Billie Joe Armstrong asked for submissions of Green Day live clips from fans via his Instagram account (with the hashtag #billiejoescampfire) and offered to provide some stories he remembered about them. The videos linked below are the full concerts (when available) and Billie’s comments on them. Click the “posted to Instagram” date under each video to be taken to the source post.
Show Date: April 26, 1991
Posted to Instagram: May 29, 2019
Where is this from?? It looks like a living room. 1992. South Dakota?
Note: Show took place in 1991 at the Nordic Hall in Sioux Falls, SD.
Show Date: December 21, 1991
Posted To Instagram: May 25, 2019
SouthHampton 1991? We played with a band jail cell recipes . They let us use their equipment every night we played with them in England. Great guys. This was our official unofficial release of kerplunk. Larry Livermore smuggled our records on the plane from sfo to England. He was also running around with Mr T Experience who were playing shows in Europe as well Opening for fugazi.. The orange shorts I’m wearing are from a bag of clothes we found in the street. I probably got a disease from them. That night I fell off the stage behind the amp. I thought for a split second I was dead. Turns out I lived. Def Leppard video came on as I was writing this so I included it. Seeings how it was the first song mike and I played together.. or maybe it was purple haze?
Show Date: June 27, 1990
Posted to Instagram: May 24, 2019
Billings Montana 1990. This was such a fun show. Here’s to all the kids that put on shows at VFW halls. we a bought a bottle of bleach (lady clarol blue). We bleached our hair in front of the building. The locals took us to a little river run lake type place and we jumped off a bridge in the water. Maybe it was a rope swing.. Such a fun time. I never had so many mosquito bites in my life. People in the crowd danced and pogo’d. Great hospitality. Thanks Billings!
Show Date: May 21, 1992
Posted to Instagram: May 23, 2019
May 1992. St Peter? Minnesota.. this show started in a backyard in Mankato. The cops broke it up so the kids moved it to a basement across town.. once again the cops show up and shut it down.. after that the entire show moved to a farm in the middle of elsewhere. I remember seeing a row of car headlights at twilight.. We played on top of a spool and pickup truck.. on a farm. The wildest of dreams.. field of dreams. Ha! Someone did a stage dive (spool dive?) and smashed the microphone in my mouth. Chipped my tooth 🦷.. these are always the moments that are most meaningful to me.. priceless. Timeless.
Show Date: October 20, 1991
Posted to Instagram: May 22, 2019
This is a funny bit. Maybe not. The dude on stage next to me is Gabe. Gabe and the girl ( sorry I don’t know who she is) next to me acted out the lyrics to “only of you”.. a very sappy song I wrote when I was 16.. they had this little ad lib moment while we played the song.. these are some of my favorite times. We are always down to mess things up and have fun. Life is a mess. Gabe went on to play bass for Tilt and he’s a great journalist too. 1991 I think? This might even be the day of the Oakland fires right before we went to Europe for the first time. I can tell because I’m wearing shorts which is a rare occurrence. ps I still love playing this song live .. also I could be wrong about all of this.. time dates events blah blah
Note: Billie is correct, the show took place the same weekend as the Oakland fires and their next concert after this was in Germany five days later.
Show Date: December 15, 1997
Posted to Instagram: May 19, 2019
Me a bit lit. This is at the Fillmore in SF 1997. One of the rare times we played “take back”.. I wasn’t sure if this song would end up on nimrod. Pretty much total opposite of good riddance.. i wasn’t sure if good riddance would end up on nimrod either.
Note: ‘Take Back’ can be heard at 36:38. Billie jumps into the crowd to fight a guy at 6:50.
Show Date: August 17, 1991
Posted to Instagram: May 15, 2019
1991 Little Rock Arkansas.. club called Vinos. After this show a bunch of us went to the governors house and went swimming in his pool. A punk rock night swim with 20 kids drinking and going nuts. No the gov wasn’t there. The year before we met Jason white!
Show Date: June 24, 1988
Posted to Instagram: May 11, 2019
Haha. Wait for it Operation Ivy Gilman Street .. 1988 ish..
Note: This is an Operation Ivy show at Gilman that Billie attended at age 16. For the show’s first half, you can see him standing in front of the stage before jumping up to sing backing vocals at one point and then standing at the side of the stage to the left of your screen. The moment he references in his Instagram post is at 15:25 (the video’s audio cuts out for this song).
Show Date: October 6, 1993
Posted to Instagram: May 11, 2019
Toronto! Opening for bad religion. This was some sorta elks lodge or church or masons building.. I was excited because the doughboys were on the bill also along with Sea Weed from Washington There was a downstairs back stage. I remember watching Brett Gurewitz writing a song on his guitar.. who remembers what this venue was?
Note: Venue was The Concert Hall at Toronto’s Masonic Temple.
Show Date: August 25, 1994
Posted to Instagram: May 11, 2019
this video is from lollapalooza 1994. I remember my guitar was broken so Suzi from L7 borrowed me her guitar. So fucking cool of her .. and what a rad guitar! If anyone wants to send me videos of early shows (And I mean the REALLY shows) I can jar my memories and tell quick stories here on Instagram. It’ll be fun. It’s crazy how filming big concerts was illegal back then! Now we all have video cameras.
Show Date: May 10, 1990
Posted to Instagram: May 10, 2019
PVHS 1990 . We use to play dry ice at the end of every set.. high school was brutal for me.. and mike shows it at the end! The next page is an old locker from that “show”.. also the girls behind us have some serious “mall bangs”
Note: Billie’s posted this video to Instagram on the same day as this show, 29 years later.