5 standout moments from Green Day's Cincinnati show, including an actual meteor sighting
The Banks became the boulevard of broken dreams Thursday night – and we're not talking about the Bengals' third preseason loss.
Punk rock fans came out in their finest flannels for Green Day's Saviors Tour at Great American Ball Park. Pyrotechnics, hot air balloons and strobe lights delighted thousands in the stadium as the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees transported Cincinnati to the land of head-banging.
Green Day devoted much of its set to tracks from its third studio album, "Dookie," which released 30 years ago. The set design also paid homage to the 1994 album, with a collection of glowing balloons onstage depicting the cartoonish bomb displayed on the album's cover.
A trio of opening acts offered fans an entire evening of punk music, as The Smashing Pumpkins, Rancid and The Linda Lindas got the crowd warmed up and rowdy.
Here are five standout moments from the night.
5 standout moments from Green Day at Great American Ball Park
The Linda Lindas gave us a glimpse into the future of punk rock
The Linda Lindas, an all-female rock band from Los Angeles, embodied the next generation of punk rock with an electric performance, commanding the stage with youthful spunk and determination.
The group is made up of Bela Salazar (the oldest at 19), Eloise Wong and sisters Lucia and Mila de la Garza (the latter is youngest of the bunch at just 14 years old). The Linda Lindas delivered a near-flawless performance, flexing punchy group vocals reminiscent of female punk pioneers Joan Jett and Bikini Kill.
Edgy political lyrics were also on full display during the track "Racist, Sexist Boy" which Wong introduced after seemingly calling out former U.S. President Donald Trump, "Everyone make sure to vote so no racist sexist boy becomes our president."
Wong led the vocals of the track with stunning grit and Lucia de la Garza offered supporting vocals, head-banging and fervently strumming her guitar in between each line. Ultimately, The Linda Lindas' stage performance demonstrated an irreverent vibrancy, showing that anyone, no matter their age, can rock.
Rancid upped the ante
The angsty atmosphere reached a new level when Rancid – a punk rock band formed in Berkeley, California, in 1991 – took the stage.
The group's dedication to high-intensity rock reached a head during its track "Ghost of a Chance" from the 2017 album "Trouble Maker." Tim Armstrong, the group's frontman, led vocals, offering the same strained passion that made counterparts, such as Green Day, pillars of the punk rock genre. Guitarists Matt Freeman and Lars Frederiksen played a thunderous instrumental, making the ballpark vibrate with their booming guitar riffs.
The Smashing Pumpkins brought its Windy City grunge to the Queen City
The audience was transported to Chicago's grunge rock scene once The Smashing Pumpkins, the 1988 alternative rock band formed in the Windy City, graced the stage.
Frontman Billy Corgan stepped out in an ankle-length black frock, embodying a villainous superstar power. He showcased his musical prowess during the band's dynamic cover of U2's 1991 track "Zoo Station." Guitarist James Iha also shined during the cover, effortlessly producing a piercing guitar solo.
Toward the end of the song, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin delivered a drum solo with the rhythmic precision of a hundred-man marching band, hitting a final blow that echoed over the crowd as the song concluded.
Billie Joe Armstrong offered a Freddie Mercury-flair throughout the Green Day set
Fans came wanting to rock and roll, and Green Day delivered. The band flexed its unwavering chemistry and musicality while treating fans to the angsty anthems that put the group on the forefront of punk rock through the '90s and into the 2000s.
Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong commanded the stage with a Freddie Mercury-flair, incorporating Queen references that were hard to miss. The band's iconic track "Bohemian Rhapsody" played in the moments before Armstrong took the stage.
And, as a charming motif throughout the set, Armstrong provoked the crowd with Mercury's signature "ay-oh" vocal improvisation. Armstrong's allusions to the legendary British rock band underlined that, much like Queen did, Green Day captivates a loyal fan base with its performances. And the fans at Great American Ball Park were no exception.
Look up! It's a plane! It's a meteor!
What's more rock 'n' roll than a giant fireball flying through the sky?
Green Day inadvertently foreshadowed the meteor that flew over Cincinnati and Kentucky Thursday night. Fans were already looking up at the sky while the band played its 1994 hit "Emenius Sleepus," as a hot air balloon in the shape of a "dookie" plane was dragged across the field. The balloon stopped in the middle of the ballpark where it dropped inflatable missile-shaped "dookies" on the crowd.
Turns out, another flying object would grab the audience's attention later on in the show.
A Reddit user said concertgoers witnessed a "giant fireball fly across the sky," which they said made many people gasp. Other reports from the area flooded in to the American Meteor Society, including some in Groesbeck, Loveland and even throughout the Dayton area.
Wes Ryle, the astronomer for the Cincinnati Observatory, confirmed people did, in fact, see a meteor.
What a way for fans to cap off an epic night.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: 5 epic moments from Green Day in Cincy, including a meteor sighting