Writing and Photography by Ella R. Dunn
Green Day Saviors Tour, Providence Park, September 25th, all ages
The Pink/Punk Bunny
Green Day recently performed their final U.S. show date for their Saviors Tour, and the second-to-last performance was right here in Portland on September 25th in Providence Park. September 25th, though you may not remember it, was our first day of heavy-ish rain in Portland this autumn, and Providence Park is an open-air stadium! Luckily, we were only waterboarded until just before Green Day took the stage.
The lineup for the tour, and this show specifically, was incredible.
The openers were an all-female band called The Linda Lindas. I was unfortunately not able to make their set (screw you, 1:50-2:50 class time!), but the tail end that I was able to hear sounded great.
Rancid came next, and they played for roughly a half hour, of course bringing out their most popular hits: “Fall Back Down,” “Time Bomb,” and finishing with “Ruby Soho.” Other than the screens on either side of the stage displaying close-up angles of the band members, Rancid didn’t use special effects for their performance. It was a pretty early concert, starting at only 4 p.m., so the stadium was hardly full when they were playing. Nonetheless, they put on a fantastic show, and I pity anybody who didn’t show up early enough to see it!
The Smashing Pumpkins were on next, and they knocked it out of the (Providence) park. The whole band coordinated outfits in almost a vampiric look, with their new guitarist Kiki Wong wearing shredded black pants, OG guitarist James Iha in an embroidered, black western-style shacket and platform loafers, and of course, leading man Billy Corgan looking like Nosferatu himself in a long dark coat and Doc Martens (pictured below). They had it all wrong: he is the vampire. The Pumpkins played some of their newer material followed by classics like “1979,” “Disarm,” and “Zero.”
The levels for The Pumpkins seemed a little bit off — it was often difficult to hear the vocals over the instrumentals. That said, watching them perform “1979” was such a treat. The guitar melody came across (volume-wise) perfectly, if only for this one song, and Corgan’s unique voice never gets old. Hearing him shriek after the chill interlude in “Zero” was absolutely unbeatable. “Disarm” gave me chills, but it usually does. The Pumpkins had great lighting effects, changing the vibe to match each song — and even different parts within a song — as well as using smoke machines to make the stage that much more atmospheric.
Two interesting things The Pumpkins
added to their set were bringing in Deftones’ Chino Moreno for “Jellybelly,” and having a live, dramatic WWE-style fight onstage during “Cherub Rock,” performed by two scantily-clad wrestlers from the National Wrestling Alliance.
I am lucky enough to be able to say that I have seen Green Day play 3 times now, so I know the drill regarding some of the more consistent things they do during their shows. For example, they open their act with nobody on the stage, but with Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” blasting through the speakers to which everybody in the stadium sings along. They also consistently have a person in the pink rabbit suit who comes out and runs around the stage before a montage is aired on the stage’s screens. The montage for this tour, in honor of Dookie’s 30th anniversary and American Idiot’s 20th, played clips from their old music videos from those eras to Star Wars’ “Imperial March,” intermixing strobed images of their various characters, including their new “One-Eyed Bastard” and their more seasoned pink Punk Bunny.
The draw of The Saviors Tour was the year it landed on: a double anniversary of their most-loved albums. Because of this, they played an extremely long set, Armstrong singing through all of Dookie and all of American Idiot, placing the band’s new material at the beginnings and ends of each album.
Going back to the sound of it all, Green Day, with consistency, has the best in-concert levels of any band I’ve seen. The vocals are incredibly crisp, the instrumentals potent but never overpowering. Somehow, their in-person listenability is even better than some of their recorded tracks.
The tour followed the release of this year’s album, Saviors, featuring “Dilemma,” “The American Dream Is Killing Me,” and “Bobby Sox.” The album is poppy, and follows the general trajectory their music has been headed in — I can’t be upset, acknowledging that many bands who used to identify as punk have moved more towards the pop-punk genre.
Now for a semi-detailed album breakdown. “The American Dream is Killing Me,” while a more pop-centered sound, could have easily fit in, thematically, with their American Idiot album — though the title makes that obvious. “Bobby Sox” is a very cute song, seemingly from the perspective of an edgy yet innocent (bisexual) teenager, repeating the screamed lyric “Do you want to be my boyfriend/girlfriend/best friend?” and using more immature language and simple lyrics.
“Dilemma” is the song from the album I have heard the most often on “alternative” radio stations — although those same stations go on to play “Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone several times each hour, which is not only an annoying song by this point but hardly alternative. “Dilemma” has a super catchy tune, and despite its constant replays over the radio, I still really enjoy it. Nonetheless, it is certainly one of the more pop-ish songs of the album (which is what makes it so replayable and catchy, of course).
Overall, Saviors was a pretty great album, and I’d suggest giving it a listen, though you can never go wrong with classics like Dookie and American Idiot if you want content from Green Day’s peak. The Saviors Tour, though, was truly a once-in-a-lifetime show, and if you get any chance to travel out of the country to catch it before it’s gone, I would take it. If not, keep an eye out for their next release and tour!
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