The tour follows the release of the band’s 14th album, Saviors, which arrived earlier this year. Far Out awarded the album a four-star review, describing it as a collection of “authentic post-punk anthems for a broken world.”
Rather than focusing on their newest record, the ‘Saviors Tour’ setlist features full play-throughs of two of the band’s most acclaimed albums, Dookie and American Idiot, to mark their 30th and 20th anniversaries, respectively. During the American Idiot section of the show, Armstrong updated the politically charged lyrics to the title track to comment on the current state of America.
While playing one of Green Day’s most well-known and most political tracks, ‘American Idiot’, Armstrong amended the lyrics, directing them towards Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Rather than singing, “I’m not a part of the redneck agenda,” Armstrong sang, “I’m not part of the MAGA agenda,” referencing Trump’s slogan, ‘Make America Great Again’.
Green Day followed this with a performance of ‘Jesus of Suburbia’, during which a member of the crowd threw a Trump mask with the word “idiot” written on it to the frontman, and Armstrong then held it up during the song.
Back in January, Armstrong spoke with Vulture about the enduring relevance of Green Day’s 2004 record, American Idiot, two decades on. “American Idiot hits the nail on the head any time there’s any sort of political and social betrayal going on in the world,” he declared.
“I remember a couple of years back when Donald Trump went to visit England and ‘American Idiot’ went to No. 2 on the charts,” he continued, “Any time and anywhere there’s some kind of corruption and political strife, that record is always going to be relevant.”
The North American leg of the ‘Saviors Tour’ continues in Canada on August 1st. The band will take to stages across the States in August and September, with shows scheduled in San Francisco, New York City, Chicago and more.
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