Green Day’s Tuesday night show at Azura was the best of all possible nostalgia

Bonus: blimp!

August 23, 2024

Nick Spacek, Kylee Gregg,

Green Day. // photo by Kylee Gregg

Green Day
with Rancid and the Linda Linda’s
Azura Amphitheater
Tuesday, August 20

To be honest, it’s a decent confrontation of one’s own mortality when you attend a concert of a band playing two albums in their entirety, back-to-back. Reckoning with whether you enjoy both albums enough to stay out until nearly 11 when there’s a decent drive home after is a heady consideration as one solidly enters their middle 40s.

That said, the Saviors Tour is a celebration of two of Green Day’s most iconic albums and their anniversaries: 30 years of their major label breakthrough, Dookie, and 20 years of the politically-minded American Idiot. The Bay Area pop-punk act has the Smashing Pumpkins along for part of the tour, but they didn’t play Kansas City on this date, instead headlining Starlight last week on their own.

We did, however, get two other Bay Area bands in Green Day contemporaries Rancid, and the rather younger the Linda Lindas, making this a celebration of a very certain style of American punk rock taking over Azura for an evening.

How “punk” a show can be is for debate when you’ve received an email the morning of a show with the subject line “Keurig® and Green Day Release Limited-Edition Brewer and Coffee Kit to Mark the ‘American Idiot’ Album’s 20th Anniversary,” obviously.

That the body of the email also contained the unironic pairing of the phrase “legendary punk band” in the same paragraph as the sentence, “The kit includes a custom-designed K-Iced™ Plus brewer, Punk Bunny Coffee K-Cup® pods and branded tumbler, plus exclusive access to a Spotify playlist curated by the band” only furthers the hilarious cognitive dissonance.

Green Day. // photo by Kylee Gregg

That said, Green Day was playing Dookie from start to finish and I wasn’t going to miss that for the world, despite having been rather nonplussed the last time I caught the band. Rancid as a known quality is always worth catching, as well, and given that they’re also celebrating a 30th anniversary–of their own 1994 release, Let’s Go–meant they’d be sneaking in some older gems. The Linda Lindas have been a favorite since their viral video breakthrough a few years back, and the singles from their upcoming sophomore LP, No Obligation, to say nothing of the perfectly Devo-esque “Oh!” would’ve dragged me off the couch and down the road on their own.

Regarding Green Day, blowing my voice out to deep cuts like “Sassafras Roots” and “F.O.D.” was amazing, but Tre Cool in a leopard print smoking jacket doing “All By Myself” to a synth track was next level. The woman who came up on stage to sing part of “Know Your Enemy” gave Billie Joe a bunch of wristbands, to which he responded, “I’m a Swiftie!” with a fist pump. She then stage-dove and crowd-surfed. Additional props to the band for stopping “Minority” to move the crowd and get someone in the pit some help. That’s fucking punk.

By the time Green Day started American Idiot, most bands would’ve called it a day, but there was still an entire LP and bonus songs to go. Jesus. I have no idea how the dad, smoking joints all night, did it without having to have a sit down. After all his secondhand smoke, “Brain Stew” felt even more stoner rock than it does on album. Going from that straight into American Idiot‘s title track–replete with updated lyrics about not supporting a “MAGA agenda”–had the crowd roaring.

Green Day’s enthusiastic crowd. // photo by Kylee Gregg

That crowd roar was the best effect of the whole show, really. Green Day can have lights, flash bangs, and fire, and they most certainly did, but nothing compares with 18,000 people singing along in unison to every single song, to say nothing of screaming during the spoken word breakdown in “Holiday.” It’s magical, and the fact that the band let it happen again and again with their express encouragement shows just how much they know it’s something special.

Combine three great sets with absolutely gorgeous weather, some great friends in the nearby seats, and a mild contact high, and Tuesday night might’ve been the highlight of my summer. What originally felt like an afterthought of, “Sure, why not?” rapidly turned into a feeling of not wanting to be anywhere else, and wondering how I could’ve possibly ever considered not attending.

Rancid. // photo by Kylee Gregg

Before the Linda Lindas played, a friend came over and said he’d heard from a mutual friend that “Rancid is gonna do Wolves front-to-back.” My jaw dropped. As much as Dookie was a teenage fave, Rancid’s …And Out Come The Wolves was a formative record. Let’s Go made me a fan, but their follow-up made me evangelical.

Sadly, it didn’t happen, but the opening trio of Wolves cuts “Maxwell Murder,” “Roots Radicals,” and “Journey to the End of the East Bay,” along with “Old Friend,” “Time Bomb,” and “Ruby Soho” to close their set out, along with “The 11^th Hour” in the middle, was a pretty close approximation.

Hearing the Let’s Go cut “Sidekick” through amphitheater speakers made the hair on my arms stand straight up, despite the trio behind me who were evidently having a lot of drama, because they did not stop talking all night long. Even with all that, hearing Matt Freeman on vocals for the title track to Rancid’s latest, Tomorrow Never Comes, made wish his vocals got more features and focus on his amazing bass playing, which might’ve altered my heartbeat.

Also, I am evidently at a point where when I hear Rancid do “Radio,” I openly weep. “When I got the music, I got a place to go” still hits just as hard three decades on, evidently. Tim Armstrong, you magnificent slurring bastard, you still have my heart. “Fall Back Down” was a cathartic release after a really lousy summer. Thanks, man. Rancid even invited “Boss Skinhead” Rico to the stage and sent out ‘Old Friend” to him. God, I love Kansas City.

The Linda Lindas. // photo by Kylee Gregg

Dear the Linda Lindas,

Please come back through and play a headlining show. I will tell all my friends and have them come and make them buy merch. You are amazing and bring me joy. You are an amazing opening band, but half an hour was not enough.

There was a girl about 9 or 10 the row behind us watching the Linda Lindas with pure joy on her face the entire time. She was screaming after every song and looking around during the show as if she couldn’t understand why everyone else wasn’t as thrilled as she was. I get you, kiddo. Their enthusiasm and energy made me smile the entirety of their set, and I only wish I could’ve given her–and the band–the biggest of high fives.

All photos by Kylee Gregg

Green Day