When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, there was a phrase often repeated by anti-war Americans looking for a silver lining: At least we’ll get some good music out of it.
As anyone who survived early 2000s pop culture can tell you, there was no wave of moving, impactful protest music like America had during the Vietnam War. Highlights of what we did get include the Rock Against Bush compilation albums, which contained charmingly on-the-nose numbers such as Against Me!’s “Sink, Florida, Sink,” and that time Eminem was investigated by the Secret Service for rapping about how he wished President Bush was dead.
Among those who tried to churn out their very own “Fortunate Son,” Green Day arguably came the closest. Their 2004 album American Idiot and its single of the same name dared to take a step back from whatever was on CNN that day and skewer America’s paranoid, jingoistic culture as a whole.
The main difference between Green Day and the other would-be Dylans and Lennons of the early 2000s was that American Idiot is actually good. President Bush isn’t name-dropped, nor are the conflicts in the Middle East. The album is a loose cannon that the listener can aim at the idiot of their choosing. This big-picture approach is why it continues to resonate and gain new fans in a post-Trump world.
As anyone who survived early 2000s pop culture can tell you, there was no wave of moving, impactful protest music like America had during the Vietnam War. Highlights of what we did get include the Rock Against Bush compilation albums, which contained charmingly on-the-nose numbers such as Against Me!’s “Sink, Florida, Sink,” and that time Eminem was investigated by the Secret Service for rapping about how he wished President Bush was dead.
Among those who tried to churn out their very own “Fortunate Son,” Green Day arguably came the closest. Their 2004 album American Idiot and its single of the same name dared to take a step back from whatever was on CNN that day and skewer America’s paranoid, jingoistic culture as a whole.
The main difference between Green Day and the other would-be Dylans and Lennons of the early 2000s was that American Idiot is actually good. President Bush isn’t name-dropped, nor are the conflicts in the Middle East. The album is a loose cannon that the listener can aim at the idiot of their choosing. This big-picture approach is why it continues to resonate and gain new fans in a post-Trump world.
Green Day’s current Saviors Tour, which came through Globe Life Field on Wednesday (which happened to be Sept. 11), is promoting more than just their 2024 album of the same name. It also honors the 20th anniversary of American Idiot and the 30th anniversary of their debut, Dookie; both albums were played in full.
If this sounds like a long night, that’s because it is. Green Day’s set spans about two-and-a-half-hours, and that doesn’t even include their three openers, The Linda Lindas, Rancid and The Smashing Pumpkins, and a smattering of newer cuts and old favorites sandwiched between sets.
But Green Day wouldn’t still be in the game three decades in if they didn’t know how to put on a show — and the band utilized hope, humor and spectacle to make every moment memorable.
The last song on the band’s pre-show playlist is Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which is impossible not to jam out to Wayne’s World-style. The entire crowd emphatically sang along as if Freddie Mercury himself was onstage. Even the security guards joined in and one took it upon himself to conduct nearby fans at the barricade.
With the crowd adequately hyped up, Green Day took the stage and opened with a new single, “The American Dream is Killing Me,” before launching into the Dookie portion of the set. As the album opener “Burnout” began, the mushroom cloud depicted on the album cover exploded onto the stage with a bang. This would be one of many intense pyrotechnic moments throughout the night.
The Dookie set had strong house party vibes. Weed could be smelled in the audience from the get-go and everyone seemed at least a little bit tipsy, hanging on each other and swaying or jumping around, whatever the song called for.
At one point, a Thanksgiving-style parade started making its way through the crowd. Masked mascots ran around waving at the crowd while a large, inflatable bomber jet (another homage to Dookie’s iconic cover art) dropped balloon bombs on the audience.
Dookie’s grand finale saw drummer Tre Cool performing the album’s hidden track, “All by Myself,” while strutting around the stage in a bathrobe, hamming it up and getting laughs and cheers. It was easily one of the most memorable drummer solos we’ve ever seen.
The intermission between Dookie and American Idiot was filled with some of Green Day’s other hits, including “Brain Stew” and “Know Your Enemy.” During the latter song, a young fan named Eva was pulled up from the crowd to sing one of the verses.
Eva spent the rest of the song dancing with frontman Billie Joe Armstrong before he helped her on top of a monitor and had her do a rock star leap off it as fireworks went off behind her.
She looked like it was the happiest moment of her life.
By the time the opening chords for “American Idiot” kicked in and the album’s heart-shaped grenade filled the stage, we’d reached a point where shows of a standard length would be winding down. But “winding down” isn’t the name of the game with this album.
Despite American Idiot’s longevity, some tweaks have been made to rise to modern moments. It’s become commonplace for Armstrong to sing “I’m not a part of a MAGA agenda" instead of “I’m not a part of a redneck agenda” during the title song’s second verse. This was met with screams of approval from the crowd.
“Holiday” is the most explicitly anti-war track on the album, and Armstrong chose to open it with a call for a ceasefire in Gaza. This added new layers of poignancy to its lyrics, which largely deal with senseless casualties of war.
Despite the heavy subject matter of Green Day’s more topical lyrics, Armstrong’s main goal for the show was to be a source of hope.
“Tonight is about love and happiness and unity,” he told the crowd as the show was winding down. As the final chords of the last encore, “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life),” came to a close and pink confetti filled the air as the trio took their bow, that’s exactly what we felt.
If this sounds like a long night, that’s because it is. Green Day’s set spans about two-and-a-half-hours, and that doesn’t even include their three openers, The Linda Lindas, Rancid and The Smashing Pumpkins, and a smattering of newer cuts and old favorites sandwiched between sets.
But Green Day wouldn’t still be in the game three decades in if they didn’t know how to put on a show — and the band utilized hope, humor and spectacle to make every moment memorable.
The last song on the band’s pre-show playlist is Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which is impossible not to jam out to Wayne’s World-style. The entire crowd emphatically sang along as if Freddie Mercury himself was onstage. Even the security guards joined in and one took it upon himself to conduct nearby fans at the barricade.
With the crowd adequately hyped up, Green Day took the stage and opened with a new single, “The American Dream is Killing Me,” before launching into the Dookie portion of the set. As the album opener “Burnout” began, the mushroom cloud depicted on the album cover exploded onto the stage with a bang. This would be one of many intense pyrotechnic moments throughout the night.
The Dookie set had strong house party vibes. Weed could be smelled in the audience from the get-go and everyone seemed at least a little bit tipsy, hanging on each other and swaying or jumping around, whatever the song called for.
At one point, a Thanksgiving-style parade started making its way through the crowd. Masked mascots ran around waving at the crowd while a large, inflatable bomber jet (another homage to Dookie’s iconic cover art) dropped balloon bombs on the audience.
Dookie’s grand finale saw drummer Tre Cool performing the album’s hidden track, “All by Myself,” while strutting around the stage in a bathrobe, hamming it up and getting laughs and cheers. It was easily one of the most memorable drummer solos we’ve ever seen.
The intermission between Dookie and American Idiot was filled with some of Green Day’s other hits, including “Brain Stew” and “Know Your Enemy.” During the latter song, a young fan named Eva was pulled up from the crowd to sing one of the verses.
A young fan named Eva (second from right) would later go on to perform with the band onstage.
Carly May Gravley
She looked like it was the happiest moment of her life.
By the time the opening chords for “American Idiot” kicked in and the album’s heart-shaped grenade filled the stage, we’d reached a point where shows of a standard length would be winding down. But “winding down” isn’t the name of the game with this album.
Despite American Idiot’s longevity, some tweaks have been made to rise to modern moments. It’s become commonplace for Armstrong to sing “I’m not a part of a MAGA agenda" instead of “I’m not a part of a redneck agenda” during the title song’s second verse. This was met with screams of approval from the crowd.
“Holiday” is the most explicitly anti-war track on the album, and Armstrong chose to open it with a call for a ceasefire in Gaza. This added new layers of poignancy to its lyrics, which largely deal with senseless casualties of war.
Despite the heavy subject matter of Green Day’s more topical lyrics, Armstrong’s main goal for the show was to be a source of hope.
“Tonight is about love and happiness and unity,” he told the crowd as the show was winding down. As the final chords of the last encore, “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life),” came to a close and pink confetti filled the air as the trio took their bow, that’s exactly what we felt.
