Green Day and Smashing Pumpkins Turn the Clock Back to 1994 (And 2004) at New York’s Citi Field
In the waning days of the Nineties’ alt-rock revolution, just before major record labels turned forever away from left-of-center acts and toward more mainstream fare (coughBushcough) that forever made the world a duller place, Green Day and Smashing Pumpkins were two of the hottest young rock bands on the planet. And even though Green Day appealed more to punky skater types, and the Pumpkins fit in better with their sullen classmates on the other side of the detention hall, it wasn’t uncommon for teenagers in 1994 to have both Dookie and Siamese Dream in their CD changers. Those two albums sold by the millions and generated hit after hit.
Green Day and the Pumpkins went down extremely different paths over the past three decades, to put it mildly, but they’ve come together this summer on a stadium tour along with Rancid and the Linda Lindas. It’s a killer quadruple bill that brought generations of fans to New York’s Citi Field on Monday night. To make it extra special, Green Day are playing Dookie and American Idiot straight through to celebrate their 20th and 30th anniversaries. Many younger fans arrived in fishnet stockings while their dads donned vintage Nimrod and Adore shirts, but everyone was there to celebrate the last incontestably great era of rock & roll.
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The show kicked off at 5:30 pm with the all-female punk group the Linda Lindas. They had the monumentally difficult task of playing in blinding daylight to a three-quarters empty stadium, but they won the crowd over with their tight hooks and buoyant presentation. They were followed by Rancid, who devoted over half their brief set to selections from their 1995 breakthrough LP …And Out Come the Wolves. This is a band with decades of relentless work in clubs and theaters under their belts and not much time in stadiums, but they adjusted to the large stage with ease. The set wrapped up with the Nineties hits “Time Bomb” and “Ruby Soho.”
As the sun started to fade and the temperature finally dropped, Smashing Pumpkins took the stage. Casual fans were a little baffled by opening numbers “The Everlasting Gaze” and “Doomsday Clock,” not to mention their unexpected take on U2’s “Zoo Station,” but iPhones finally went high into the air once they broke out “Today,” “Tonight, Tonight,” “Ava Adore” and “Disarm.” This tour marked the unveiling of new touring guitarist Kiki Wong, who they hired after offering public auditions to anyone interested in replacing guitarist Jeff Schroeder. After seeing her in action alongside James Iha, bassist Jack Bates, and drummer Jimmy Chamberlain, it was obvious why she got the job. She has the chops to play most anything, but we still don’t quite understand why the Pumpkins can’t rely on two guitarists like they did for the vast majority of their history.
“Beguiled” from 2023’s ATUM could have been a moment where fans swarmed the bathrooms and beer stands, but Corgan wisely chose this moment to bring his young children onstage along with two professional wrestlers from his league, the National Wrestling Alliance. They staged a mock fight while the kids bopped around near their father. It was an odd moment of lightness and joy that would have been unimaginable at a Pumpkins show back in the Nineties.
They wrapped up their set with thunderous renditions of “Cherub Rock” and “Zero.” They gave all three guitarists moments to shine, and it demonstrated that Corgan remains in excellent voice at age 57. If you closed your eyes, you could have thought you were back in 1996. There were many years since that time where Corgan would have scoffed at the idea of playing a greatest hits set at a stadium before Green Day, but the man has softened considerably with age and late-in-life parenthood. The new attitude is serving him well.
The Smashing Pumpkins may once again be an arena act, but a majority of the crowd at Citi Field clearly came to see Green Day. After the traditional warmup music of “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Blitzkrieg Bop,” they kicked off with “The American Dream is Killing Me” from their new LP Saviors. But there wasn’t much time to linger in the present when the agenda called for two classic albums to be played in full.
Dookie came first. To lay the nostalgia on thick, a giant recreation of the album cover filled the back of the stage. And while hits like “Longview,” “Basket Case,” and “When I Come Around” have played at most every Green Day concert over the past 30 years, this was a rare chance to hear rarer cuts like “Sassafras Roots,” “In The End,” “Pulling Teeth,” and “F.O.D.” Every single one of those deep cuts was greeted by roars of recognition. And Billie Joe Armstrong did everything possible to keep fans living in the moment, telling them over and over to put their phones down. “Don’t watch a screen,” he roared. “This isn’t the Olympics. This is a Green Day concert!”
At the halfway point of the night, they took a break from complete albums to rip through cuts from Saviors, “Know Your Enemy,” “Minority,” and “Brain Stew.” As the latter song came to end, the American Idiot logo materialized onstage. It was time to travel from 1994 to 2004. In these ten years, Green Day put aside lyrics like “when masturbation’s lost its fun, you’re fuckin’ lazy,” entered their thirties, and turned their focus to life in George W. Bush’s America. Against all odds, American Idiot was a bigger hit than Dookie, even though the record industry was in the midst of a complete meltdown at the time. The album lost none of its potency when they revisited it 20 years later in the age of Trump and misinformation.
The band updated the title track once again with the lyrics “I’m not part of the MAGA agenda,” which somehow offended one of the world’s richest men when the band did the same thing on New Year’s Rockin’ Eve late last year. (Unlike the opening night of the tour in DC, Armstrong didn’t stir up any trouble by holding up a Trump mask, which some folks in MAGA land felt was supposed to represent a disembodied head.) Much like Dookie, there’s no such thing as a truly deep cut on American Idiot. This is one of the last albums of the rock era that masses of people listened to from start to finish. “Give Me Novocaine” and “She’s a Rebel” were standouts, and a rare live rendition of “Homecoming” was a chance to hand over the mic to Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool.
They were 35 songs into the set by the time American Idiot wrapped, and beyond the two-hour mark. Throngs of exhausted fans were already walking out to beat the traffic or land spots on the 7 train, but they missed out on “Bobby Sox” and inevitable set closer “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life).” Many singers would be gasping at this point, but Armstrong seemed ready to play another full album. (We suggest either Warning or Insomniac next time around.)
Green Day and Smashing Pumpkins are going to spend the next six weeks getting their 1994 on at stadiums all across America. Before they wrap, Weezer will launch their Blue Album 30th anniversary tour, and Live and STP will hit the road with their own 1994-themed show honoring Throwing Copper and Purple. It’s tempting to make a joke about this being the summer of middle-aged dads, but a very large percentage of the Green Day audience at Citi Field came into this world long after Dookie came out. Many of them looked too young even for American Idiot. This music crosses generations now.
And with the news that Aerosmith has permanently retired from the road, adding them to a sad list of permanently disbanded groups like Van Halen, Rush, Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band, it’s clear the previous age of classic rock is quickly fading. Let’s all enjoy this new era led by Green Day, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Smashing Pumpkins, and Jane’s Addiction. Who knows if we’ll ever see another one?
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