Story by GARY MOSKOWITZ, Published APR 8, 2024 for GRAMMY.com.
PHOTO: GREG SCHNEIDER
Bay Area pop-punk band Green Day returned to their roots on April 2 for a high-energy sold-out show at San Francisco’s Fillmore Auditorium. The two-hour set rocked through their latest album, 2024’s Saviors, and 2004’s American Idiot in full — but the four-time GRAMMY winners were performing for more than just a homecoming.
The band (which is known for performing “secret” shows outside of their typical stadium-sized environs) performed as part of the “Right Here, Right Now Mini Global Climate Concert,” an event co-hosted by the United Nations Human Rights Council and the Recording Academy. Now in its second iteration, the concert aims to raise awareness of the human rights crisis resulting from climate change. Green Day were selected as an international honoree for their commitment to social and environmental justice.
“As world renowned artists and activists, Green Day continues to leverage its major influence and platform to bring awareness to the impact of climate change on the people and the environment,” United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in a release. “The United Nations was founded in San Francisco almost 80 years ago….It is only fitting that we are back in San Francisco promoting human rights-based approaches and solutions to the climate crisis as co-hosts along with the Recording Academy.”
Proceeds from the concert will go to United Nations Human Rights climate justice initiatives and a dedicated Right Here, Right Now climate fund at MusiCares to help musicians affected by climate change.
The slogan “Right Here, Right Now” was projected onto the stage before each set. Following openers Ultra Q (fronted by Jakob Armstrong, Billie Joe’s son), the now five-piece Green Day powered through song after song at breakneck speed, with zero small-talk between songs — except just once.
“This one goes out to all you weird motherf—ing QAnon motherf—ers out there,” Billie Joe Armstrong said to the crowd. Then Green Day then launched into “Living in the ’20s,” the twelfth track on Saviors, a song that calls out shootings, robots, the media and more.
It’s doubtful there were too many right-wing-leaning, QAnon-supporting people in the audience: the Fillmore show felt more like a gathering of super fans who have probably followed Green Day for the majority of their decades-long career. In total, Green Day has been nominated for 17 GRAMMYs and won four times.
The biggest hit of the night was arguably “American Idiot,” the title track of the album that won Best Rock Album at the 2005 GRAMMYs. As the band performed “American Idiot,” dozens of people in the crowd held their phones up to record video of the performance, and many people could be seen singing along with Armstrong. Fans waved their arms and cheered during the song “Jesus of Suburbia.”
Green Day got their start in the late ’80s/early ’90s Bay Area punk scene and helped spearhead that era’s punk surge into the mainstream. But the band’s early days were spent playing garages and tiny shows far outside San Francisco, in small Bay Area towns like Pinole and Rodeo. The name “Green Day” is essentially a cannabis reference: “It was absolutely about pot,” Armstrong told Bill Maher. “We were trying to be the Cheech and Chong of punk rock.”
To say they’ve transcended that simple goal is an understatement. The band has sold tens of millions of records and was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 2015. In 2010, a stage adaptation of “American Idiot” debuted on Broadway, and the musical was later nominated for three Tony Awards.
The April 2 show was evidence that the band didn’t achieve success by accident: they are precise, tight, and as energetic now as they’ve always been. No frills, no filler. Just straight-up Green Day.
