Green Day's New Fire

Arena tour includes marathon gigs, lots of ‘American Idiot’

- Andy Greene

BILLIE JOE armstrong is sitting backstage at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., about a mile from the White House, where Donald Trump is currently meeting with Republicans about a health care plan that would rob 24 million Americans of their insurance. But Armstrong is not planning to talk about the news onstage. “I don’t want to go negative,” he says. “I feel like it’s a way of throwing more fuel on the fire. We’re in a bit of a crisis mode, and for me it’s more important that people feel unity when they come to a show.”

But once he hit the stage, Armstrong couldn’t help himself. During “Letterbomb,” one of seven songs Green Day play from their Bush-era protest LP, American Idiot, he launches into a rant about the Trump administration’s assault on truth. “I can’t stand any more of these goddamn conspiracy theories,” he screams. “I’m sick of the blatant lies and the half-truths and the untruths! I want the truth!” He gets agitated when he sees a fan up front filming. “If you’re looking through a screen, you aren’t looking at me,” he says. “You stare at that cellphone for 24 hours a day. Not tonight!”