Green Day Brought Thunderous Show to Saint Louis Thursday

Sean Derrick August 17, 2024 0 Comments Green Day, punk rock, Rancid, Saint Louis concert review and photos, The Linda Lindas

Green Day performing at Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre in Saint Louis Thursday. Photo by Laura Tucker/ Laura Tucker Photography.

–by Randy Thompson

–photos by Laura Tucker

The sun was bright and it was a hot one on Thursday in Saint Louis when The Linda Lindas took the stage to open up Green Day’s The Saviors Tour at the Hollywood Casino Amphitheater, but it didn’t end that way.

The Linda Lindas performing at Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre in Saint Louis Thursday. Photo by Laura Tucker/ Laura Tucker Photography.

The Linda Lindas are a young, raw Punk group who are extremely skilled at what they do and love the music that they play. The band hit us with some straightforward hardcore punk music with solid, melodic threads running through. The youngest band member, drummer Mila de la Garza, celebrated her 14th birthday on stage while we all got to be a part of singing happy birthday to her. Green Day came out during their set and shot off a confetti gun over her drum kit.

This band has been building up a solid punk rock act that absolutely entertained the audience and they will have a new album out in October called No Obligation. The Linda Lindas were particularly strident in their presentation of “Excuse Me” and “Racist, Sexist Boy” with lots of straining and slashing guitar work supported by solid drumming and screaming vocals. During the last song, bassist Eloise Wong, left the stage and strode through the crowd, into the mid-section of the pavilion to much screaming and applause.

This was a great band to start the evening off, and they set the tone for a night of hardcore punk rock. We certainly expect to hear more from these four talented young musicians in the future.

Rancid performing at Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre in Saint Louis Thursday. Photo by Laura Tucker/ Laura Tucker Photography.

Next up was legendary punk rock group, Rancid, who helped set the stage in the 1990s for punk rock to really take a solid hold in popular music, along with bands like Green Day and Bad Religion. Their music has aged well, and they delivered it with full power and scorching guitar work from Lars Frederiksen and Matt Freeman on “Roots Radicals” and “Ghost of a Chance”.

Rancid is THE quintessential hardcore punk rock band that you think of when you talk about this genre. Their music was consistently pounding, thundering, with rebellious and stirring lyrics that challenge the status quo. After they played “Time Bomb” lead singer Tim Armstrong stated that they’d been together for 33 years and played St. Louis 4 times in 1995; he ended with a message of unity and working together for a better future.

They went out hard playing “Ruby Soho”. Rancid certainly put the audience in the mood for more punk music, and they were the perfect lead-in to Green Day taking the stage. After all, these bands started their journey together, and it was fitting and very cool to see them here tonight.

When the stage went dark before Green Day came to the stage, the crowd was ready and on their feet, singing to a recording of Queen’s famous ballad, “Bohemian Rhapsody”, which was followed by the Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop” and the Star Wars Imperial March. We felt that they were making it clear that this evening was going to be about the celebration of the music that has helped to shape our lives. Certainly, that music has been very influential to the members of Green Day.

All at once, the band leapt onto the stage with huge flames shooting into the air, lights pulsating, and amazingly loud explosions. They launched into “The American Dream is Killing Me” and didn’t stop playing for the next 2 and a half hours and the fans didn’t sit down again.

Green Day is an amazing live band who were here to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their first big label album Dookie (which took the music world by storm when it debuted in 1994 and the band members were barely 22 years old). They were also celebrating the 20th anniversary of their incredible rock opera American Idiot which is still playing on Broadway stages. The band was in amazing form, charging up the crowd with their energy and electricity while almost literally setting the stage on fire.

Lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong possesses a voice that showcases his amazing range, and never faltered throughout the show. His youthful appearance belies his age, as he fired off equally rebellious and heartfelt lyrics, while leaping around the stage and playing the most amazing punk rock guitar you will ever hear. The songs from these albums are anthemic, melodic, and above all, emotionally stirring.

Along with Armstrong, guitarist Jason White and bassist Mike Dirnt slammed through their punk rock power cords of “Welcome to Paradise” and “Minority” while alternately slipping into the exquisite notes of their most well-known radio hits ”Boulevard of Broken Dreams” and “Wake Me Up When September Ends”.

Throughout the night, drummer Tre Cool was a whirlwind of masterful precision drumming and energy that carried the band to exhilarating heights. To say that this band came out to blow the audience away is an understatement. We were ready for them though, knowing that they were going to play both of those iconic albums in their entirety for us tonight.

Along the way Green Day gave us snippets of songs that have influenced them on their musical journey, including brief Tom Petty, and Cheap Trick intros to their own songs. Not only did we get beautifully rendered versions of their songs, played by the band in a tight-knit fashion, but we were treated to pyrotechnics of the highest level. They had light stands that were constantly blinking and changing to the sound of the music. The screens flashed images of the band members in an artful way, causing almost a hypnotic effect.

Despite the fact that many of their lyrics and political viewpoints are quite serious, Armstrong and the boys kept it light, making silly, emotive faces, and even bringing a young audience member up onto the stage to perform “Know Your Enemy” and a stage dive. When she demurred, Armstrong hugged her and gave her an important reminder that she always has the right to say no. The audience gave her a roaring applause as he chanted her name. There was even a huge blow-up symbol of their iconic hand/heart/grenade on the stage, along with confetti, streamers, and the switching of many guitars.

With a storm accompanied with loud thunder and bright lighting moving in, the band moved steadily through the 36 songs that make up the two iconic albums, never letting up, not slowing down, yet keeping the sold-out crowd on their feet, singing along and joyously entertained for almost 3 hours. This is a band that is celebrating music, celebrating unity, and staying together as a group to fight for what’s right. We left as the rain started to fall and the lightning flashed as bright as the after image of the music.

Be sure to check out the gallery of images from the night after the setlists below.

The Linda Lindas Setlist:

Too Many Things

Growing Up

Excuse Me

Happy Birthday to Mila

All in My Head

Oh!

Racist, Sexist Boy

Rancid Setlist:

Maxwell Murder

Roots Radicals