Green Day brought their “Saviors Tour” ( tickets available here ) to Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, on Friday (September 20), as they performed their classic albums Dookie and American Idiot in front of a massive hometown crowd. It was their biggest Bay Area show to date, and the band most certainly did not disappoint.
Opening the show before the fog rolled in, teen punkers the Linda Lindas clearly were having a blast, even though they were playing while most fans hadn’t filed in yet. Although they were only given a 20-minute set, the band made the most of it, encouraging those who were there to register to vote at the HeadCount booths, because, “We can’t have a racist sexist boy in office!” before launching into their breakthrough song, “Racist, Sexist Boy.”
After a brief intermission, the Bay Area’s own Rancid hit the stage, and despite having a criminally short 30-minute set, the band pumped out 11 songs, highlighted by “Journey to the End of the East Bay,” “Fall Back Down,” and “Ruby Soho.” Singer-guitarist Lars Frederiksen took the opportunity to call out John Fisher, the Oakland A’s owner who is moving the baseball team to Las Vegas. “I wanna say f**k John Fisher,” exclaimed Frederiksen. “His whole family makes money off the backs of Bay Area people, and then he want’s to fuck off to Vegas. Fuck him, that rich kid motherf**ker!”
Up next were the Smashing Pumpkins, who, despite being the odd band musically on the bill, drew a huge reaction from the now packed stadium. “Bullet With Butterfly Wings,” “1979,” and “Cherub Rock” were all very well received, as was Kiki Wong, the band’s new guitar player. Wrapping up their set with “Zero,” (complete with a riff from Lenny Kravitz’ “Are You Gonna Go My Way”), the band left the stage with the crowd ready for the headliners.
After the obligatory “Bohemian Rhapsody” over the PA, and an appearance from Drunk Bunny wearing a San Francisco Giants jersey, Green Day hit the stage and immediately launched into “The American Dream is Killing Me,” off of their latest album, Saviors .
From there, the backdrop of the stage morphed into the album cover of Dookie , and the band then played the 1994 album in its entirety. Billie Joe Armstrong, ever the engaging frontman, had the sold-out crowd in the palm of his hand, getting every single person going for every song.
After the Dookie set wrapped up with “All By Myself,” Green Day played a handful of songs off other albums, including “Know Your Enemy” (during which they invited a fan onstage), new song “Dilemma” (with a brief snippet of Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin”), and the infectious “Minority.”
Then it was time for them to tear through American Idiot . Highlights from that set included “Jesus of Suburbia,” “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” and “Letterbomb,” during which Armstrong also took a few jabs at Oakland A’s owner Fisher.
By the time Green Day wrapped up both the evening and their set with “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” — performed solo by Armstrong on acoustic guitar (with the Lindas Lindas onstage blowing bubbles) — it was quite clear that local punk act made good as one of the biggest rock bands in the world.
Green Day have a couple shows left on their “Saviors Tour,” including Wednesday (September 25th) in Portland, Oregon, and Saturday (September 28th) in San Diego. See our photos of the San Francisco concert in the gallery below.
Setlist: The American Dream Is Killing Me
Dookie: Burnout Having a Blast Chump Longview Welcome to Paradise Pulling Teeth Basket Case She Sassafras Roots When I Come Around Coming Clean Emenius Sleepus In the End F.O.D.(preceded by snippet of John Mellencamp’s “Jack & Diane”) All by Myself (Orchestral version)
Know Your Enemy (with a fan named Ashley invited onstage) Look Ma, No Brains! One Eyed Bastard Dilemma (preceded by snippet of Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin'”) Minority Brain Stew (with snippets of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” and Metallica’s “Master of Puppets”)
American Idiot: American Idiot Jesus of Suburbia Holiday Boulevard of Broken Dreams Are We the Waiting St. Jimmy Give Me Novacaine She’s a Rebel Extraordinary Girl Letterbomb Wake Me Up When September Ends Homecoming Whatsername
Bobby Sox Suzie Chapstick (Billie Joe solo acoustic) Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) (Billie Joe solo acoustic)
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