Green Day live in Manchester: celebrating two timeless albums

Fourteen years on from hosting their first UK stadium show, Manchester’s Old Trafford Cricket Ground is once again gearing up for Green Day. Their last tour on this side of the Atlantic was 2022’s “Hella Mega Tour” with Fall Out Boy and Weezer, and somehow they’ve found a ramp to go one step further: celebrating 30 years of “Dookie” and 20 “American Idiot” by playing both albums in their entirety. Fair play, Billie Joe Armstrong – there’s not a soul in this stadium who wouldn’t take tonight’s trip down memory lane.

However, nostalgia does not define this Green Day concert. It’s also a first outing for January’s album ‘Saviors’ – considered by NME their best since ‘American Idiot’ – and lead single ‘The American Dream Is Killing Me’ kicks off the 37-song set, following the usual intros from ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’, ‘We Will Rock You” – etc. Traditions might be kept, but there’s enough fresh material and stage production to remind the masses that this is a newly created live show by Green Day.

On the right side of the fine line between banal and masterful, a giant curtain of fire explodes across the stage, recreating the iconic “Dookie” painting as the trio power through their album. Buoyed by a sense of urgency, ‘Burnout’ and ‘When I Come Around’ sound particularly elegant, while ‘Basket Case’ sends Old Trafford into pandemonium for the first time.

As the sun battles the Manchester drizzle, the appearance of a double rainbow only adds to the grandeur of the occasion. By the time we get to “American Idiot,” Armstrong is in hot form, and the volume seems to have gone up a notch. There’s no room for “21 Guns” on this setlist, but the emotional potency of “Boulevard Of Broken Dreams” feels amplified.

The screen lights up in purple and pink as the band rattles through “The Saviors” playing the material like it’s already a classic. “One Eyed Bastard” — effectively P!nk’s “So What” with added distortion — is especially loud. Staying fresh after three decades is no easy feat, but Green Day make it look effortless.

With Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam, The Smashing Pumpkins and Weezer playing UK shows throughout the month, it’s an understatement to say rock fans are spoiled for choice. The pick of the bunch, though, might just be Green Day’s “Saviors” tour: combining class, youth and scrappy punk anthems into one stadium-rock event.

Green Day played:

“The American Dream Is Killing Me”
‘burnt’
‘Having fun’
“Chump”
‘Perspective’
‘Welcome to Paradise’
“Pulling Teeth”
“basket by basket”
‘She’
“Sassafras Roots”
‘When I come to visit’
“It comes clean”
“Emenius Sleepus”
‘In the end’
“FOD”
“All by myself”
‘Know your enemy’
– Look mother, brainless!
“One Eyed Bastard”
‘Dilemma’
‘Minority’
‘Brain Stew’
‘American Idiot’
“Jesus of Suburbia”
‘Holidays’
‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams’
“We are the ones who wait”
‘St. Jimmy
“give me novocaine”
“She’s a Rebel”
“Extraordinary Girl”
“Letterbomb”
‘Wake me up when september ends’
“Homecoming”
“What’s Your Name”
“Bobby Sox”
“Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)”