Green Day’s The Saviors Tour

Production rehearsals for Green Day’s The Saviors Tour began in April 2024, with the world tour kicking off in May in Spain. The show celebrates the 30th anniversary of the album Dookie and the 20th anniversary of American Idiot with the band playing both albums in their entirety along with hits from Green Day’s 14th studio album, Saviors.

Green Day tasked The Playground, a creative collective and production house, with creating a production design for the tour, which consisted of three distinct acts, each giving each album its own identity.

“We knew the tour was rooting to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Dookie, as well as the 20th of American Idiot and the release of their latest album Saviors,” commented Corinne Merolla, Production Designer alongside Sooner Routhier. “Our goal was to create a trilogy for this show. We approached it in three sections, with three completely different art and creative directions – scenic elements, content and Notch design – for each to capture and reveal the essence of each individual album.”

“We created a deck with 3D models, renders, sketches, iMag and Notch treatment FX as examples and some ideas of what we wanted the content to look like.”

The set design is crafted around the Claypaky Tambora Flash and its unique ability to mould into what looks like an audio line array. The main inspiration was a combination of sound and light to highlight the band’s high-energy stage presence.

Using dummy cabinets and arced arrays of the Tambora Flashes, Playground designed a set that curves slightly inward and back as if the set is exploding from the stage.

The shape accentuates the large inflatables crafted for Dookie and American Idiot.

“We knew we wanted to recreate the classic album covers for each album-themed act as much as possible,” added Sooner. “We immediately thought of inflatables as an easy way to get large scenic pieces to deploy quickly and thus change the stage instantly for each act. We also wanted to incorporate as much pyrotechnics as possible. We designed a pyro “armory” made of Claypaky Tambora lights and dummy guitar cabinets. We also placed flame bars across the drums and wings to expand the look of fire across the stage. The large video “eyebrow” above the downstage edge is the “inflatable garage”, hiding it when it’s unused. It also acts as a large scenic extension to extend the content across the entire stage.”

Their Sydney show was the last time they staged the entire production, although the band will continue touring for the next few months, playing at festivals worldwide.

Chameleon Touring Systems supplied the lighting and crew with their good friends at Upstaging supplying the whopping 300 Claypaky Tambora Flash required for the rig and set.

“We do have a smaller version of that set for the festival run that allows us to use the lower deck on air freight,” Lighting Director Tommy Horton commented.

The lighting rig has only four fixture types: Claypaky Tambora Flash, Ayrton Perseo, and Robe BMFL, with a few TMB Solaris Flare Q+.

“The daily build is pretty consistent, which is great,” added Tommy. “There’s only one spot in the three layers of trusses upstage. There is a Follow-Me tracking system, so the calibration takes some time. Fortunately, we usually have a load-in day so we can focus most of our stuff at night. But, you know, it was pretty simple working with only four fixture types.”

Although the rig is limited in fixture choice, programmer Dane Kick was very creative, especially with the Tambora Flash, saying that they helped shape the overall design.

“Dane did a great job interpreting the songs and the rhythms with creative patterns,” Tommy said. “I mean, most of the action is in the Tamboras; there’s so much creativity in them. With the grandMA3 Effects Engine, you’re allowed to do so much more, just in the creative patterns and chases that it’s running.”

Tommy was impressed by the 144 Ayrton Perseo’s performance. He added that he liked their gobo patterns and that they were equal in brightness to the fixtures they usually use.

The 35 TMB Solaris Flare Q+ lit the cloud set piece, and was used as a backlight behind the set and within downstage risers.

Four of the 10 Robe BMFL Spots were in the mother grid, with three more per side hanging from upstage side trusses. Those were primarily for the Follow-Me system.

The control was a grandMA3 full-size for the lighting and two grandMA3 light consoles for the media servers, one of which was located backstage.

Tommy has been using MA3 mode for 18 months and says he found the transition from MA2 relatively simple.

“It took a couple of weeks, but once I took a class with ACT, I got my head around it with the layouts and everything that Dane had used. Yeah, it was a nice transition. It’s funny because I’ve been on it for a year and a half now, and I’m not sure I could go back to MA2 as it would be a learning curve to go back now.”

Tommy admits that grandMA3 mode makes the show easier for him due to the powerful effects engine. He says he is learning more about Recipes with the help of his FOH Tech and Programmer, Brandon Jeffery.

“Brandon knows grandMA3 mode more than me, so we’re getting quicker when we do festivals,” said Tommy. “He’s reorganised the files quite a bit, so we’re using more Recipes, which definitely helps.”

Tommy remarks that Chameleon Touring Systems and their crew all did a great job.

“We didn’t have any problems,” he remarked. “All the lighting was very well prepped, and their commitment to helping us create a great show was appreciated. Unfortunately, we were unable to do the show in Brisbane due to the cyclone, but hopefully, we will be able to return in the future.”