Green Day @ Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, 29 Jun

“We’ve been counting down the minutes, hours, seconds 'til we could be here with you, Glasgow,” Billie Joe Armstrong shouts at the thousands gathered in a warm field in the south of the city. Three years since the magnificently named Hella Mega Tour was announced, and after two postponements thanks to you-know-what, the co-headline Green Day and Friends Tour™ rolls into town for a night of pure punk partying. 

After a rousing early set by Aussie punks Amyl and the Sniffers, everyone’s favourite dad-rockers, Weezer, take to the stage to deliver a high-octane set of throwback tunes. As is custom for Rivers Cuomo and co, they also dish out some popular covers, including Toto's Africa and Metallica’s Enter Sandman, before wrapping up on their huge singalong, Buddy Holly.

Next up is Fall Out Boy, who merge their old pop-punk and newer, poppier numbers alongside mesmerising on-screen visuals, fireworks, confetti cannons, and even a piano on fire(!) as they smash through hits like Dance, Dance, Thnks fr th Mmrs, and Centuries. The crowd are now so warmed up that you fear they might become flammable.

The stage lights flash red and, following a mash-up of Bohemian Rhapsody, I Love Rock’n’Roll, and Blitzkrieg Bop, Green Day take to the stage with the gut-punch of opener American Idiot forcing the full-capacity field into full voice.

“This is Glasgow!” Armstrong screams, reminding both himself and the booze-fuelled partygoers busy busting a move to Holiday, before holding aloft a Scotland flag to almighty shrieks. The energy is utterly rampant and it all stems from the dynamic frontman who, between almost every verse, is engaged in back-and-forths with the crowd and raising the atmosphere. Know Your Enemy continues that trend as Armstrong calls an overjoyed fan on stage to sing and daringly stage dive into the jubilant crowd occupying this beer-soaked plain. 

By the mid-point, it’s clear that this is a Greatest Superhits kind of Green Day set, as they whizz through a host of nostalgic tracks like When I Come Around, Waiting, and Minority without missing a single beat. Armstrong brings on a fan to take over guitar duty on Basket Case, and while they hit *ahem* few of the correct notes, the mood remains intact before Armstrong tells them to keep the guitar to a rapturous cheer.

The party pauses for a poignant performance of Wake Me Up When September Ends, before the epic punk saga reaches its conclusion with the nine-minute sonic spectacle of Jesus Of Surburbia closing a superb set. And, as is surely custom, Armstrong returns for a one-hit acoustic encore of Green Day’s maximus opus, Good Riddance – and you'd probably hear the voices singing this one from Edinburgh.

For the veteran punks, this was a ‘Hella Mega’ return to our beautiful shores and a reminder that these quasi-festival shows are killer; punk music is well and truly alive and, more importantly, Green Day have still absolutely, unequivocally and totally got it.