There were some mixed reactions when Green Day was first announced as the Saturday night headliner at Coachella over Charli xcx. Some people thought the legendary punk rock band is too washed up to draw a crowd compared to the hyperpop artist.
The haters were entirely wrong. It was packed. However, there is still some ongoing discourse about the energy level at Empire Polo Club based on the YouTube livestream.
Green Day, which formed in 1990, is best known for albums that dropped between 1994 and 2004. American Idiot was released more than two decades ago. ¡Uno! ¡Dos! ¡Tré!, Revolution Radio, Father of All Motherf——, and Saviors were not quite as popular but it’s not like the band completely fell off.
While Coachella attracts a wide range of ages, the majority of its attendees fall between the ages of 18 and 34. If I had to guess, the average age hovers around 25.
Thus, when the highly-publicized music festival announced its lineup back in November, a large number of people who fell on the younger side of that median were disappointed. They don’t know Green Day like that. They thought Charli xcx is more “with the times,” if you will. There was no way a band made up of 50-year-olds would draw a large crowd of the young 20-somethings. It was going to be a total flop.
That was not the case! The crowd was absolutely massive.
Believe it or not, people showed out for one of the biggest and most important rock bands of all-time.
Charli xcx stans were quick to point out a small section of the crowd. It was not all of the way filled in.
What those same folks neglected to mention is that the slightly less packed section was extremely far out of the line of sight for the stage because overflow was insane. It was also the VIP section compared to GA. VIP attendance is notoriously smaller by the end of the night.
To be fair, part of the Coachella crowd for Green Day was there to get in position for Travis Scott. And as is typically the case at Coachella, there was a lack of energy at times. Billie Joe Armstrong had to break in the middle of 21 Guns to bring them back in with some call and response. He even yelled the VIP section for being lame. It was awesome.
In addition, the YouTube livestream is known to quiet the crowd volume. You can’t get a real sense of the buzz when you’re watching it at home. The audio mixing does not do justice to the true rowdiness.
Green Day played a killer set and people went wild. American Idiot had the place rocking from the jump.
Every single person in the crowd, young or old, sang along with Wake Me Up When September Ends.
They crushed.
Sorry, haters. Charli xcx drew a big crowd at Coachella. Green Day’s crowd was bigger.