Green Day play ‘Dookie’ during Reading Festival 2013 headline show

Billie Joe Armstrong also pulls out toy guns, toilet rolls and T-shirts at Richfield Avenue

Green Day played a spectacular set tonight (August 23) as they headlined this year’s Reading Festival.

Much like their warm up show at London’s O2 Brixton Academy on Wednesday (August 21), the band played their third album, 1994’s ‘Dookie’, from start to finish in between some of their greatest hits for a mammoth two-and-a-half hour set. Billie Joe Armstrong and co came on to the Main Stage to huge applause after they were introduced by a giant, dancing pink rabbit, which had drummer Tre Cool’s name emblazoned on the back.

Kicking off with ’99 Revolutions’, frontman Armstrong declared, “Reading, are you ready?” before they started proceedings. The trio then went straight into into ‘Know Your Enemy’, before Armstrong pulled a fan out of the crowd and up on stage to sing the track with him.

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Keeping up the pace with ‘Stay The Night’, the singer called on the audience to up their game. “This is no fucking party I have to admit. Come on, this ain’t just any festival, this is the greatest festival in the world,” he said. He also confessed: “When I first started playing punk rock music, I used to get my arse kicked. Everyone thought I was a freak. Now I’m surrounded by many freaks.”

The band later sparked mass singalongs for ‘Holiday’, ‘When September Ends’ and ‘Boulevard Of Broken Dreams’, the latter of which saw Armstrong bow down to the crowd and collapse in a heap.

Introducing ‘Dookie’ to a huge backdrop of the album cover, Armstrong declared: “Ladies and gentlemen next year 2014 will mark 20 years of ‘Dookie’ so we’re gonna play it from the back to the front.”

The ‘Dookie’ section of the set, which also saw the band play a brief cover of AC/DC’s ‘Highway To Hell’, culminated in Armstrong pulling out a huge water gun which he showered the crowd with. He then pulled out a huge gun with toilet roll on the end and proceeded to cover the cameraman at the side of the stage. The singer finally pulled out a third smoking gun which fired out white T-shirts in to the crowd.

As they wrapped up the set, the crowd sang along to ‘American Idiot’ and ‘Jesus Of Suburbia’ before Armstrong closed the night with a solitary performance of ‘Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)’.

Green Day played:

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’99 Revolutions’
‘Know Your Enemy’
‘Stay The Night’
‘Stop When The Red Lights Flash’
‘Letterbomb’
‘Holiday’
‘Boulevard Of Broken Dreams’
‘Let Yourself Go’
‘Wake Me Up When September Ends’
‘Burnout’
‘Having a Blast’
‘Chump’
‘Longview’
‘Welcome To Paradise’
‘Pulling Teeth’
‘Basket Case’
‘She’
‘Sassafras Roots’
‘Highway To Hell’/’When I Come Around’
‘Coming Clean’
‘Emenius Sleepus’
‘In the End’
‘FOD’
‘St Jimmy’
‘Waiting’
‘Minority’
‘American Idiot’
‘Jesus Of Suburbia’
‘Brutal Love’
‘Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)’

See NME.COM/festivals/reading-and-leeds, Readingfestival.com and Leedsfestival.com for more information about this summer’s events.

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