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Green Day, Smashing Pumpkins to Play Nashville on Saviors Tour: Highlights

Posted on by Vaseline
Green Day, Smashing Pumpkins to Play Nashville on Saviors Tour: Highlights

On Friday night, punk rock ‘n’ roll greats Green Day celebrated two major musical anniversaries at Nashville’s Geodis Park.

The band, consisting of vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tré Cool, embarked on the “Saviors Tour” in May to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their 1994 album “Dookie” and the 20th anniversary of their 2004 record “American Idiot.”

The two albums yielded hits such as “Basket Case”, “When I Come Around”, “Holiday/Boulevard of Broken Dreams”, “Wake Me Up When September Ends” and many more.

The “Saviors Tour” also follows the January release of Green Day’s 14th studio album, the 15-track “Saviors,” which debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200.

The “Saviors Tour” stopped at Geodis Park, a 30,000-seat stadium that is normally home to Nashville’s Major League Soccer club but was converted into a concert venue on Friday night.

To celebrate the anniversaries of both albums, the release of “Saviors” and Green Day’s first concert in Nashville in 15 years, Music City welcomed the band with open arms for an electric evening.

Green Day returned the love. The band, which formed in Rodeo, California in ’87, showed the Nashville crowd that even 37 years later, they’re still in their prime.

Here are some of the best moments from the show.

Openers Smashing Pumpkins play a thrashing, alt-rock set

The Smashing Pumpkins were the final openers of the evening for Green Day, after The Linda Lindas and Rancid.

Frontman Billy Corgan, dressed in a long, black velvet dress-like robe, took the stage with bandmates James Iha, Katie Cole, Jimmy Chamberlain, Jack Bates and the band’s newest member, guitarist Kiki Wong.

Wong joined the band earlier this year after an extensive nationwide search for a new touring guitarist, which received over 10,000 applications.

The band played classics like “Disarm,” “Bullet with Butterfly Wings,” “1979,” “Cherub Rock” and “Zero.” Throughout the hour-long set, Corgan filled the amphitheater with his beloved nasal, whiny, punk-rock voice.

“We want to thank Green Day, those guys are amazing,” Iha said before closing the set.

Green Day kicks off with flames and song from new album ‘Saviors’

After playing Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” as the stadium lights dimmed and the crowd was visited by the “Pink Bunny” (a man in a rabbit suit known for warming up the crowd at Green Day shows), a video of the band through the years was played.

And when the tension in the crowd had grown to such a level, the band stepped onto the stage and launched into a song from their latest album, “The American Dream Is Killing Me.” Flashing pink lights illuminated the stage as fireballs shot into the sky.

Armstrong wore an all-black outfit (except for red socks), complete with a glittering black collar on his shirt.

Dirnt opted for a bright orange jumpsuit and Cool looked très chic with his bright blue hair and funky green collar.

From the start of the show, Armstrong’s voice sounded clear and clean, with that classic, throaty punk rock tone, Cool’s drum licks were theatrical and precise, and Dirnt’s bass lines reverberated throughout the stadium.

As images appeared on the screen behind the band, Armstrong announced that they would be celebrating the 30th anniversary of “Dookie.”

Green Day Plays ‘Dookie’ Album in Entirety, Brings Fan to Stage

When Armstrong announced this, a copy of the album cover for “Dookie,” featuring an explosion and a mushroom cloud, suddenly appeared on stage.

A giant cartoon drawing of the explosion and balloons simulating the cloud provided the backdrop for the band as they cycled through the album.

The theatrical aspects of “Dookie” were clearly evident.

During “Welcome to Paradise,” fireworks rose in the sky behind the stage. As the band played “Coming Clean,” a giant inflatable airplane floated over the audience. In an orchestral rendition of “All By Myself,” Cool took the microphone and sang the song in a cheetah-print robe.

The most notable number from the “Dookie” portion of the concert was of course the cult classic “Basket Case.”

The audience shouted, “Do you have time to listen to me / About nothing and everything at once?”

After Armstrong listened to the album, he moved into “Know Your Enemy,” calling on the audience to find a fan who knew all the words.

Armstrong called a young fan to the stage and split the mic as they screamed the chorus and jumped along to the guitar licks. The two shared a tender moment, taking a photo together on stage.

Green Day will play the entire album ‘American Idiot’ at

The band played a number of songs that didn’t fit on any of the anniversary albums, such as “Dilemma,” “Minority,” and “Brain Stew.” They then went on to celebrate the 20th anniversary of “American Idiot” by playing the album in its entirety.

A giant inflatable hand holding a heart-shaped, bleeding grenade was shot onto the stage, bringing the album cover for “American Idiot” to life.

The band opened with the song “American Idiot,” in which Armstrong interestingly changed the lyric “I’m not a part of a redneck agenda” to “I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda.”

Other changes to the lyrics included references to Nashville and Tennessee, such as “the Tennessee representative has the floor” in the song “Holiday”.

Highlights of this portion of the show included an exuberant performance of “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” which had the audience flashing their phone lights, and a thoughtful performance of “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” which sent a shower of sparks raining down on the stage.

After closing the album with “Homecoming” and “Whatsername,” Armstrong exclaimed, “We don’t do encores. We just play until we fucking drop.”

The band’s encore, which did not serve as an encore, was “Bobby Sox”, a song from their new album, and they closed with “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)”.

Armstrong began the song alone on stage, playing his acoustic guitar. The rest of his bandmates came up to him, threw their arms around him and showed their affection for each other.

Armstrong and the band bid farewell to the audience, singing, “It’s an unpredictable thing / But it’s all right in the end / I hope you had the time of your life.”

Green Day’s Nashville Geodis Park set list

  • The American dream is killing me
  • Burn-out
  • Have a great time
  • sucker
  • Long view
  • Welcome to paradise
  • Pulling teeth
  • Basket case
  • She
  • Sassafras roots
  • When I come by
  • Clean up the house
  • Emenius Slaapus
  • Ultimately
  • DEAD
  • All By Myself (orchestral version)
  • Know Your Enemy (with fan on stage)
  • Look mom, no brains!
  • One-eyed bastard
  • Free Fallin’ (Tom Petty cover, fragment)
  • Dilemma
  • Minority
  • Brain stew
  • American idiot
  • Jesus of the Suburbs
  • Lovers
  • Holiday
  • Boulevard of broken dreams
  • Are we the ones waiting?
  • Saint Jimmy
  • Give me novocaine
  • She is a rebel
  • Extraordinary girl
  • letter bomb
  • Wake me up when September is over
  • Homecoming
  • What’s his name again?

The Non-Encore: Bobby Sox, Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)

Audrey Gibbs is a music reporter for The Tennessean. You can reach her at [email protected].

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