Green Day stops in the middle of the song and runs off the stage, confusing the fans
At a concert at Comerica Park in Detroit, Green Day suddenly ran off the stage because of an unauthorized drone.
Detroit police say they have arrested a man suspected of flying a drone over Comerica Park during Green Day’s concert on Wednesday, prompting the band to abruptly storm off the stage early in the concert.
“An individual flew a drone into Comerica Park and as a result, Green Day was removed from the stage,” Detroit police spokesman Cpl. Dan Donakowski told the Detroit Free Press. “Police have located the individual. He is being held pending further investigation.”
During a performance of the Green Day hit “Longview,” the band members ran off the stage at around 8:50 p.m., following signals from crew members who had suddenly appeared from behind the scenes.
Soon after, the video screens on stage lit up with the message “SHOW PAUSE: PLEASE BE PREPARED FOR DETAILS.”
About ten minutes later, the band continued their performance without giving any explanation to the tens of thousands who filled the Detroit Tigers’ stadium. An official attendance figure was not released, but it is believed to be more than 30,000, based on previous sold-out concerts at the stadium with a similar stage configuration.
“How are you guys? Is everyone OK?” asked frontman Billie Joe Armstrong upon his return. He asked fans to put their phones away for now: “Let’s be here, right now.”
Representatives for Green Day and show officials did not respond to Free Press requests for details, but a post on the band’s X account late Wednesday apologized for the delay, adding: “Stadium security had us clear the stage while they dealt with a potential safety issue. DPD quickly resolved the situation and we were able to move forward. Thank you for your understanding.”
Before the band’s abrupt departure, a drone with a green light could be seen flying overhead – drones are not an uncommon sight at large concerts, however, and are often used by bands and promoters to document the festivities.
The Detroit show was part of the band’s long-running Saviors Tour, during which Green Day performed “Dookie” in full to mark the 30th anniversary, along with the album “American Idiot,” which is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Core members Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool, as well as three touring musicians, were all onstage at the time of Wednesday’s incident.
Green Day closed the show shortly after 11 p.m. with a performance of “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” and a farewell greeting from Armstrong with an apparent reference to the previous interruption.
“A night we will never forget!” he said.
The minutes that ticked by during the band’s absence created a strange, unsettling moment in a show that had begun on a cheerful, optimistic note, as the pop-punk stars immersed themselves in a night that promised to celebrate their two most popular albums.
Featuring the Smashing Pumpkins and Rancid as opening acts, it was an event reminiscent of the era of Lollapalooza tours and 89X radio playlists, played for a multigenerational audience, including many families with excited young children.
Green Day long ago understood how to present wiry punk on a grand scale, and the intro music that preceded the group’s performance seemed to make this happy marriage clear: the grandeur of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” paired with the Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop”.
From there, it was on to Green Day’s 2023 single “The American Dream is Killing Me” before the retro fun began. “Dookie” unfurled on stage in 1994, just as it did on CD, a wild onslaught of tumbling riffs and spot-on, catchy hooks.
Armstrong’s familiar nasal, lilting vocals were pushed to the front of the audio mix, while album-related graphics danced on the video screen behind him. At 52, his petite frame and cheeky vocals give him a kind of eternal youth, and he was the center of attention on the large stadium stage.
After the break, the band seemed even more energetic, perhaps driven by a sense of angry defiance, and the fans were swept along by the “Dookie” hits: “Welcome to Paradise,” “Basket Case,” “When I Come Around.” A few other songs led into “American Idiot,” and you could literally feel the stadium shaking as the crowd danced along to “Know Your Enemy.”
“American Idiot” and its more structured music went down well in the stadium, with the rock suites “Jesus of Suburbia” and “Homecoming” the highlights of a 2004 album that represented an ambitious leap of faith for the trio.
Armstrong took some inspiration from Jimmy Page as he experimented with the acoustic intro to Led Zeppelin’s “Over the Hills and Far Away” before Green Day closed the evening with “Good Riddance,” the biggest hit of the band’s career.
The Smashing Pumpkins had preceded Green Day with their own hour-long set, with Billy Corgan – wrapped in a floor-length black cape – displaying a reliably demonstrative stage presence and leading a crisp but cinematic set.
With new touring member Kiki Wong augmenting the three-guitar attack with Corgan and James Iha, it was a Pumpkins performance that happily harked back to the ’90s – “Disarm,” “Today,” “1979,” “Cherub Rock” – and threw in a crunching, upside-down cover of U2’s “Zoo Station,” rounded off with a Jimmy Chamberlin drum solo for some old-fashioned Gen-X rock shine.
Contact music writer Brian McCollum of the Detroit Free Press: 313-223-4450 or [email protected].
Free Press writer Andrea May Sahouri contributed to this report.
