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
Four years on from the ‘Actual Life’ series lifting him into the mainstream spotlight, Fred Again.. continues to feel unavoidable. The London producer and DJ born Fred Gibson has moved at a relentless pace, bouncing between sold out stadium dates in New York and surprise appearances at Sheffield’s 1,000 capacity Forge, while also making history as the first electronic artist to top the bill at Reading and Leeds in 2024.
Where the ‘Actual Life’ releases and his fourth album, 2024’s ‘Ten Days’, leaned into warmth and joy pulled from ordinary moments, Gibson has also sharpened his instinct for high impact club weapons rooted in garage, dubstep and jungle. That side of his output lives on ‘USB’, an “infinite album” first imagined in 2022 as a home for tracks that exist outside any fixed universe, including defining moments like ‘Rumble’ and ‘Jungle’.
‘USB002’, the second vinyl only chapter of the ‘USB’ project, brings together 16 recent tracks, many of which surfaced gradually on streaming services over a ten week stretch. The music was shaped live, in step with ten unannounced DJ appearances across the world from Dublin to Mexico City. Even with a Glastonbury style registration system in place, The Times reported that 100,000 people tried to secure tickets for the opening night in Glasgow.
Appropriately, ‘USB002’ feels alive and constantly in motion, helped along by contributions from close collaborators such as Floating Points and Sammy Virji. The rigid, techno driven pressure of ‘Ambery’ echoes elements of Floating Points’ 2019 album ‘Crush’, while Gibson’s take on ‘The Floor’ builds like the slow climb of a rollercoaster before dropping back to earth without warning.
The guest list stretches beyond the usual dance circles, with two Australian guitar bands popping up in unexpected ways. ‘You’re A Star’ reworks Amyl and The Sniffers’ ‘Big Dreams’ into a breakbeat driven rush, while ‘Hardstyle 2’ pulls the experimental post punk edge of Shady Nasty into an Underworld adjacent space alongside Kettama. Gibson’s real trick is his ability to connect with anyone. These tracks are not reinterpretations but full takeovers.
The visual world wrapped around the ‘USB002’ rollout reinforces the instinct behind the music. Phones were prohibited at shows staged in vast warehouse spaces under sweeping light rigs, while Gibson’s team shared striking black and white footage and created artwork for each single on site. Bottling that sense of urgency, the project is rooted in the thrill of the present moment, something Gibson seems able to summon simply by turning up.
If the ‘Actual Life’ series and ‘Ten Days’ captured passing snapshots of experience, ‘USB’ is defined by constant movement, a space where boundaries are removed entirely. Sitting somewhere between an album and a playlist, ‘USB002’ underlines why Fred Again.. feels so dominant right now, and suggests that his current run may only be the beginning of something much bigger.
