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Photos + Review | Green Day, Smashing Pumpkins, Rancid, + The Linda Lindas @ Target Field

Brittany Rose Queen

Aug 27, 2024 — 5 min read

"Summer has come and passed, 20 years has gone so fast..." this lyric from 'Wake Me Up When September Ends' reigns true in new form as Green Day celebrates the 20th anniversary of American Idiot. This comes in tandem with the 30th anniversary of Dookie– The punk rock rock album that shot the band into the stratosphere.

The band brought this double full-length album tour through Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota with the stacked line up consisting of esteemed The Smashing Pumpkins, legendary punks Rancid, and the explosive breakout band The Linda Lindas.

The Linda Linda's opened up the show with an unbelievable burst of energy. The band consists of all members 18 years and younger. Their drummer Mila de la Garza only recently celebrated her 14th birthday. The set was complete with a cameo from one member's dad dancing on stage in a huge cat mask. This band has clear rockstar energy and it's exciting to see just how much they will accomplish.

Bay Area punk icons took the stage next. They are a fitting spot on this lineup consisting of members of Operation Ivy, one of Billie Joe Armstrong's cited favorite bands. They ripped through their classics and got the crowd singing along while the sun was still high over the baseball stadium.

Direct support on this tour was The Smashing Pumpkins, completing this powerhouse of a lineup. "Today is the greatest day I've ever known" felt so true as this rang through the crowd having the time of their lives. Billy Corgan sounded record perfect delivering radio hit after radio hit.

Green Day's intro to their concerts has become a tradition. It starts with 'Bohemian Rhapsody', the phone flashlights appear by the hundreds, as every single person in the stadium sings every "ooh" and "mama" completely united. Then comes the Drunk Bunny. A human sized tattered pink bunny comes stumbling on stage to the Ramones' 'Blitzkrieg Bop'. The mysterious costumed hype-bunny gets the crowd absolutely stoked before the band hits the stage. The song comes to a close and a security member escorts our inebriated new friend off stage, arm in arm.

Green Day comes out with an absolute explosion of fire and passion with their new single 'The American Dream is Killing Me' from the tour's namesake 2024 album The Saviors tour. The show then tore directly into the entirety of Dookie, from 'Burnout' all the way to Tre Cool's own 'All By Myself'. The stage was dawned with images of the album and even an inflated Dookie Bomb being paraded through the crowd.

Following various hit songs, after the Dookie explosion deflates behind the band, up came the iconic heart grenade. Then all of American Idiot. The rock ballads played through as they was meant to be heard, every outro into it's respective intro. The emotion of this album was palpable through the audience– screaming along to impassioned lyrics, responding to every call and response Billie Joe Armstrong commanded of the crowd. When the album came to a close, the encore treated the crowd to their 2024 banger 'Bobby Sox' and then finally came 'Good Riddance'.

At the end of this undeniably powerful anthem, Billie Joe lets his acoustic guitar ring out, looks out into the crowd, really taking it all in, says "And just like that... 20 years."