MUSIC PREMIERES
Fourteen years on since hosting one of their first UK stadium shows, Manchester’s Old Trafford Cricket Ground is once again gearing up to welcome Green Day. Their last touring run this side of the Atlantic was their outrageous 2022 ‘Hella Mega Tour’ with Fall Out Boy and Weezer, and they’ve somehow found a springboard to go one step further: celebrating 30 years of ‘Dookie’ and 20 of ‘American Idiot’ by playing both albums in full. Fair game, Billie Joe Armstrong – there’s not a soul in this stadium who won’t welcome tonight’s trip down memory lane.
Nostalgia doesn’t define this Green Day gig, however. It’s also a first outing for January’s album ‘Saviors’ – deemed by NME their best since ‘American Idiot’ – and lead single ‘The American Dream Is Killing Me’ ushers in the 37-song set, after the customary intro run of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’, ‘We Will Rock You’ – et cetera. Traditions might be upheld, but there’s enough fresh material and stage production to remind the masses that this is a newly crafted Green Day live show.
On the right side of the fine line between corny and masterful, a gigantic curtain of fire blows up on stage, recreating the iconic ‘Dookie’ artwork as the trio power through their breakout album. Underpinned by a sense of urgency, ‘Burnout’ and ‘When I Come Around’ sound particularly slick, whilst ‘Basket Case’ sends Old Trafford into pandemonium for the first time.
As the sun battles the Manchester drizzle, the emergence of a double rainbow only ups the majesty of this occasion. By the time we reach ‘American Idiot’, Armstrong has hit red-hot form, and the volume seems to have been cranked up a notch. There’s no room for ‘21 Guns’ on this setlist, but the emotional potency of ‘Boulevard Of Broken Dreams’ feels magnified.
The screen illuminates with purples and pinks as the band rattle through ‘Saviors’ material playing the material like it’s already classic. ‘One Eyed Bastard’ – effectively P!nk’s ‘So What’ with added distortion – is especially raucous. Staying invigorated after three decades is no mean feat, but Green Day make it look effortless.
With Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam, The Smashing Pumpkins and Weezer all playing UK shows over the month, it’s an understatement to say rock fans are spoilt for choice. The pick of the bunch, however, might just be Green Day’s ‘Saviors’ tour: combining class, youthfulness and scruffy punk anthems into a trademark stadium-rock event.
Green Day played:
‘The American Dream Is Killing Me’
‘Burnout’
‘Having A Blast’
‘Chump’
‘Longview’
‘Welcome To Paradise’
‘Pulling Teeth’
‘Basket Case’
‘She’
‘Sassafras Roots’
‘When I Come Around’
‘Coming Clean’
‘Emenius Sleepus’
‘In the End’
‘F.O.D.’
‘All by Myself’
‘Know Your Enemy’
‘Look Ma, No Brains!’
‘One Eyed Bastard’
‘Dilemma’
‘Minority’
‘Brain Stew’
‘American Idiot’
‘Jesus of Suburbia’
‘Holiday’
‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams’
‘Are We The Waiting’
‘St. Jimmy’
‘Give Me Novocaine’
‘She’s a Rebel’
‘Extraordinary Girl’
‘Letterbomb’
‘Wake Me Up When September Ends’
‘Homecoming’
‘Whatsername’
‘Bobby Sox’
‘Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)’
MUSIC PREMIERES
Lykke Li didn’t hold back when speaking about the making of her sixth studio album, ‘The Afterparty’, during a listening session in Los Angeles earlier this year. “Let’s talk about the album. It was a motherfucker to make,” she admitted to the crowd. While balancing motherhood, the chaos of modern culture shaped by Trump and AI, and her own desire to create something more “extroverted, impulsive and chaotic” than ‘EYEYE’, as she previously shared with NME, the Swedish alt pop star arrived at a headspace that “feels like it’s 4am and the sun is going to rise”. The record captures that blurry final moment before regret, exhaustion and reality settle in, which makes it even more emotional considering she has hinted this could potentially be her final album.
There is something fitting about how brief the project feels. With only nine tracks running across 24 minutes, it never overstays its welcome. Lykke immediately drops listeners into the atmosphere with opener ‘Not Gon Cry’, painting a picture of those lonely early morning hours with the line, “No angels here tonight, no dancing queens.” Alongside the shadowy pulse of ‘Happy Now’ and the twisted disco energy of ‘Lucky Now’, she revisits the emotional yet dance driven spirit of her earlier material while blending in the sharper, more confident attitude heard on ‘So Sad, So Sexy’ and the shimmering influence of her 2019 Mark Ronson collaboration ‘Late Night Feelings’.
The emotional fallout begins to settle in quickly. ‘Famous Last Words’ carries a lush orchestral sadness as Lykke reflects on lessons that only came after years of chaos and late nights, confessing, “I had to crash and burn to tell the tale.” Then comes ‘Future Fear’, a delicate acoustic track with robotic textures that stares directly into anxiety and uncertainty with the chilling question, “I’m going to a dark place, do you need anything?” Meanwhile, ‘So Happy I Could Die’ glows like sunrise after a sleepless night, holding onto fleeting moments as she sings about “slipping through the hourglass”.
Throughout the album, Lykke Li vividly captures the beauty and wreckage of reckless nights with the vulnerability that has always defined her music. On ‘Sick Of Love’, she channels heartbreak into revenge, wanting to “make you beg for it” after rejection in a way that feels spiritually connected to Robyn’s ‘Dancing On My Own’. One of the strongest moments arrives with ‘Knife In The Heart’, a track that fully embraces her desire to become the “rock god” and “fuck boy” she spoke about, firing back at anyone who tries to tear her down with the words “you can spit, you can walk on me” while delivering one of the catchiest songs she has created in years.
Closing track ‘Euphoria’ leaves behind the same bittersweet feeling that runs through the rest of the album. With sweeping strings, pulsing beats and emotional intensity, Lykke Li reminds listeners that nothing lasts forever as she sings, “Player play your song, waste the night away”. Like the fading energy of the perfect night out, ‘The Afterparty’ ends in a haze of beauty and uncertainty. If this truly is her farewell, she leaves with one final intoxicating statement, though it still feels like there could be another chapter waiting.
