“This is California, let’s go crazy!” lead singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong shouted to the energetic crowd on Saturday night at SoFi Stadium before launching into a powerful performance of “American Idiot” during their ground-shaking concert in Los Angeles.

On Sept. 14, I got a chance to see Green Day for the second time after seeing them perform live at Dodger Stadium, part of their Hella Mega Tour, almost exactly a year ago on Sept. 3, 2021. This time, Green Day tours with rock bands Rancid, with the all-female group The Linda Lindas—a band composed of band members under the age of 20—and The Smashing Pumpkins in the Saviors Tour. 

The Saviors Tour promotes not only the self-titled album “Saviors” but also the 30th anniversary of “Dookie,” the album that gained Green Day their early stardom, and the 20th anniversary of their arguably biggest album “American Idiot”. As such, Green Day performed both “Dookie” and “American Idiot” in their entirety.

Starting off with “The American Dream is Killing Me,” the lead single off of the album “Saviors,” they continued to play all of “Dookie,” followed by a short intermission of some miscellaneous songs like “Minority” and “Brain Stew” before ending with “American Idiot.”

As a personal fan of Green Day’s 2009 album “21st Century Breakdown,” I was disappointed, but not surprised, that they only played one song off of it. But, you can’t be disappointed in light of the fantastic performance they put on towards clamoring fans of all ages. People were excited to be there, singing along to the majority of songs played. Songs like “American Idiot” and “Basket Case” were major hits with fans, both having reached over one billion plays on Spotify just this past Thursday. “Jesus of Suburbia” stood out to me in particular, capturing the feeling of pure passion and energy we’ve grown to expect from Green Day.

Green Day also took a political standpoint at this concert, replacing the lyrics “redneck agenda” in the song “American Idiot” with “MAGA agenda” and showing posters telling viewers to vote. The Linda Lindas also stated during their song “Racist, Sexist Boy” to vote so we “don’t have a racist, sexist boy in office.” 

Many people know Green Day by their skyrocketing hits, but there’s so much more to discover in their numerous albums rather than “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” Seeing them live again was an absolute pleasure, and I highly recommend watching them play if you ever get the chance.