What a dream line-up. Green Day. Fall Out Boy. Weezer. On the same night. All playing a long set. Impossible for all the pop-punk kids to miss it. During one night, we were back almost 20 years in the past. A night we’ll remember for a while!
Do you remember when you bought your tickets for the Hella Mega Tour at SportPaleis? No. Not a surprise. It was at a time we didn’t know Wuhan was the name of a city in China. Tickets were on sale in September 2019! Almost 3 years have passed since we spent about 66€ for this insane line-up. It was important to remember we bought tickets for this one…
When the poster leaked a little bit before the announcement, many people though it was a joke. Can Green Day really go on tour with such strong main support as Fall Out Boy?! Billie and his teammates don’t even need support to sell out the biggest arenas in the world. But, yes, it wasn’t a dream. And after attending a few shows at Stade Roi Baudouin (Ed Sheeran, Coldplay) or in big parks (Rammstein), we’re surprised this show wasn’t in a stadium!
Amyl and The Sniffers was the opener of the show but playing only a couple of minutes after the doors opened, it was almost impossible to see them. Whoever made this stupid schedule should re-think about his/her job. Fortunately, we were inside on time to catch Weezer who got 1h to play all their biggest hits and a few new songs with a full production on stage. Second opening act on the schedule but the size of an headliner for sure. But not for the second biggest arena of Europe. Great atmosphere. People happy in the crowd. Musicians happy on stage. But people still needed to warm-up a bit and the song that helped them was… a cover: Enter Sandman (from Metallica of course). Before another cover later in the set: Africa (Toto). The highlights of the show were obviously Say It Ain’t and Buddy Holly to finish the set.
Set-list: Hash Pipe, Beverly Hills, My Name Is Jonas, Prk And Beans, A Little Bit Of Love, Records, All My Favorite Songs, Undone – The Sweater Song, Enter Sandman (Metallica cover), I Just Threw Out The Love Of My Dreams, Island In The Sun, Africa (Toto Cover), California Snow, Say It Ain’t, Buddy Holly.
A short break and the third band was on stage. Or what we could name the co-headliner of the evening: Fall Out Boy. It’s been a while since they’ve played an indoor show in Belgium. And spoiler alert: they made the best return they could have ever made. A big production with pyros everywhere, we could have ended the evening with them without any problems. During a bit more than 1h, they played 15 songs including so many legendary hits. Sugar We’re Goin Down, Dance Dance, Thanks For The Memories, Centuries and so many more.
The oldest songs got a way better reaction from the crowd obviously but still were good enough to party. A few artifices were not needed like the piano on fire during Save Rock And Roll or the drums riser for less than 2 songs. But it’s really to quibble about small details. Fall Out Boy played like they were the headliners of the evening and most of the people reacted like that.
Set-list: The Phoenix, Sugar We’re Goin Down, Irresistible, Uma thurman, Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy, Save Rock And Roll, The Last Of The Real Ones, Dance Dance, A Little Less Sixten Candles a Little More, I Don’t Care, This Airn’t A Scene It’s An Arms Race, My Songs know What You Did In The Dark (Light Em PUp), Thanks For The Memories, Centuries, Saturday.
That being said, the main reason everybody were in Antwerp this June 21th was obviously to see for the first or again – like us – Green Day. Because of the strong line-up, they play “only” 2 hours on this tour. And not the usual 2h30 (at least) which is a good news: they got focused on the classics and less on the last boring albums. The newest songs they played came from “21st Century Breakdown”, their last great full-length released… in 2009. Already 13 years ago! A long time for a band that celebrate their 35th Birthday in 2022.
When you attend a Green Day show, you know exactly what you gonna have: Bohemian Rhapsody to warm-up the crowd before the show followed by a drunken bunny, tons of classics, many effects on stage, Billie asking you hundreds of time to sing, Billie bringing a fan on stage to play a song on his guitar (Know Your Enemy but also Knowledge), some covers (not AC/DC this time but Kiss), too long solos from the additional live musicians and having a fuckin’ great time, even if you’ve already seen the band plenty of times.
Of course, the songs from “American Idiot” were all the biggest highlights of the show, with Good Riddance that is still so beautiful live and a good way to finish a powerful show. With the same question: when are we gonna have an anniversary tour of “American Idiot” playing in full?! Even the biggest stadiums won’t be enough for this.
Set-list: American Idiot, Holiday, Know Your Enemy, Boulevard Of Broken Dreams, Longview, Welcome To Paradise, Hitchin’ A Ride, Rock And Roll All Nite (Kiss cover), Brain Stew, St. Jimmy, When I Come Around, Waiting, 21 Guns, Minority, Knowledge (Operation Ivy cover), Basket Case, King For A Day, Shout (The Isley Brothers cover), Wake Me Up When September End, Jesus Of Suburbia, Good Riddance.
There’s definitively a pop-punk revival since 2 or 3 years. This nostalgic tour with Green Day, Fall Out Boy and Weezer. The other nostalgic tour in October with Sum 41 and Simple Plan. New acts using the pop-punk vibes like Olivia Rodrigo, Machine Gun Kelly aka MGK, the “When We Were Young” festival in USA. We just need a Good Charlotte show to make it perfect. Awaiting this, this Hella Mega Tour was a real success!