Green Day Creates a Spectacle in Detroit: The Saviors Tour at Comerica Park

“When you play in front of that many people, you don’t try to create intimacy – You try to create an event. You try to create a spectacle,” said Green Day’s frontman Billie Joe Armstrong in the band’s 2005 documentary, Bullet in a Bilble, when asked about what feels different about playing in front of enormous crowds such as the 65,000 people attending their filmed Milton Keynes Bowl performance in June of 2005. At the time, they were on tour promoting their most recent record, American Idiot, which undoubtedly marked Green Day’s entry into a new era of fame, respect, and notoriety. 

Fast forward 20 years and we find ourselves here: At Comerica Park in Detroit, Michigan awaiting the spectacular show to come wherein Green Day would play not only American Idiot in full, but also Dookie, their 1994 LP that put the Bay Area trio on the mainstream map in the first place. Of course, they wouldn’t embark on such a tour without the help of some of the greats who have been their contemporaries for the last several decades. Opening up for Green Day were the legendary Smashing Pumpkins and Rancid, along with recently emerging punk band The Linda Lindas – An all girl four piece with members ranging between 14 and 19 years old. The Linda Lindas went viral in 2021 thanks to a video of them performing their song “Racist, Sexist Boy” at the LA Public Library. 

After the three openers got the night started, the stadium of 35,000 Green Day fans waited eagerly for the band to take the stage. After playing Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” over the speakers for the crowd to all sing together and the band’s Punk Bunny mascot running around onstage to engage the crowd while the Ramones’ “Blitzgrieg Bop” played, Green Day emerged onto the stage. First, they played the single from their 2024 album Saviors, “The American Dream is Killing Me” – A treat for plenty, but the concluding chords of their new song made way for the anniversary performance everybody was waiting for as Green Day dove into Dookie with the first track, “Burnout.”

After over 3 decades of being a band, Green Day has seemingly perfected the art of creating a spectacle. Not only was there an entire pyrotechnic show and a dozen confetti blasters all synced to cues in their performance, but their team effectively brought the album cover of Dookie to life with a huge blow up replica of the iconic explosion, and later flying a blimp of the bomb dropping planes depicted as well. When it was American Idiot’s time to shine, the Dookie elements were substituted by a giant balloon of the album’s artwork – A bleeding heart shaped hand grenade clenched in a fist. 

A deeply memorable part of the show was an unplanned interruption that lead to a ten minute delay leaving fans wondering what was going on after watching the whole band scurry offstage in the middle of playing “Longview.” It wasn’t until after the show was over that many of us were looped in to what happened: An unauthorized drone was being flown over Comerica Park, creating a safety concern which was then dealt with by DPD. After a potential crisis was averted, the band came back onstage and picked up right where they left off in the middle of “Longview.” 

The park cleared out after 11pm, releasing a sea of mesmerized Green Day fans who had just experienced the once in a lifetime experience of watching them perform their two most iconic albums to date. With or without the aforementioned interruption, Green Day delivered a truly unforgettable performance in Detroit last night. A spectacle without a doubt.