Green Day Concerts Setlist

Green Day is an American punk rock band. They were formed in 1987 in East Bay, California. The founding members were lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong (1972, Oakland. California), and bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt (1972, Oakland, California).

Back in 1987, when they were just 15 years old, Armstrong and Dirnt, along with two friends of theirs, Raj Punjabi and Sean Hughes, got together to form a band. That band was originally called “Sweet Children”. They began writing songs and performing live at small venues. Drummer Punjabi was replaced by John Kiffmeyer, while Dirnt took on the role of the bassist after their original bass player, Hughes, also departed. According to frontman Armstrong, the fellow Californian punk band “Operation Ivy” was their biggest early influence.

In 1988, they signed their first record contract with Lookout! Records and also produced their first EP (Extended Play). The next year, in order to avoid confusion with the band “Sweet Baby”, they changed their name to the now well-known “Green Day”. It is a reference to their habitual marijuana use.

Green Day’s debut album came out in April 1990, with the title “39/Smooth”. While the record never gained any significant commercial traction, the band still got to go on their first nationwide Green Day concert tour. The same year, Tré Cool joined them as the new drummer.

Their third album, “Dookie” released in February 1994, was their breakthrough record. It became a massive hit, peaking at the #2 spot on the famous Billboard 200 chart. The standout tracks on the record were “Basket Case” and “Longview”. However, that year wasn’t all fun for the California punk stars. At a Green Day concert at Woodstock ‘94 in New York, a security guard mistook bassist Mike Dirnt for a stage invader, and knocked some of his teeth out…

Since then, Green Day has released 10 more full studio albums, thus they have 13 in total. The best selling one among them is the aforementioned “Dookie” from 1994, which sold a whopping 20 million copies worldwide. Meanwhile, the latest new Green Day album came out in February 2020, with the title “Father of All Motherfuckers”. The biggest hits in the Green Day setlist to date are the aforementioned “Basketcase” (1994), “Boulevard of the Broken Dreams” (2004), “American Idiot” (also 2004, same title as their album), and “21 Guns” (2009).

In 2009, a Broadway musical premiered with the title “American Idiot”, based on the band’s 2004 album. It ended up winning the Tony Award in the Best Musical category. Green Day is part of the wave of punk bands from the West Coast that are credited with popularizing this rock subgenre in the 1990’s, along with The Offspring, Rancid, and Social Distortion. Their current line-up is made up of the two co-founders, lead singer Armstrong and bassist Dirnt, as well as drummer Tré Cool.