Green Day, Weezer and Fall Out Boy are joining forces for the Hella Mega stadium tour, which will kick off June 13th, 2020 in Paris, France and hit North America the following month. The first U.S. date is July 17th at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park and wraps up August 29th at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. All three bands, however, will come together Tuesday night for a special preview show at the Whiskey A Go Go in Los Angeles.
Green Day have been off the road since their Revolution Radio tour wrapped up in November 2017, while Fall Out Boy have had a largely quiet year with the exception of three festival dates this summer. Weezer, however, have been extremely active ever since their cover of Toto’s “Africa” became a surprise radio hit last year.
The Los Angeles-based ska punk band the Interrupters are also on the tour and will play first every night. They will be followed by Weezer, Fall Out Boy and then Green Day to close out the show.
Armstrong said the Hella Mega tour was a Green Day idea. “We talked about how we weren’t really wanting to do stadiums and do something that was like throwback to the Monsters of Rock Tour,” he said, referencing a series of metal tours in the 1980s and early 1990s featuring Van Halen, Metallica, Faith No More, Dio and Aerosmith. “There was, of course, Fall Out Boy and Weezer and now we’re stoked.”
Wentz made a slightly different historical comparison. “I remember, in the 1990s, there was this one summer, and Guns N’ Roses [and] Metallica went on the stadium tour and my parents didn’t let me go to it,” he said. “And I feel trapped in that forever and we wanted to recreate that memory.”
To promote the tour, all three bands released new songs. Green Day’s song “Father of All…” comes from their upcoming album of the same name, which arrives in February. “[The album] is only 26 minutes long, so it’s the shortest record we’ve made, I think since Dookie or Insomnia,” Billie Joe Armstrong told Zane Lowe on Apple Music’s Beats 1. “I realized I hate long songs.”
Weezer’s new song “The End of the Game” comes from their upcoming LP Van Weezer, which will arrive next May. “It’s like The Blue Album but with more riffs,” Cuomo told Lowe. “Metal, hard rock riffs. But it’s still pretty catchy pop rock.”
Fall Out Boy wrote their new song “Dear Future (Hands Up),” featuring Wyclef Jean, for their upcoming compilation album Greatest Hits: Believers Never Die – Volume Two. “We’ve always been big fans of Fugees and Wyclef,” Wentz told Lowe. “He’s got an incredible sense of melody that’s kind of out there. It’s like you can tell it’s a mix from all over kind of the globe, which is cool and super inspired by seeing my kids that they just listen to song to song to song to song and it’s going from Queen to [Lil Uzi Vert].”
Green Day and Weezer both broke through to mainstream success in 1994 thanks to multiplatinum albums that spawned a series of goofy videos that went into heavy rotation on MTV. Their paths have diverged over the years, but they remain two of the most popular acts from that generation still on the road.
Fall Out Boy achieved mainstream success a decade after Green Day and Weezer’s initial surge of popularity, but they are huge fans of both bands. In 2015, the band inducted Green Day into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “Everything you guys do is punk rock in the sense that you’ve never gone the easy route, the obvious route, the safe route,” Wentz said that night. “You’ve never repeated yourselves, you’ve never done anything to please the suits.”
Wentz also told the crowd that Fall Out Boy had never opened up for Green Day. “Honestly part of us kind of likes it that way,” he said. “Because Green Day is honestly one of the best live bands on the planet right now. If you’ve ever opened for them, they put on a show that’s so epic and engaging, that the audience absolutely forgot about you halfway through their first legendary singalong chorus and an assault of confetti cannons. If you’ve ever played after them…sorry.”
Next year, Fall Out Boy will finally face their ultimate challenge: playing before Green Day.
Green Day/Weezer/Fall Out Boy Hella Mega Tour
June 13, 2020 – Paris, France @ La Defense Arena
June 14 – Groningen, Netherlands @ Stadspark
June 17 – Antwerp, Belgium @ Sportpaleis
June 21 – Vienna, Austria @ Ernst Happel Stadium
June 24 – Glasgow, Scotland @ Bellahouston Park
June 26 – London, England @ London Stadium
June 27 – Huddersfield, England @ The John Smith’s Stadium
June 29 – Dublin, Ireland @ RDS Arena
July 17 – Seattle, WA @ T-Mobile Park
July 21 – San Francisco, CA @ Oracle Park
July 24 – San Diego, CA @ Petco Park
July 25 – Los Angeles, CA @ Dodger Stadium
July 28 – Commerce City, CO @ DICK’s Sporting Goods Park
July 31 – Arlington, TX @ Globe Life Field
August 1 – Houston, TX @ Minute Maid Park
August 5 – Miami, FL @ Hard Rock Stadium
August 6 – Jacksonville, FL @ TIAA Bank Field
August 8 – Atlanta, GA @ SunTrust Park
August 11 – Minneapolis, MN @ Target Field
August 13 – Chicago IL @ Wrigley Field
August 15 – Pittsburgh, PA @ PNC Park
August 16 – Hershey, PA @ Hersheypark Stadium
August 19 – Detroit, MI @ Comerica Park
August 21 – Washington, DC @ Nationals Park
August 22 – New York, NY @ Citi Field
August 24 – Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre
August 27 – Boston, MA @ Fenway Park
August 29 – Philadelphia, PA @ Citizens Bank Park
