Initially announced on September 10, 2019, rock band Green Day publicized that they would be hosting a grouped worldwide tour titled the “Hella Mega Tour.” Included on the tour would be their fellow graduates from the MTV class of 1994, Weezer. Accompanying them was the early 2000s rock band, Fall Out Boy, and L.A. ska band, The Interrupters. 

Originally planning to launch the tour in the summer of 2020, the first concert was set to take place on June 13 in Paris, France. Eventually hitting North America on July 17 at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park and ending on August 29 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. 

However, due to the increase of COVID-19 cases globally, the tour was suspended until the pandemic cooled down. At first, tickets for the concerts were prepared to be refunded, however, it was decided to delay the tour until the summer of 2021. 

On July 24, 2021, the Hella Mega tour was finally able to start with their emotional launch in Arlington, Texas at the Global Life Field, where roughly 35,000 people stood in the audience. Starting off the night was the bands’ special guest, The Interrupters, playing their unique take on Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy.”

Following The Interrupters was 90s hit rock band Weezer, where they performed hit songs such as “Say It Ain’t So” and “Island In The Sun.” Since Weezer’s take on Toto’s “Africa” became a surprising hit on the radio, the band has been extremely busy with shows. 

After Weezer ended, Fall Out Boy took the stage with their hit songs “Centuries” and “Dance, Dance.” Having not taken part in one of the 1990s hit rock bands, lead singer for Fall Out Boy, Pete Wenz, believes Fall Out Boy is considered the “odd ones out.”

“Imagine what a [discomfiture] this is for our band,” Wenz stated. “Our band is so influenced by these bands that to be on a stadium tour with them is absolutely mind-blowing. Dream big, you know what I mean?”

Green Day stole the show by breaking out with their hit song, “American Idiot.” Next, they played classics from their 1994 album Dookie, including “Longview” and “Welcome to Paradise.” When the main attraction, Green Day, hit the stage the crowd went wild, men tore off their shirts and began ramming into one another.

“Take a look around you. This is human contact. We cannot be locked up anymore. We need to be together,” lead singer for Green Day, Billie Joe Armstrong said in the article Green Day, Weezer, Fall Out Boy Launch ‘Hella Mega’ With Epic, Emotional Dallas Concert by Andy Greene. 

After continuing their tour in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and more the bands finally landed in San Diego where they played at Petco Park on August 29, 2021 for their 18th Hella Mega concert.

The concert was tackled the same as it was in Dallas, with the Interrupters starting off the night. Leaving Weezer, Fall Out Boy and finally Green Day to finish out the show. Attending the concert with her brother and parents, Sage Creek Senior, Portia Cannon stated that Fall Out Boy’s light shows were very entertaining. However, the band couldn’t outdo Green Day’s classic performance.

“Green Day has to top [Fall Out Boy] just by a little bit because the lead singer, he was really interactive with the crowd and just really funny,” Cannon said. “My favorite [songs] would be ‘Wake Me Up When September Ends’ and also ‘21 Guns’ [because they] make me cry a lot too…so I was like streaming down tears at the end.”

Seniors Christian Hope and Koston Adams both agreed that Green Day’s performance of “Jesus of Suburbia” was played very well. Adams describes the audience at Petco Park’s concert to be enormous.

“The crowd was massive, the stadium was almost completely filled…Inside the stadium there were a few merch tables and there were people in the outer rim of the stadium that were sitting down and there were folding chairs inside of the stadium and then there were also a mosh pits where I was,” Adams stated. 

Alongside Adams in the mosh pit was Hope, who shares his experience in being lucky enough to gain a free souvenir from the concert. 

“I was in the pit right next to the band and after every song [The Interrupters] would throw out picks and I caught one of the guitar picks, which was really cool,” Hope said. 

After the performance at Petco Park, the Hella Mega Tour was continued in Milwaukee, Los Angeles and Seattle. The next concert will be taking place in Austria at the Ernst-Happel Stadion on June 19, 2022. The last Hella Mega concert will be in Nanterre, France held at the Paris La Défense Arena on July 2, 2022.