Green Day live at Wembley Stadium (29.6.2024) with Nothing But Thieves and Maid of Ace.
I generally subscribe to the rule that football stadiums are best used for watching football matches. Everything else is a compromise and I even prefer a large field to see a live band in. Some bands are just too popular to resist though and if you’re in a seat, you will get some shelter to trade off against any echo, with a bit of elevation to see the stage and the screens, with sight of the band in any detail being a bonus.
Wembley itself is a strange bit of town to try and enjoy yourself in. Hardly a pub left and gratitude has to be expressed for a seat in a hotel bar and £7 small bottle of beer. With the stadium prices equally repellent, just don’t arrive hungry or with a significant thirst. Best to get all that bit over with and enjoy a big band with a lot of fans ….and the occasional arsehole who doesn’t get out much or really like music – there are some in every crowd.
Still, some bands are worth the compromise – you just won’t see them otherwise. Green Day don’t tour the UK that often and they qualified for me. Blur, last year, made the grade and the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert was one amazing day that I doubt will be matched in my lifetime, for the variety of added guest artists and emotion.
Previous trips to see Oasis and The Killers were overwhelmed by the negatives.
First band on were the punk band of sisters from Hastings, Maid of Ace. I had been enthusiastic about catching them with some pre-gig listening. They were damned loud – really overwhelmingly so. One way to make an impact. Someone turned it down a bit after that and my ear protection was returned to its little case for the rest of the evening.
I quite liked our spot at the top and back of the lower tier of seats, back level with the other end of the plastic covered pitch. It was under a small overhang – handy if it rains and I didn’t notice any sound issues.
Next on, Nothing But Thieves. Ahhh that’s better. A softer sound – well everything is softer than Maid of Ace – I have listened to their recent indie rock albums but I’m not that familiar. They’ve had four LPs to date – from Essex – and I enjoyed their set.
Frontman Conor Mason looked moved and disbelieving (on the screens – neither my eyes nor my zoom are that good) at the size of the event and the positive response he was getting.
By the time Green Day come on everyone is in place and out of the concourses – it’s only 8pm. Huge expectation.
My third Green Day gig – all outdoors. Reading Festival 2013 and one of my most enjoyable gigs ever. In 2017 is was Hyde Park, another goody with some great bands joining them that day. Wembley Stadium 2024 turned out to be right up there with the best. My favourite of 30 gigs so far this year, and that surpassed my expectations and quashed my Wembley Stadium resistance a little.
This tour celebrates their 1994 album Dookie and American Idiot from 2004, but there’s room for five tracks from their recent Saviours album – it’s a good’un. They open with The Amerian Dream Is Killing Me and that one is already a song that gets inside your head somedays.
It’s the Dookie LP first and it is played in order. Let’s go crazieeee’ screams Billy Joe and most of 90,000 oblige by the time we get to Basket Case. Fantastic. I was all prepared to stick in my seat but it was party time. I looked around at times to see people stood dancing and punching the air on all tiers and all round the back curve.
Several more from the Saviours LP and the stage went green. American Idiot exploded into life. I wonder what it was like down in that front standing section. It looked like joyous mayhem.
They shuffled the American Idiot tracks a bit. Boulevard of Broken Dreams and Wake Me Up When September Ends the slower highlights. There is very little let up though – one song into another and each greeted with similar enthusiasm. You can almost hear a collective muttering of ‘oh I love this one’ every time.
The set finished with Bobby Sox, another from the latest album and although we were nearly two and a half hours in, there was time for an encore: Good Riddance (Time of Your Life). Time of your life indeed. Suck it up while it lasts and you can see all this stuff.
Off we went and yes I stopped for t-shirt, and it fitted. Yup, I know they cost too much but only as much as 4½ pints of horrible Wembley lager eh.
Gigs with Ivan 