Green Day surprised commuters in New York last night (January 16) with a busking performance that featured Jimmy Fallon.
Ahead of their intimate gig at the Irving Plaza on Thursday (January 18) and the subsequent release of their new album ‘Saviors’, Green Day were in town, where it was previously teased that they would be doing something special for The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, though they’re not scheduled to appear on the show.
Word of a potential impromptu gig quickly began making its way around the internet, and commuters at the Rockefeller Center subway station took to social media to share images of musical equipment and cameras being set up on the platforms.
Who are these guys? pic.twitter.com/H8I5ZAupEB
— Green Day Inc. (@GreenDayInc) January 17, 2024
Fans then began sharing footage of the band arriving in costumes, flanked by Jimmy Fallon, who joined the trio to perform all six songs of their setlist. Fallon played the tambourine. The band, per postings from those in attendance, played an acoustic set that included a cover of Bad Company’s ‘Feel Like Makin’ Love’, ‘Basket Case’, ‘Look Ma, No Brains!’, Kiss’ ‘Rock And Roll All Nite’, ‘Dilemma’ and ‘American Idiot’.
Watch fan-shot footage of the gig below.
Leaving work and stumbled upon an impromptu #GreenDay concert in the subway 😭 one of my coolest rock center moments (it was really them I’m just really short) pic.twitter.com/pNyhT99XsZ
— Sara Macias (@SaraGMacias) January 17, 2024
screaming kiss with @greenday in a subway is such a great way to end my day pic.twitter.com/jXB4ov8Js1
— spooky caiti 👻 (@heyitscaiti) January 17, 2024
American Idiot on the NYC subway for @jimmyfallon
Via @mawi31 #greenday pic.twitter.com/yvUeO44bv5— Green Day Inc. (@GreenDayInc) January 17, 2024
It is currently unclear when the pre-recorded footage of the busking gig will air on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Green Day are set to release their 14th album ‘Saviors’ on Friday, January 19. In a four-star review of the record for NME, Andrew Trendell wrote: “There’s also some serendipity in the band hitting the road to celebrate 30 years of ‘Dookie’ and 20 years of ‘American Idiot’ later this summer.”
“Not only does ‘Saviors’ spiritually bridge the gap between the two, but it uses the palette of the best of the band to tell us something else. Look to the artwork: ‘Dookie’ was a cheeky carpet-bombing of shit, ‘American Idiot’ was a hand grenade, ‘Saviors’ is an act of defiance met with a shrug; a band saying, ‘We’re still here and we’re still fucked’.”
