REVIEW: Green Day celebrates its roots, blasts Oakland A’s owner at Oracle Park
SAN FRANCISCO — Green Day’s Bay Area homecoming at Oracle Park on Friday was billed as a celebratory affair, marking the 20th anniversary of American Idiot and the 30th of Dookie, and the band played both in full. But the show was more about celebrating the band’s East Bay roots.
“Tonight we are home. This is my fucking home,” frontman Billie Joe Armstrong said midway through the American Idiot set. “We are the refineries; we are the mud that lives under there. We are East Bay for life.”
The stirring and poignant words also coincided with another development across the Bay, with the Oakland A’s beginning their final homestand at the Coliseum before leaving town for Las Vegas by way of West Sacramento. The moment was not lost on Armstrong.
“We don’t take shit from people like [A’s owner] John-fucking-Fisher,” Armstrong said. “I hate Las Vegas. It’s the worst shithole in America.”
Armstrong broadened his message to one beyond politics, sports controversies or cultural strife.
“No more propaganda, no more doom scrolling and no more pundits,” he said. “It’s about unity with your friends, your family and the strangers you’re meeting here tonight.”
As much as the show was about two landmark albums, it was about the collective experience of growing up and living in the Bay. Armstrong frequently shouted out counties and cities, with a deep emphasis on the his home.
“Who here is from Crockett? Who here is from Pinole? El Sobrante? Richmond? San Pablo? El Cerrito? Berkeley?” he asked the crowd, dedicating “Welcome to Paradise” to Oakland.
Armstrong did make one promise: “I promise I won’t say Frisco.”
The show was a sensory attack, with everything from pyro shooting high into the sky to projection screens and massive inflatable replicas of the album covers Green Day played. The two-and-a-half-hour, 38-song set was filled with many memorable moments along with the music.
During “Know Your Enemy,” Armstrong brought a fan named Ashley on stage to sing the final bridge, and a mini punk rock legend was born. Not only did the orange-haired fan nail the lyrics, she rocked out with the band on all the risers and made sure to leave the stage with a memento.
“Ashley took my damn setlist!” Armstrong said.
Both albums resonated for very different reasons: Dookie is a punk classic about being young, bored and disillusioned, while American Idiot is a politically charged opus and expression of frustration at a system gone wrong. While Dookie is packed with some of the band’s most memorable material, Idiot resonates when performed in its entirety. The ambition and scale of the album really shined through on Friday.
Armstrong did mix in a few messages along the way.
“This song is anti-war! Cease fire!” he screamed before launching into “Holiday.”
During the bridge of the song, he made reference to the coming election.
“Are you ready to vote?” he asked. “Are you ready to kick some fascist ass?”
The band mixed in a handful of tracks from other albums, including “Minority” and “Brain Stew,” as well as half dozen songs from the band’s most recent album, Saviors. Drummer Tre Cool and bassist Mike Dirnt reliably held down the rhythm section with all the energy and gusto they’ve been providing Green Day for decades.
“From Mendocino County, please welcome Tre Cool!” Armstrong said.
As the set went on, the fog rolled in, and a light dew fell from the sky, adding to what felt like a storybook setting.
“What a perfect San Francisco night,” Armstrong said. “Put the phones away, just for a little bit; be here with us. Everyone’s gonna believe you were at the Green Day concert.”
Armstrong stood solo on the stage as he strummed the finale chord of Idiot closer “whatsername” and acknowledged the moment.
“And just like that, 20 years,” he said.
Armstrong returned to the stage with the full band for new track “Bobby Sox,” before stripping things down to just an acoustic guitar for “Suzie Chapstick” and “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life).”
The night was also buoyed by a pair of legendary punk and alt-rock acts in The Smashing Pumpkins and Rancid, as well as up-and-comers The Linda Lindas.
Billy Corgan took the stage stoically and focused with The Smashing Pumpkins, wearing a dramatic long black and white coat, delivering a 14-song set that felt like it had a little extra edge to it. Opening with “The Everlasting Gaze” and “Doomsday Clock,” the band played a heavy set with much of the material coming from grand opus Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.
A particularly strong addition to the band was guitarist Kiki Wong, who delivered some blistering, shredding solos that added to the aggressive feel. Guitarist James Iha was captivating as always.
“Beautiful Bay Area weather,” Iha quipped. And then: “Those of you that booed must not be from here because we love this.”
The band got big reactions from songs like “Today” and “Bullet With Butterfly Wings.”
Corgan left much of the banter to Iha, but he did get the crowd energized as Smashing Pumpkins performed.
The band closed out with “Cherub Rock” and “Zero,” the latter even including a little taste of Lenny Kravitz’s “Are You Gonna Go My Way,” on guitar.
Lars Frederiksen of Rancid also took aim at the A’s owner after noticing a “Sell” shirt in the crowd.
“His whole family wants to make money off the backs of Bay Area people,” Frederiksen said. “At least we got the Giants; we froze our asses off at Candlestick.”
The East Bay punk trailblazers played an 11-song set with selections from across the band’s catalog. Given the number of Kelly Green A’s jerseys in the crowd, it was certainly evident that many took the trip across the Bay Bridge to take in a pair of the influential bands from the region. Rancid played tracks like “Tomorrow Never Comes,” “Radio” and “Something in the World Today.”
Rancid’s set was also a nod to its punk rock legacy and how far the band has grown over the decades. Frederiksen dedicated “Time Bomb” to the crew that makes the show happen, and singalong “Ruby Soho” to the fans.
The Linda Lindas kicked off the show at golden hour with punchy riffs, high energy and a lot of cats. Vocalist-guitarist Bela Salazar introduced “Nino” as a song about one of her cats, noting the band’s obsession. On “Oh!”crew members dressed in mascot-sized cat heads danced alongside the Los Angeles quartet.
Salazar, Lucia de la Garza, bassist-vocalist Eloise Wong and drummer Mila de la Garza were snappy and sharp with their parts. They hit each note with a growl, and often riffed on each other. Wong and Lucia often strutted the catwalk, hyping up the early crowd.
The Linda Lindas ended with the fierce “Racist, Sexist Boy,” their breakout song.
Follow writer Mike DeWald at Twitter.com/mike_dewald. Follow editor Chloe Catajan at Instagram.com/riannachloe.