GalleryDitch This MagazineMarch 02, 2025gallery, live, melbourne, Louie Mosscrop, Destroy All Lines, The Forum, Alkaline Trio, Green Day

Green Day @ Marvel Stadium 01-03-25

GalleryDitch This MagazineMarch 02, 2025gallery, live, melbourne, Louie Mosscrop, Destroy All Lines, The Forum, Alkaline Trio, Green Day

photos: Louie Mosscrop @louie.mosscrop

The iconic retractable roof is open, allowing the setting sun to light up the stadium grounds, this is Green Day at Marvel Stadium on a perfect March Saturday evening in Melbourne.

With the opening slot filled by Australian punk rockers Private Function, they wasted absolutely no time making sure everyone who was there early knew what they were in for by coming in full pelt, tripping and going absolutely ass up. This was just a taste of the chaos to come.

In classic punk fashion, the filter was turned off and pure raw entertainment ensued, with GA about 50% and slowly filling, Private Function gave it their all, throwing their bodies and instruments around and to the ground through the set, asking to be boo’d by a stadium, exclaiming “this aint the Tote!” and feeling like Freddy Mercury adapting his iconic “ay-oh” to their own “c*-nt”.

Despite the chaos, they put on a tight and full set and you really couldn’t fault their stage presence or crowd interaction.

AFI, were next, 8 years between sets, having been listening to them since the early 2000’s and being witness to their growth from more punk rock roots to a much more refined and structured sound they maintain now i was looking forward to this.

Davey Havok’s vocals didn’t miss a beat, with a set that opened with their classic Girl’s Not Grey from 2003’s Sing the Sorrow then flowing into a string of others from various pre 2010 albums such as Love Like Winter, End Transmission and Beautiful thieves.

By now the seats are filling, GA’s getting full, and the evening sun is at that perfect point of being low enough to get the full effect from AFI’s impressive light display and stage set up and giving everything that golden glow we all love.

With the whole band utilising the stage, and Davey Havok taking the opportunity to use the catwalk throughout the set, AFI’s stage presence and album-like sound quality just proved to us why they’ve maintained their constant success over the years.

The setlist was full from tracks across their discography, from old to new spanning across 7 Albums, and finishing with Miss Murder.

Here’s hoping it won't be 8 more years before we see them again.

The moment we’ve all been waiting for, Green Day’s almighty return since their last 2017 tour.

Tonight we’re hearing Dookie and American Idiot in full plus some, which to me are two of their best albums.

As the stage is set, the lights go out and the sun is set. Bohemian Rhapsody comes across the PA, which means a 60,000 strong singalong, every word, flawless. Rolling straight into classic Ramones Blitzkrieg Bop with drunk bunny making an appearance only to wipe their crutch with a Greed Day shirt before launching it into the crowd and being dragged off stage.

Que The American Dream Is Killing Me, Billie Joe Armstrong heading straight to the front of the catwalk ensuring a 60,000 strong scream of excitement, it was this moment that the fans who had lined up from early in the morning had been waiting for. Up against the barrier included local fans, fans who had travelled the world following them on this tour to the young and old devoted fans.

It didn't take long for the pyro and lights to kick in, giving everyone a taste of what the whole set was going to look like.

Flames shooting from stacks of amplifier cabs surrounded by lights the whole band was flawless.

As they dove straight into the first album play through, Dookie. In classic Green Day fashion a giant blow up plane floated over the crowd to open up and drop what looked like free shirts across the crowd.

Tre Cool graced us with an orchestral version of All By Myself, dressing in a leopard print dressing gown, serenading us all. This quickly changed when Know Your Enemy started, mid song Billie does as Billie does and asks, well demanded they need someone on stage with them who knows the words. After assessing the crowd he settled on one very excited girl named Honey, who, once on stage with a mic in her hand, didn't let the opportunity pass her and started belting out the next verse. With some help from Billie she got up on a pedestal, jumping off at the perfect time as the sparks flew from around the stage at Know Your Enemy’s conclusion.

We were then treated to a mid set album break so to speak with tracks such as Dilemma, 21 Guns, Minority and a few other bangers.

Now it's American Idiot time, given the tour started in 2024 the 20 year anniversary can still be counted right?

A stage prop change, acknowledgments to Private Function and AFI, moments with the stadium lit up with phone lights and an energy in the air that you couldn’t ignore Green Day’s impact they have over so many.

Throughout American Idiot and Jesus of Suburbia a few lyrical changes were thrown in to include “not a part of your maga agenda”, “from Ukraine to the Middle East”, and dropping J.D Vance into it all too.

Over the years they perfected the art of entertaining thousands, talking to and interacting with the crowd without it ever feeling slow, forced, drawn out or arduous. Even in those times of dead silence Billie Joe holds your attention through his body language, facial expressions and general presence. There was barely a moment when he didn't have everyone locked in.

American Idiot was the perfect album to remind us all of a few things…

“polititians need to shut the fuck up,
Elon Musk needs to shut the fuck up,
Donald Trump needs to shut the fuck up!”

These 3 simple sentences caused a uniform eruption of cheer from the crowd.

And with that the set came a closure with Good Riddance (Time of Your Life), fireworks from the roof and 60,000 very satisfied and fulfilled concertgoers. For those in attendance, I feel it's going to be a hard show to beat any time soon.