The banks were Boulevard of Broken Dreams Thursday night – and we’re not talking about the Bengals’ third loss of the season.
Punk rock fans dressed in their best flannel shirts came to the Great American Ball Park for Green Day’s Saviors tour. Pyrotechnics, hot air balloons and strobe lights thrilled thousands in the stadium as the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers transported Cincinnati to the land of headbanging.
Green Day devoted much of their performance to songs from their third studio album, “Dookie,” which was released 30 years ago. The set design also paid homage to the 1994 album, with a cluster of glowing balloons on stage representing the comic bomb that was featured on the album cover.
A trio of opening acts treated fans to a full evening of punk music, while The Smashing Pumpkins, Rancid and The Linda Lindas got the crowd pumped up and going wild.
Here are five standout moments of the evening.
5 outstanding moments from Green Day at the Great American Ball Park
The Linda Lindas gave us a glimpse into the future of punk rock
The Linda Lindas, an all-female rock band from Los Angeles, embodied the next generation of punk rock with an electrifying performance, taking the stage with youthful courage and determination.
The group consists of Bela Salazar (the oldest at 19), Eloise Wong and sisters Lucia and Mila de la Garza (the latter is the youngest of the group at just 14). The Linda Lindas delivered a nearly flawless performance, showing off their expressive group vocals that were reminiscent of punk pioneers Joan Jett and Bikini Kill.
Her provocative political lyrics were on full display in the track “Racist, Sexist Boy,” which Wong performed after seemingly calling out former U.S. President Donald Trump, saying, “Everybody vote so no racist, sexist boy becomes our president.”
Wong took on the vocals of the track with breathtaking determination and Lucia de la Garza provided the backing vocals, headbanging between each line and passionately strumming her guitar. Ultimately, The Linda Lindas demonstrated an irreverent vibrancy with their stage performance, showing that anyone, no matter their age, can rock.
Rancid upped the ante
The fearful atmosphere reached a new level when Rancid – a punk rock band formed in Berkeley, California in 1991 – took the stage.
The group’s dedication to high-intensity rock reached its peak with the song “Ghost of a Chance” from 2017’s Trouble Maker album. Tim Armstrong, the group’s frontman, took over vocals and offered the same tense passion that made counterparts like Green Day pillars of the punk rock genre. Guitarists Matt Freeman and Lars Frederiksen played a thunderous instrumental, shaking up the stadium with their thunderous guitar riffs.
The Smashing Pumpkins brought their Windy City Grunge to the Queen City
When The Smashing Pumpkins, the alternative rock band formed in the Windy City in 1988, took the stage, the audience was transported into Chicago’s grunge rock scene.
Frontman Billy Corgan appeared in an ankle-length black dress, embodying the power of a villainous superstar, and showed off his musical prowess during the band’s dynamic cover of U2’s 1991 song “Zoo Station.” Guitarist James Iha also shone during the cover, effortlessly delivering a piercing guitar solo.
Towards the end of the song, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin delivered a drum solo with the rhythmic precision of a 100-person marching band, releasing a final beat that echoed through the crowd to close the song.
Billie Joe Armstrong provided Freddie Mercury flair throughout the Green Day set
Fans wanted rock ‘n’ roll and Green Day delivered. Showcasing their unwavering chemistry and musicianship, the band treated fans to the angst-filled anthems that brought the group to the forefront of punk rock in the ’90s and 2000s.
Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong dominated the stage with a Freddie Mercury flair and included hard-to-miss Queen references. The band’s iconic song, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” was played just before Armstrong took the stage.
And as a charming theme throughout the performance, Armstrong provoked the crowd with Mercury’s signature “Ay-oh” vocal improvisation. Armstrong’s references to the legendary British rock band underscored that Green Day, like Queen, captivates a loyal fan base with their performances. And the fans at Great American Ball Park were no exception.
Look up! It’s a plane! It’s a meteor!
What’s rockier than a giant fireball flying through the sky?
Green Day inadvertently gave a preview of the meteorite that passed over Cincinnati and Kentucky on Thursday night. Fans were already looking skyward as the band played their 1994 hit “Emenius Sleepus” when a hot air balloon in the shape of a “Dookie” plane was pulled over the field. The balloon stopped in the middle of the stadium and dropped inflatable “Dookies” in the shape of rockets onto the crowd.
It turned out that later in the show, another flying object would attract the audience’s attention.
One Reddit user said concertgoers saw a “giant fireball fly across the sky,” causing many people to gasp. More reports from the area reached the American Meteor Society, including some from Groesbeck, Loveland and even the entire Dayton area.
Wes Ryle, astronomer at the Cincinnati Observatory, confirmed that people did indeed see a meteor.
What an ending for the fans of an epic night.
