On 29/06/2024, Green Day came to Wembley Stadium in London after the launch of their new album, ‘Saviors’.

In the year of the 30th anniversary of Dookie and the 20th anniversary of American Idiot, Green Day released a new album called Saviors. Many fans depict it to be just as influential and impactful as their last two big albums (name above), with a mix of new and old sounds.

As soon as I heard Green Day was releasing this new album, I was so excited. It’s the first time I can remember Green Day releasing something with his much hype from the fans. Obviously, I was just as excited when I got tickets to see them on tour.

This brings us back to the first sentence. Green Day in Wembley Stadium. It was completely sold out. It was packed to the brim with people wearing American Idiot and Dookie shirts or sporting a new Saviors tour shirt, which they had purchased at one of the stands.

This was my first concert, and it was a big one. I had never expected the stadium to be so huge, and I knew it had sold out, but I hadn’t fathomed there would be 75,000 people! This just goes to show how much of an impact Green Day has on previous and current generations.

In case you don’t know anything about Green Day, here’s a bit of context:

In the February of 1994, Green Day released their third studio album, Dookie. Arguably one of the best punk albums of the 90s. Dookie gave a new, more upbeat sound to mainstream music and influenced quite a lot of the music that came after it.

In the September of 2004, Green Day announced their seventh studio album, American Idiot. It is Green Day’s second biggest selling album. American Idiot showed the more political and rebellious side of Green Day, it talked about topics at the time, some of which are still relevant today.

And now we have Saviors, released iin the January of 2024. It’s their 14th studio album. In this album, we hear an echo of Green Day’s past music style with songs like, Dilemma and The American Dream Is Killing Me. As well as some new styles with songs like, Bobby Sox and 1981.

Now you have more context on who Green Day are, I’ll get back to the concert…

Green Day burst on stage and kicked things off with Dookie. The crowd were screaming and singing along, everyone reciting the words off by heart. 

While Billie Joe Armstrong (the frontman) and Mike Dirnt (the bass guitarist) took a quick break, Tre Cool (the drummer) went centre stage and the took the spotlight in his two minutes of fabulous magic. He sung to an orchestral version of All By Myself and danced across the stage. One of the best moments of the concert.

The rest of the band came back on for Know Your Enemy, where they bought a fan on stage to sing with them. After she had done her solo of one of the parts, Billie Joe encouraged her to dive off the stage and crowd surf, she was hesitant at first (as you would be), but then went full force! It’s great to see how Green Day values its fans.

Next was American Idiot, a massive hand holding heart grenade (the American Idiot album cover symbol) blew up on the stage. Then they rocked into the first song on the album. Everyone was standing and shouting and jumping, showing the thrill the songs give and the memories they may bring back/make.

They played a few Saviors songs in between the others, but not the album as a whole. They played the most popular tracks off the album though and showed just how good they are live.

I hadn’t expected Green Day to sound better live, but they were! You could really feel the emotion in Billie Joe’s voice, especially in the last song, at all the support and love from the fans.

The only problem I had was at the start, when the screens at the side were in black and white, which made it feel quite disconnected from the atmosphere. The problem was fixed later though when they went back to colour.

The lighting and production were good! The colour of the lights reflected the album cover of the songs they were playing. They also had loads of flashing lights and strobe effects, which made the atmosphere seem even more energetic. Fireworks were lit at the end as well, it was amazing. 

Overall, all the passion and emotion and energy was just fantastic. It makes me really want to practice my drumming and improve my knowledge of music. And also binge listen to all their songs.

I couldn’t have imagined a better concert. 

We truly did have the time of our lives.

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.

All by Myself (orchestral version)

Know Your Enemy

Look Ma, No Brains!

One Eyed Bastard

Dilemma

Minority

Brain Stew

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 (with Buzzcocks' "Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)" intro)

Homecoming

Whatsername

Bobby Sox

99 Bottles of Beer ([traditional] cover) (snippet; first verse)

Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)