Review: Green Day may be getting older, but boredom and political anger are timeless

A quick glance around Globe Life Field Wednesday night at the Green Day show in Arlington revealed some people with green mohawks, many people with tattoos — and a lot of people wearing earplugs.

We’re old, y’all.

It’s been 30 years since Green Day broke out on the pop-punk scene with their third album, “Dookie,” and 20 years since the release of their anti-Iraq War rock opera “American Idiot.”

If, like me, you were young enough to have your middle school friend burn you a CD of “American Idiot” in 2004, congrats, it’s time to start wearing earplugs and Dr. Scholl’s to every concert you go to. And if you were a teen in 1994 when “Dookie” came out, well, here’s another reminder to schedule that first colonoscopy.

Green Day comes to Globe Life

But all references to aging punks aside, Wednesday night’s show in the home of the Texas Rangers was anything but geriatric. The night got started early with the Linda Lindas (who previously opened for Paramore when they came to Fort Worth), followed by Rancid and the Smashing Pumpkins.

Later, Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool led a packed crowd (minus the outfield seats) through both the “Dookie” and “American Idiot” albums plus a few older songs and six new ones.

The California trio still move the crowd and poke fun at themselves like they always have. Armstrong seemed to take an anarchic glee in leading the crowd through non-album cuts like “Minority” and “Know Your Enemy.” Inflatable airplanes dropped beach-ball-like bombs from the air above the crowd. Armstrong donned a giant Texas Rangers foam cowboy hat that a fan gave him. Nearly every song featured pyrotechnics of some sort.

For all of that stagecraft, the most surprising aspect of the night was how non-political it was, aside from the “American Idiot” of it all. That album was the defining rock artifact of the early 2000s. Had this been 2004, Armstrong would have jumped at the chance to comment on the fact that the band was playing at a baseball stadium in George W. Bush’s home state. But aside from a lyric change in “American Idiot” from “I’m not a part of a redneck agenda” to “MAGA agenda” (which is nothing new, for the record; Armstrong has been doing that for a while) and a call for a ceasefire in Gaza as “Holiday” began, there were no outward political statements.

Indeed, the most controversial words of the night might have been when Armstrong repeatedly referred to Arlington as Dallas.

“Tonight isn’t a political party,” Armstrong said near the end of the night. “This isn’t even a [expletive] party. It’s a celebration!”

‘Dookie’ and ‘American Idiot’ anniversaries

And celebrate they did. The Saviors Tour is celebrating the anniversaries of “Dookie” and “American Idiot,” and the set and stage decor highlighted those albums’ respective bratty apathy and theatrical, righteous anger.

The show kicked off at 8:30 p.m. on a massive stage set up in the outfield. Recordings of two songs set the tone for the evening: Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” and The Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop.” A person in a bunny mascot costume ran out wearing a Texas Rangers jersey to hype up the crowd during “Blitzkrieg Bop” before the band took the stage.

This being an anniversary tour, Green Day played one song from their new album “Saviors,” then dove right into the “Dookie” of it all, tearing through that album’s 14 songs almost in less time it takes to listen to the studio version.

Then it was off to some more songs from “Saviors” and a few oldies like “Minority” and “Brain Stew” before going on another album-long journey with “American Idiot.”

It should be noted that “American Idiot” features not one, but two songs that clock in at longer that nine minutes, and everyone in Globe Life was singing along with every word of “Jesus of Suburbia” and “Homecoming.” Armstrong, Dirnt and Cool are adept at playing the familiar riffs and hooks from that album while also making them feel fresh for a live audience. Not an easy feat when you’ve been playing those songs for 20 and 30 years.

A pop-punk celebration

All in all, the night was a celebration, and maybe a little wistful for times gone by when a rock opera protest album could capture the zeitgeist.

“Dookie” and “American Idiot” are two of the most influential pop-punk albums of their respective decades. “Dookie” epitomized the slacker ‘90s, and “American Idiot” spawned a trend of rock operas in the early 2000s while actually being a good piece of protest art.

Hearing them played all the way through, back-to-back, highlights just how many hits both albums had (the first half of “Dookie” is stronger than most band’s full-length records).

The setlist also highlighted how much the band has grown since “Dookie.” Played this way, you can easily see the progression from “Basket Case” to “Brain Stew” to “Good Riddance” to “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” to their latest single, “The American Dream Is Killing Me.”

There wasn’t much banter (hard to do that when you’re playing nearly 40 songs in less than three hours), but when Armstrong did comment, he talked about celebration, unity, love, joy, and enjoying the people that you’re with. He also decried the use of cell phones and any type of propaganda or algorithms.

Green Day may have grown up, but they definitely haven’t burned out.

GREEN DAY SET LIST, GLOBE LIFE FIELD, ARLINGTON TEXAS (SEPTEMBER 11, 2024)

1. The American Dream Is Killing Me
2. Burnout
3. Having A Blast
4. Chump
5. Longview
6. Welcome to Paradise
7. Pulling Teeth
8. Basket Case
9. She
10. Sassafras Roots
11. When I Come Around
12. Coming Clean
13. Emenius Sleepus
14. In the End
15. F.O.D. (with a “Jack and Diane” by John Mellencamp intro)
16. All By Myself (Tré Cool)
17. Know Your Enemy (A fan named Eva came up on stage to sing with the band)
18. Look Ma, No Brains!
19. One Eyed Bastard
20. Dilemma (with a “Free Fallin’” by Tom Petty intro)
21. Minority
22. Brain Stew (with some snippets of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” and Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” for an intro)
23. American Idiot
24. Jesus of Suburbia/City of the Damned/I Don’t Care/Dearly Beloved/Tales Of Another Broken Home
25. Holiday
26. Boulevard of Broken Dreams
27. Are We The Waiting
28. St. Jimmy
29. Give Me Novocaine
30. She’s A Rebel
31. Extraordinary Girl
32. Letterbomb
33. Wake Me Up When September Ends
34. Homecoming/The Death of St. Jimmy/East 12th St./Nobody Likes You/Rock and Roll Girlfriend/We’re Coming Home Again
35. Whatsername

Encore

1. Bobby Sox
2. Suzie Chapstick
3. Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)

This story was originally published September 12, 2024 at 5:11 AM.

Jake Harris

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

817-390-7237

Jake Harris is the Service Journalism Editor for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He has spent nearly 10 years working as a digital producer across newsrooms in Texas. He mainly writes about pop culture and local North Texas happenings and occasionally writes concert reviews.