snotty, rebellious, and fun as hell in 2024. Dookie in full is obviously a nostalgia-inducing experience, but the spirit Green Day have performing those songs today is entirely fresh.
Dookie was followed by a selection of other hits from over the years (“Know Your Enemy,” for which he brought up a crowd member to help sing, “Minority,” “Brain Stew”) and a few other highlights of the new album (“Look Ma, No Brains!,” “One Eyed Bastard,” “Dilemma”), and without missing a beat or signaling that the next portion of the night was about to begin, they went right into the opening title track of American Idiot. Even by 2004, Green Day had a long history of receiving sellout accusations, but there’s no Green Day album that the punks who liked their first few records have turned their noses up at over the years more than American Idiot. On the other hand, American Idiot is the album that got so many people from younger generations into the band (the range of age groups at Citi Field on Monday night was very wide), and it’s the album that turned Green Day into the rock-star lifers that can be regularly playing stadiums 20 years later. It’s almost hard to remember now, but Green Day’s popularity was on the downswing in the lead-up to American Idiot and they were determined to change that forever. Love it or hate it, Green Day really called their shot.
American Idiot live is, of course, a much different experience than watching Green Day rip through Dookie. It’s an hour-long rock opera with two nine-minute suites, and ballads like “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” and “Wake Me Up When September Ends” that are basically bigger than Green Day themselves. It’s an impressive feat to translate it to a live set the way they did on Monday night, and they never ran out of steam or lost the attention of the ~40,000 person crowd once. Fitting for a rock opera, Billie Joe is not just a talented punk kid but a real performer, and he was performing his ass off throughout the entirety of this album, channelling the spirit of his hero Freddie Mercury (with whom he shares a knack for “heeeeeeey-oh!” call-and-responses) through a punk lens. Green Day’s graduation from full-time arena band to full-time stadium band has been seamless and much deserved, and it’s only a tiny bit corny. It mostly rocks.
Green Day didn’t bother to make the crowd wait for an encore but they did cap the show off with two more songs after American Idiot. The album performances are the main events, but Saviors is also Green Day’s best album since American Idiot, and it was just as much a treat to hear them bang out the new songs that sounded genuinely good up against the classics. They saved the best for last, “Bobby Sox,” which came right after American Idiot closer “Whatsername.” The Weezer-esque song is in a long line of queer Green Day anthems, and its rotating “Do you wanna be my girlfriend?” / “Do you wanna be my boyfriend?” hook is one of the biggest singalongs they’ve written in years. It was a strong note to (almost) go out on, and then they said goodbye for good in the same sentimental way they’ve done at countless shows over the years, with “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life).” Only this time, they also nodded at the song being used during the end credits of the new Deadpool & Wolverine movie, by having Mike and Tré dress up as the Marvel characters as Billie Joe played the song:
As if Green Day playing Dookie and American Idiot in full wasn’t enough punk/alt-rock nostalgia for the night, the show also included opening sets from The Smashing Pumpkins and Rancid. Rancid, who went on stage at the bright, early hour of 6PM, are Green Day’s old friends from the Bay Area punk scene (and as many Green Day fans know, pre-Rancid band Operation Ivy are a massive influence on Green Day, who have covered their song “Knowledge” at over 700 shows… many an Op Ivy shirt was spotted in the audience), and it probably goes without saying that their …And Out Comes the Wolves-heavy set paired perfectly with the Dookie portion of the night. Rancid always bring it, and this show was no exception, even with the sun out and plenty of seats that wouldn’t be filled until later. Their new songs (like the title track of last year’s Tomorrow Never Comes) pretty much sound just like the old ones, and it’s all great. They’ve become a band where you can hop in at any time and see their full appeal, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve been making some fans out of Green Day’s younger audiences on this tour.
The Pumpkins weren’t really the same scene as Green Day, but they did have very popular alternative rock songs at the same time that Green Day did, so the pairing makes a lot of sense and they got some pretty huge reactions when they played those old hits. Original members Billy Corgan, James Iha, and Jimmy Chamberlin fleshed out their lineup with a few touring members, including new guitarist Kiki Wong, and they sounded great as they broke out classics like “Today,” “Tonight, Tonight,” “Disarm,” “Bullet With Butterfly Wings,” “1979,” “Jellybelly,” “Cherub Rock,” and “Zero” with all the passion that they had back in the day. They didn’t play anything off their brand new album Aghori Mhori Mei (which just came out on Friday), but they did touch on some of last year’s ATUM: A Rock Opera In Three Acts and a few other songs from over the years. They also brought out pro wrestlers Natalia Markova and Bryan Idol during “Beguiled.” It was all tight, but nothing beat the feeling of those classics.
Before Rancid, the show began at an even brighter, earlier hour with one much newer band, The Linda Lindas. The teenage LA pop punks are about the same age that Green Day were when they were starting out, and they’re already doing a very, very good job of carrying the torch. It can’t be easy to be the first of four bands on a stadium show, but The Linda Lindas really knew how to leave an impact on whoever was smart enough to show up in time for their 5:30 PM set. They split the set between songs from their 2022 debut LP Growing Up and their upcoming sophomore album No Obligation (due 10/11 via Epitaph), and all of it was great. They ended with a ferocious rendition of their 2021 breakthrough song “Racist, Sexist Boy,” but some of the new stuff like the super-catchy “All In My Head” sounded even better. It’s always fun to get a night of punk nostalgia, but it’s also nice to be reminded that the future of punk is in good hands.
Pictures from Citi Field by Edwina Hay continue below, alongside the setlists, some fan-shot videos, and the list of remaining dates on the Saviors Tour.
Green Day @ Citi Field – 8/5/24 Setlist
The American Dream Is Killing Me
Dookie:
Burnout
Having a Blast
Chump
Longview
Welcome to Paradise
Pulling Teeth
Basket Case
She
Sassafras Roots
When I Come Around
Coming Clean
Emenius Sleepus
In the End
F.O.D.
All by Myself
Know Your Enemy
Look Ma, No Brains!
One Eyed Bastard
Dilemma
Minority
Brain Stew
American Idiot:
American Idiot
Jesus of Suburbia
Holiday
Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Are We the Waiting
St. Jimmy
Give Me Novacaine
She’s a Rebel
Extraordinary Girl
Letterbomb
Wake Me Up When September Ends
Homecoming
Whatsername
Bobby Sox
Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)
The Smashing Pumpkins @ Citi Field – 8/5/24 Setlist (via)
The Everlasting Gaze
Doomsday Clock
Zoo Station (U2 cover)
Today
That Which Animates the Spirit
Tonight, Tonight
Ava Adore
Disarm
Bullet With Butterfly Wings
Beguiled
1979
Jellybelly
Cherub Rock
Zero
Rancid @ Citi Field – 8/5/24 Setlist
Roots Radical
Radio
Tomorrow Never Comes
The 11th Hour
Ghost of a Chance
Old Friend
Adina
Olympia WA.
Fall Back Down
Time Bomb
Ruby Soho
The Linda Lindas @ Citi Field – 8/5/24 Setlist (via)
Too Many Things
Growing Up
Nino
Excuse Me
All in My Head
Oh!
Racist, Sexist Boy