Photos and review by Jeff Lasich
There is always something magical about a warm summer night concert at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, and the Green Day Saviors tour captured that magic. The 4 band tour started in New York in early August and will continue to work it’s way around the country until the end of September. I first got a copy of the first Green Day 7” off one of my friends in early 1990 and instantly fell in love with them. I was able to get the second 7”, as well as the first lp no long after. In the pre-internet world, it wasn’t really easy to find out about bands/records unless you were in a major city. That being said, I really didn’t know anything about Green Day. A couple years later I was at a record store and saw Kerplunk! for the first time. I about lost my mind because I had no idea there was another Green Day record or that they were even an active band. I quickly scooped that up and it became a partial soundtrack to my junior/senior year of high school. Around a year after that, I was out skating and took a break to check out the new issue of Thrasher. Near the end of the magazine, there was a small piece on a new band called Rancid, which had ex-members of Operation Ivy. As soon as I saw that, I tossed the magazine aside and headed straight for the record store. The first record had just come out and it was not a disappointment and started a 30 plus year love of the band. When the Saviors tour was announced, I was so excited to be able to see both bands play together. While maybe not as cool as at 924 Gilman in 1993, it was still going to be awesome.
The show was opened by The Linda Lindas from Los Angeles. They are an all-girl four piece that would easily have fit in on the 90s Lookout! Records roster. I thought it was awesome that Green Day would take them out on this huge tour. I saw them at Riotfest in Chicago a couple years ago and thought they were great. Their set was full of youthful energy and catchy songs. The only disappointment for me was they did not play “Monica,” which was written about Bela Salazar’s cat. They did finish with “Racist, Sexist Boy,” the song that caught the attention of Epitaph records.
The second band of the night was Rancid. They played a show on Pitt’s campus almost 30 years to the day (October 1, 1994.) I will see this band any chance I can. Sadly they only had a 30 minute slot. That didn’t stop them from making the most of the time they had. The set consisted of a lot of songs from and Out Come the Wolves, with a few songs off Let’s Go, as well as some of their more mainstream songs like “Fall Back Down.” No matter what your level of fandom, there was something for everybody.
Smashing Pumpkins hit the stage as the sun was starting to set on the city. Oddly enough, this would be the very first time I’d see them. I’m not going to act like I am the biggest fan in the world, or even know much of their catalog, but I do know all the bigger songs and of course Siamese Dream. First thing I noticed was Billy Corgan is way taller than I thought. Joining him onstage was James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin who have been there since the start. Rounding out the band was Jack Bates on bass, Katie Cole helping with vocals and second guitar from a very energetic Kiki Wong. Song highlights included “Tonight, Tonight,” “1979,” “Cherub Rock,” “Today” and “Bullet with Butterfly Wings.” There was also some pro wrestling tossed in, which was a good cross promotion as Corgan owns the NWA promotion.
Closing out the night was the band most came to see, Green Day. Similar to Rancid, Green Day had first played Pittsburgh opening for Bad Religion at the legendary Graffiti on September 29, 1993. The hype bunny came out to “Bohemian Rhapsody” to get the crowd fired up. He was escorted off stage and the band opened the set with “The American Dream is Killing Me” off their newest record, Saviors. From there, they went into “Burnout” and played the Dookie record start to finish. I caught them on the Dookie tour during the summer of 1994 and it was awesome to hear them play these songs again. One of the highlights for me was when Tre Cool came out from behind the drums, skipping around the stage, while wearing a robe and singing “All By Myself.” It’s nice to see that even after all this time, they don’t take things too seriously. On that note, the band truly looks like they are still friends and enjoy doing this, three decades later. After the Dookie part of the show was over, they played a few songs from their later records, while changing over the stage. There was a giant helium filled airplane floating around the stadium dropping “bombs” onto the crowd. When they were done with that group of songs, the stage had been changed and ready for them to play American Idiot in it’s entirety. I stood there for a while thinking about how much I loved Green Day when I was in high school and how it felt like a secret thing. There was something awesome about an entire baseball stadium singing along to those songs. I found myself smiling from ear to ear, just having a blast.
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