Green Day’s performance at Woodstock ’94 would forever cement them in mud as one of the breakout acts of the ’90s. And while their nine-song setlist didn’t feature anything too out of the ordinary for the band at the time, it was the performance that remains memorable to this day and proved to be one of the moments that everyone remembers from Woodstock ’94.
Setting the Stage
Though Green Day had two previous albums under their belt, 1994’s Dookie was the album that put them in front of the masses for the first time. The album arrived on Feb. 1, 1994 and the band had enjoyed heavy radio and MTV play for the first single “Longview.” The group was just starting to get their footing with the second song released from the album, “Basket Case,” which officially became a single two weeks prior to Woodstock ’94.
The band had been building their reputation for live performances on Lollapalooza that summer, and took a day off from the tour just to accept the invite to play Woodstock ’94. But as they were a newer band, they had a mid-day set on the South Stage on Sunday (Aug. 14) and were playing opposite Bob Dylan, who agreed to play the ’94 edition of Woodstock after missing out on the ’69 edition.
Though the 1994 edition had co-opted the “peace and love” messaging of the original festival 25 years prior, the sponsored backing, the pay-per-view broadcast and the costly ticketing smacked of a corporate event, something that didn’t exactly jive with the punk ethos of Green Day at the time. The result was a somewhat antagonistic set by the band with the crowd that evolved into a giant mud fight that had everyone buzzing by the time the set was through.
What Did Green Day Play at Woodstock ’94?
For a band just starting to garner their audience, the set wasn’t too much of a surprise. They opened with “Welcome to Paradise,” a song that would become a hit down the road but was primarily known as a holdover on the Dookie album from their previous Kerplunk record.
Both “Longview” and “Basket Case” would receive warm reactions as both were the band’s most familiar songs with the Woodstock crowd, but admittedly only the hardcore Green Day fans at the event might have known the songs that made up the rest of the set.
Green Day Woodstock ’94 Setlist – Aug. 14, 1994 at Winston Farm in Saugerties, N.Y. (per Setlist.fm)
1. “Welcome to Paradise”
2. “One of My Lies”
3. “Chump”
4. “Longview”
5. “Basket Case”
6. “When I Come Around”
7. “Burnout”
8. “F.O.D.”
9. “Paper Lanterns” (with snippets of “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and “Fight for Your Right”)
Why Did Green Day’s Woodstock ’94 Set Become Legendary?
Simply put, it was a combination of factors that made for one memorable performance. As stated, Green Day sniffed out the corporate vibe of the event immediately and made note of it during their set. “How you doing all you rich motherfuckers” bassist Mike Dirnt said at the top of their performance.
While appearing on the Member Guest Podcast, drummer Tre Cool recalled, “’94 Woodstock was a complete shit show. It was a Pepsi-sponsored thing, it was, like, worldwide televised pay-per-view and all that stuff, and every band of significance was there. It was crazy. And of course people start going around the fence and sneaking in, and it kind of became mayhem. And then bad weather came and it was raining like crazy and the whole place became a mud pit. It was pretty chaotic, and set up really well for Green Day to take the stage and make all hell break loose.”
Speaking of the weather, rain had been prevalent through the weekend and a downpour prior to Green Day set had left the stamped out dusty pit area near the front of the stage now turned into a mud pit.
After the second song, “One of My Lies,” Mike Dirnt made note of what was starting up in the crowd, stating, “We suggest that you throw mud. That’s fun.” And as the show continued, more mud started being hurled from the audience toward the stage. At one point between “Basket Case” and “When I Come Around,” singer Billie Joe Armstrong caught a clump and put it in his mouth much to the delight of the crowd.
After “When I Come Around,” the once clean stage looked almost splatter-filled and by the penultimate song “F.O.D.” fans started trying to get up on the stage as well. As things turned more chaotic during the finale “Paper Lanterns,” Billie Joe Armstrong eventually tossed his guitar and started firing back clumps of mud back into the audience. Mike Dirnt began to roll around in the filth and Armstrong even mooned the audience while begging for more mud to be thrown his way. “This isn’t public peace, it’s fucking anarchy,” the singer shouted.
As an extended jam took place while all this was going on, Armstrong told the audience that they simply needed to tell them to “shut the fuck up” and they’d stop. The crowd did, and the band ended their song, leaving the stage as “Green Day” chants then persisted as fans rushed the stage. Oddly enough, one of the security guards mistook Dirnt for a fan rushing the stage and tackled him to the ground, knocking out multiple teeth in the process.
READ MORE: 10 Unforgettable Billie Joe Armstrong Moments
“It was punk as fuck, and nobody expected that to happen,” Cool recalled of the Woodstock ’94 performance. “It was a crazy set – a set that changed our whole lives, really, after that day, tons of people were showing up at our shows. That was kind of the pivot moment – that was the green jacket moment for this band.”
Recalling the moment he mooned the audience, Armstrong later told Rolling Stone that his mother sent him a “hate letter” after the event. “She said that I was disrespectful and indecent and that if my father was alive, he would be ashamed of me. She couldn’t believe that I pulled my pants down and got in a fight onstage. She even talked shit about my wife, Adrienne, and how she’s supposed to be my loving wife, but she’s never even come over and visited. It was pretty brutal.”
As stated, while the show was not intended by the band, how it played out had people now talking about Green Day. Their Dookie album would rise from No. 19 to No. 4 on the Billboard chart following the event, receiving one of the biggest bumps from the performance.
Green Day at Woodstock ’94
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Gallery Credit: Chad Childers, Loudwire
