Having one album that is considered a classic by many is rare. Having two that spawn multiple generations of fans is even rarer. Pop-punk kings Green Day do, however, and when they weren’t eating cheese curds at Lakefront Brewery, they brought those albums and more to American Family Field on Saturday night.
Saturday’s stop in Milwaukee was part of the “Saviors” tour, named after their last album, released last January. The tour also celebrates 30 years of their breakthrough “Dookie” as well as 20 years of “American Idiot,” both of which catapulted the band into a new stratosphere of popularity. That’s a lot of music for one night alone, with two album performances forming the centerpiece of the headlining show. With opening acts, the evening would amount to about five and a half hours of music, and it all fit nicely into the bigger picture.
Kicking things off were The Linda Lindas, who represented the next generation of angsty alternative rock and closed with their early viral hit “Racist, Sexist Boy.” Punk legends Rancid followed with a blitzkrieg set that included pretty much all of their biggest hits from the last 30 years. Smashing Pumpkins were a slight departure from the evening in terms of sound, but offered a different perspective on alternative rock’s rise to the mainstream, which also included Green Day’s rise to fame. What followed, however, was a marathon set more than worthy of a very full American Family Field, with fans crammed into the back of the stands.
Green Day, who took the stage Saturday night, are in many ways a band far removed from the sarcastic, brash trio that first played Milwaukee in the early ’90s. In fact, that version of Green Day may not have even liked the one they play today. On Saturday, however, they channeled that early energy on the biggest stage of all with a 37-song show. After opening song “The American Dream Is Killing Me” (this is the “Saviors” tour, after all), a giant mushroom cloud backdrop replicating the “Dookie” album cover crashed from the top of the stage. From then on, the band belted out the groundbreaking album without much of a pause. The rolling bass line of “Longview” by Mike Dirnt, wearing his orange jumpsuit from the “Basket Case” video, garnered one of the first big reactions of the nearly 150-minute set.
As he has for some time, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong fully embraced the role of rock star lead singer, often delivering breakdowns to get the stadium crowd singing along. However, with a lot of material to cover, there was less vamping overall from the band on Saturday than on recent tours. But that didn’t mean fewer opportunities to engage the crowd. Deeper album cuts were accentuated by pyrotechnics, with flashbangs and flames shooting out of a stack of amplifiers set up diagonally behind the band. During “Emenius Sleepus,” an inflatable airplane, also mimicking the album cover, flew across the stadium floor, also dropping inflatable “Dookie”-themed bombs on fans. While the album cuts might have been less recognizable to some, the band made sure to keep their attention during them. The album’s final song, “All By Myself,” was converted into an orchestral version, with drummer Tre Cool taking the stage in a leopard-print bathrobe and performing a cheesy, pseudo-burlesque version of the track while prancing around the stage.
Although you might think that two full albums would be enough for a full show, Green Day left no stone unturned and inserted six songs between “Dookie” and “American Idiot.” These included “Know Your Enemy,” which featured a young fan named Quinn as a bridge, three more songs from “Saviors” (remember the “Saviors” tour), and the hits “Brain Stew” and “Minority,” which were unmissable throughout the evening.
The juxtaposition of “American Idiot” after all the youthful fun of “Dookie” was a reminder of Green Day’s gradual transformation as a band. While a decade has passed between the two albums, the structure of both records is drastically different, and that was glaring on Saturday. While the second album still garnered huge reactions from a completely different generation of Green Day fans, the album also features longer songs, including a mini-rock opera that the band would stay true to. While technically solid as ever, the longer songs would ultimately weigh things down a bit at the end of five hours of music. However, this record also features some of their most accomplished songs, with the title track providing a burst of energy and “Holiday” once again wowing the crowd early in the album.
If there were any doubts about the band’s stamina, they were quickly dispelled as they played through the second album of the night with perhaps even faster transitions than “Dookie.” Fully aware that the crowd’s energy might wane, they played through the second half of the record quickly, but still gave fans a few memorable moments to close the night, as thousands of phones lit up the stadium during “Wake Me Up When September Ends.” Immediately afterward, however, Armstrong yelled “Homecoming” and the band began the last few songs on the record. Time was of the essence.
While “Whatshernane,” the final song from “American Idiot,” isn’t exactly a show-stealer, the band closed out the album with Armstrong immediately reappearing with a guitar and declaring, “I’m not done yet!” before incorporating “Bobby Sox” into the set (remember the “Saviors” tour). Fittingly, the evening ended with a faster-than-usual version of “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life),” complete with a final fireworks display before Tre Cool and Mike Dirnt joined Armstrong at the front of the stage to say goodnight. It was a marathon from a band that still shows no signs of slowing down once they’re on stage together, and a fitting way to thank fans for coming along the way with them.
Green Day, along with a number of support acts, ensured that no one left American Family Field on Saturday night feeling like they hadn’t had enough. There was variety, longevity and energy, and all of that can be said about the headliner alone as well as the show as a whole. It’s the sign of a seasoned band that’s in touch with their audience and will continue to have success when they hit the road.
