Live Recap: “Thirty Years Has Gone So Fast” Green Day's The Saviors Tour
The legendary Green Day returned to the historic Wrigley Field on Tuesday, August 13th— this time bringing The Saviors Tour with special guests The Linda Lindas, Rancid, and The Smashing Pumpkins.
The Linda Lindas opened the evening bright and early with a short but sweet set that kicked off at 5:20PM and included a handful of their songs, like “Oh!” and “Growing Up.”
The Linda Lindas, Taylor Ward / Live Nation
Up next, Rancid kept the show rolling with their iconic 90’s punk songs. After performing the popular tune “Timebomb,” vocalist Tim Armstrong took a minute to take in the special moment of performing at such a historic venue, thanking Green Day for the opportunity and sharing their gratitude for Chicago. They brought out the Chicago-native wrestler CM Punk to the stage and dedicated their final song of the night, “Ruby Soho,” to him.
Rancid, Taylor Ward / Live Nation
Next up, Chicago’s very own The Smashing Pumpkins took the stage. Billy Corgan and crew kept up with the theme of nostalgia and 90’s classics, performing so many of their hits in their one-hour set. Fan favorites included “Today,” which got a cheer as soon as the unmistakable opening chords rang out into the stadium, as well as “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” and “1979.” Before they wrapped up their set, Corgan took some time to show appreciation for the band’s hometown and Wrigley Field. “Thank you for being with us for 36 years. We used to practice across the street at the Cubby Bear. It only took us 36 years to get here, but we’re so happy. God bless you guys, God bless The Cubs,” he said.
The Smashing Pumpkins, Taylor Ward / Live Nation
After three incredible opening sets, the crowd was warmed up and ready for the main event, but Green Day kept the fans waiting just a little bit longer to get them even more hyped up. As the stage was set and the fans were ready for the band to come on, the epic singalong “Bohemian Rhapsody” played out across the house speakers in its entirety, as fans around the venue were captured for the jumbotrons. During that segment, I spotted some fans dressed as Billie Joe Armstrong in the American Idiot era with red ties and another fan holding a sign that said it was their first concert.
Just when the anticipation bubble felt stretched to the limit, Green Day had one more hype song before they hit the stage— their infamous Pink Bunny mascot came to the stage donning a custom Cubs jersey and danced around to The Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop.”
Only then as the sun was finally setting, did Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tré Cool hit the stage—and boy did they hit the ground running. Right off the jump, the stage production delivered pyrotechnics and elaborate visual backgrounds.
Green Day, Taylor Ward / Live Nation
After opening with the new song “The American Dream Is Killing Me,” we all took a journey back to 1994 to hear the landmark album Dookie performed in full to celebrate the 30-year (!!!) anniversary of those songs. The stage design shifted into a 3-D recreation of the album’s artwork that accompanied the band’s performance of the record in order of the tracklist.
While playing “Longview,” Armstrong took a break to chat to the crowd and say, “Hey, I just realized something. We played with The Smashing Pumpkins, who are from Chicago. Last time we played, we played with the band Fall Out Boy, who are also from Chicago. The next time we play it’s gonna be with the band Chicago!'“ Here’s to hoping Armstrong is able to manifest that line up for the next tour!
As the first half of the set went on, I remained in awe of the elaborate stage production and the band’s never-ending energy— it’s truly a feat how Armstrong is able to keep his voice intact for 2+hours as he continues to rile up the audience between singing over 30 songs. The production elements continuously evolved and remained fascinating, including an inflatable plane that dropped “dookie” bombs into the crowd, pyrotechnics, confetti and video graphics on the big screen.
Green Day, Taylor Ward / Live Nation
Armstrong improvised in snippets of covers of a few other songs as the tracklist for Dookie continued and trailed into a section of songs from the Green Day catalog that don’t fall into Dookie and American Idiot. The mini covers/mashups included “Jack & Diane” by John Mellencamp with “F.O.D.”, “Free Fallin’” by Tom Petty before “Dilemma” and “Surrender” by Cheap Trick before “Minority.” Before the latter, Armstrong once again showed his love for Chicago music, saying, “Goddamn there’s so many good bands from Chicago,” referring to Cheap Trick this time.
Another highlight of the part of the show that interluded each album included a special moment with a fan named Bridget. While performing the 2009 single “Know Your Enemy,” Armstrong declared that he wanted to bring someone up on stage, which led to Bridget joining him to finish the rest of the song.
When the time came to transition to a front-to-back performance of 2004’s American Idiot, the stage evolved again to a recreation of the heart-shaped grenade from the album’s cover art. In high school I used to listen to this record on a CD walkman between classes, so it was really special to hear all of the songs performed in full twenty years later. As Armstrong sings in “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” twenty years has gone so fast. Besides getting to hear that lyric during the tour celebrating two decades of a seminal album, another highlight of this part of the show was the entire stadium holding up their phone flashlights for “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.”
Green Day, Taylor Ward / Live Nation
At the end of the American Idiot chapter of the show, Armstrong told the crowd “We don’t do encores because they’re egotistical and stupid,” which got a good laugh from the audience, but that’s a philosophy I can definitely get behind! Armstrong faked walking off stage before starting the instantly-recognizable chords of “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” which was the perfect bookend to the spectacle that is The Saviors tour.
There’s something really magical about seeing a rejuvenated production of such nostalgic albums, so if you get the chance to see this show, don’t miss it! See where you can catch the tour next here and tune into the set list below.
