Tre Cool Talks Green Day’s ‘Once In A Lifetime’ Tour with Pierre Robert

Green Day has come a long way from packing tiny South Street clubs. Since 1993, the East Bay trio has returned to Philadelphia time and time again, working their way up through our city's iconic venues: J.C. Dobbs, the Trocadero, the Spectrum, and last Friday night, a sold out Citizens Bank Park, where they tore through a two-hour set for a crowd that was over three hundred times the size of Dobbs. 

This time, they were back in Philly to commemorate thirty years since the release of Dookie and twenty years for American Idiot. Green Day have been performing those albums in full on this current tour, with the songs arranged just as they land on each LP. Both records are designated as "no skips" albums by fans: each one is pinned together with a sonic thread, with the tracks often blending into one another, presenting their punk rock anthems like movie soundtracks.

"It just feels good," drummer Tré Cool tells WMMR. "It feels right. Both of those albums are the kind of records you'd keep in the tape deck, or on the turntable, or the CD player, and just kind of keep running and listening to, so you know at the end of one song where the next one picks up. And to hear it live, you know, it's kind of refreshing and satisfying."

In an extended conversation with Pierre Robert, Tré talked about Green Day's place in pop culture, from their link to Deadpool & Wolverine to working alongside Mark Hamill in new video for "Corvette Summer." He shared stories of drumming alongside not one, but two Beatles, plus the time he jammed with Willie Nelson: "Willie's asking you to play drums; who cares how high you are?!"

Tré also reflected on the way that Green Day's audience has grown up with them, and how the band are feeling better - and closer - than ever before. And it's clear that they love coming back to Philly, as they've been doing faithfully since '93.

Take it from Tré: "It’s nice to be on America's finest, curated-by-hand rock and roll radio station: WMMR!"

Not even a thunderstorm could stop Green Day fans from packing Citizens Bank Park up to the rafters last Friday night. Our favorite basket cases had returned to Philadelphia to mark the anniversaries of their two biggest albums: Dookie, released in 1994, and American Idiot, which arrived in 2004.

They played every cut on both of those albums, plus a bunch of other hits and a handful of songs off of their latest LP, Saviors. That's 36 songs total - even more if you count the epic tracks "Jesus of Suburbia" and "Homecoming" as separate songs-within-songs. You can see that full setlist below, plus photos courtesy of Digital Noise Mag. The band went so hard for the Philly crowd that Billie Joe Armstrong lost his voice, forcing them to postpone their show at Hersheypark Stadium to September 2nd. (All tickets for the previous date will be honored.)

Smashing Pumpkins took the stage earlier in the evening with a set that combined recent tracks, alt-rock radio favorites and an interesting cover of U2's "Zoo Station." We were even treated to an impromptu wrestling match on stage while the Pumpkins played "Beguiled," with Billy Corgan's children playing along. Brent Porche spoke with Billy about the wrestling business, new music and more in this in-depth interview earlier in the week.

Punk legends Rancid got the pit going early in the evening. They jumped from one side of the massive stadium stage to the other as if it was 100-cap club, cramming eleven songs into a half hour. About half of their set was pulled from ...And Out Come The Wolves, a favorite album of ours here at WMMR.

Unfortunately, the Linda Lindas had to scrap their opening set due to the inclement weather. The punk newcomers got the ultimate redemption, though: Green Day invited them to perform in the middle of their headlining set. Green Day stepped aside, and the Linda Lindas unleashed all of their pent-up energy through a single song, "Oh!," winning over the sold out crowd.

Brent Porche broadcasted live from the ballpark that afternoon. It was great to see everyone who stopped by the WMMR booth to say hi. Big congrats to listener Hannah from Collingswood, NJ who won Green Day's autographed Epiphone guitar that we gave away at the show!

We'll catch you at the next show - check out our official Concert Calendar for more.