Turns out, a Green Day concert is the perfect outing for old punk millennials and their Gen Z kids
- Green Day is on tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of "Dookie" and 20th of "American Idiot."
- I saw them for the first time in 1998 in Brazil when I was a teenager.
When Green Day announced they were going on tour again to celebrate the anniversaries of two of their (arguably) most iconic albums, I knew I had to go.
I grew up listening to the punk bad from California while living in South America. When they made it to Brazil in 1998 I went to see them with my high school boyfriend and friends, and while my memory is fuzzy now, I remember what a blast we had in the mosh pit.
Last night, 27 years after that first concert, I got to see them live again, and they put on an epic show for all ages.
The venue was filled with families
I had to drive two hours from Maine to Boston to catch my favorite band live. I debated on whether I should bring my 6-year-old son since he is into punk, but figured the timing of the show and then the subsequent drive was going to be too much.
I regretted it the second I walked in because the stadium was full of families. When I arrived at my seat, I saw that I had a mom with her late teens daughter on my left, and to my right I had a dad with his pre-teen son. There were also plenty of little kids running around rocking, including one with an epic mohawk.
My parents didn't understand my musical taste growing up, and would've rather taking me to the opera than to a punk show. It was refreshing to see parents bob their heads around even when they didn't know a single lyric.
It was a party
Before Green Day took the stage, the Linda Lindas, Rancid, and Smashing Pumpkins warmed up the old millennial audience for what was to come. There was a lot of air drumming and belching out lyrics that mended our broken hearts once upon a time.
When Billie Joe Armstrong took the stage, it was officially a party that lasted over two hours. They played "Dookie" and "American Idiot" in their entirety, while also sprinkling songs from their new album and old time favorites.
Armstrong changed once again the lyrics to "American Idiot" to say "I'm not part of your MAGA agenda," and the crowd erupted in cheers, a reminder that punk will always be political.
I cried when songs that got me through hard times came on, jumped when Armstrong instructed the whole crowed to "go absolutely insane," and smiled in awe at what the 50-plus year olds can still do on stage.
I hope it doesn't take me almost three decades to see them again, and next time I'm bringing my kids so we can bop our heads together and introduce them to the band who got me through all the lows in my life.