Saviors landing in Buenos Aires: Green Day live at Huracán Stadium

Argentinian Green Day fans must have been excited a few months ago when the band published their South American tour dates, as it has been the shortest lapse of time between visits to the country (3 years, last time was in 2022). This marks the 5th time the band has performed there.
The chosen date was September 3rd at the Huracán Stadium, which is appearing more than ever in Argentine concert flyers recently.
This tour would support the release of their latest record “Saviors” (my personal favourite since “21st Century Breakdown) and the guest band for this leg of the tour was Bad Nerves, a young Punk band that is making a real growing out of their name and are hungry for success (they’re having a side show in september 6th at El Teatrito).

Approaching the date, a local band was announced, after lots of speculation about who would be the one selected to open that night. It was 2 Minutos, the band from Valentín Alsina town, and everyone agreed that they had it well deserved. The band has one of the biggest names in the Argentine Punk Rock scene.

So the night began with 2 Minutos. The band hit the stage around 18.30, and their set maintained the same rawness that made them famous decades ago. It was one of the first shows since his singer, Mosca, made a public statement saying that he’s battling against cancer. The love of the people just got bigger since then, and it was in plain sight during their set, where classic Punk anthems like “Valentín Alsina”, “Canción de Amor”, “Amor Suicida”, “El Mejor Recuerdo”, “Ya No Sos Igual”, and “2 Minutos” were played and sang in loud by the crowd.

The second band was Bad Nerves, and, as I said, you can easily see how wild these young guys are. At 19.30, they came onstage and quickly earned the crowd’s love. Song after song, it was easy to see how the people who didn’t know about them got their attention fully focused on the performance. Many of them jumped around and even opened mosh pits for the songs. 
The band must have known how much Argentine people love the Ramones, so to finally get the crowd inside their pockets, they played a cover of “Cretin Hop”.
Songs like “Baby Drummer”, “Plastic Rebel”, “You’ve Got the Nerve”, “Radio Punk”, “Antidote”, and “New Shapes” were amongst their set. 
Green Day always makes a good choice for their opening act, that’s for sure.

And speaking of the devil…
The American punk band started their show at 21. In the same way they were doing it in the recent tours: making the people get extremely euphoric with an epic intro that would get into every nerve of the body of the toughest fan.
First, the lights went out, and a tape of “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen started sounding in the background; every single person in the crowd sang it loudly. 
After that, the famous Drunk Bunny made its appearance onstage, making the euphoria grow, as a mix of “Blitzkrieg Bop”, “I Love Rock & Roll”, and “We Will Rock You” gave the soundtrack for that crazy performance.

The band appeared onstage soon after that, beginning their set with “American Idiot”, and all the people went mad.
The stage was disguised as the cover of that album, showing a big hand with a heart-shaped grenade behind the musicians (the album turned 20 last year). Special effects didn’t miss this tour either, almost every song has its selected fragment to put an explosion, fireworks, or flames. Like the “Bang Bang” part in “Holiday”, which actually was the next song. 
Followed by “Know Your Enemy”, when Billie made a girl from the crowd go onstage with him and gave her his red tie as the girl cried and said “I love you” again and again. We can’t blame her; we know we would do the same thing.

The next songs are “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” and the debut in Buenos Aires of “One Eyed Bastard” from the album that made this tour happen.
“The Grouch” was one of the biggest surprises of the night; far from being a hit, the most loyal fans of the band enjoyed a song that is pretty uncommon in a Green Day show.
“Coma City” followed the set, bringing more of the newest stuff, and “Longview” helped remind the fans that just a year ago, the album “Dookie” reached 30 years since its release. So, “Welcome to Paradise” was next in this non-stop celebration, followed by “Hitchin’ a Ride”.
“Oh Love” surprised the fans too, coming from an album easily forgotten like “Uno” (and “Dos” and “Tré” as well…).

“Brain Stew” and “St. Jimmy” kept the party going, with mosh pits getting wilder and wilder, and “Dilemma” from “Saviors” made its Argentine debut, too.

The crowd lit the whole stadium with their phones on “21 Guns”, one of the most beautiful ballads from the band. But going from sadness to pure madness, they cut the song in the middle to start playing “Minority”, a time when the whole place was shaken from the jumps of the crowd.
Did I say “Dookie” yet? Well, the real “Dookie” time landed: “Basket Case”, “She”, and “When I Come Around” were played with stage screens recreating the album cover. And, wait, was that a zeppelin? The same as on the cover? It was floating around the stadium!

“Going to Pasalacqua” was another caress to the old school Green Day fan, followed by “Wake Me Up When September Ends”; if there’s a time to cry in a concert of those guys, that was it.
“Jesus of Suburbia” was next on the set, a set full of “Dookie” and “American Idiot”, the albums that celebrated another decade of release in the last year. 2 of the fan favourite records filling a set, a dream came true basically.

But don’t forget the reason why they came back to South America, to show us their new songs! “Bobby Sox” from “Saviors” was played, and the night came to its end with “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” where Billie stood alone on the stage singing with an acoustic guitar as Tré and Mike joined him at the end.
With all this being said, the only resolution I can give is that it is one of the best Green Day shows in Buenos Aires so far. This band doesn’t know about aging old.

Review by Agustín Lopez

Photos by gallo_rockpix press courtesy

Produced by Move Concerts Argentina

Press María Nolte & Nicolás Tavella