Live Gig- June 21, Green Day in Manchester
The American rock band Green Day performed at the Old Trafford Cricket Stadium in Manchester on Friday night, a stop on their Saviors tour which is to celebrate 30 years of their album ‘Dookie’ and 20 years of their album ‘American Idiot’. People at Rolling Stone called it ‘Punk’s very own Eras tour’ and I think that resonates greatly.
The venue was very tightly fit for it’s size, the general standing area being possibly overbooked which left some people with restricted views of the stage and the overall performance, however the sound and set up of the performance was top-tier. The stage had been decorated with the different album motifs and the screens that enlarged the show on each side of the stage included little odes to older and newer Green Day albums. These little effects really made the show even better to experience.
After the exciting support acts Maid Of Ace and Nothing But Thieves, Green Day took to the stage and first played the entirety of Dookie, then after they played some songs from other albums in-between the two albums they were celebrating such as ‘Warning’ and ‘Know Your Enemy’– these songs were lovely surprises for the crowd. When ‘Know Your Enemy’ was played a fan was invited up onto stage to sing its final parts with Billie Joe himself, in which they did, and the crowd inclusion made every fan in the stadium go crazy. Over this time in the performance it had been lightly raining whilst the sun kept up, creating a double rainbow that stood over the stadium- which Billie Joe pointed out enthusiastically. Later on, the rain had stopped and they then played the entirety of American Idiot which made the entire crowd dance. Throwing in other songs as well such as ‘Brain Stew’, the band finished the night with the classic, ‘Good Riddance’.
Billie Joe expressed his emotion of playing this location to the crowd during the show, spreading love to the crowd for their appearances and allowing him to be able to be doing this 20 years later: ‘We’ve been coming here since 1991… In all honesty, I couldn’t sleep last night because I knew I was going to play Manchester.’ The band played for over two hours consecutively, keeping up the energy spectacularly even after all the years of them performing- it was as if they haven’t aged. ‘This is about joy, it’s a celebration!’ yelled Billie Joe.
This was definitely a night to remember in Manchester, for both the band and the crowd. The American punk-rock legends strike again. Highlight of the year? Absolutely.
