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Green Day alter ‘Jesus of Suburbia’ lyric to reference Palestine during Coachella 2025 headline performance

By Laura Molloy Apr 13, 2025 | 4:43 AM

Green Day headlined Coachella 2025 yesterday (April 12), and used their set to comment on the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict.

The moment took place during ‘Jesus of Surburbia’, when frontman Billie Joe Armstrong sang, “Runnin’ away from pain like the kids from Palestine/Tales from another broken home,” replacing the original line, “Runnin’ away from pain when you’ve been victimised.”

It’s not the first time the band have updated their songs to reflect the current political climate. In 2016, they gave ‘Holiday’ a lyric change to attack “white supremacist” then-Republic candidate Donald Trump.

Then, on a performance on New Year’s Eve of 2023, they made headlines for altering the lyrics to the iconic 2004 track ‘American Idiot’, replacing the original line “I’m not a part of a redneck agenda” with “I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda”.

More recently, they mocked US Vice President JD Vance during a Melbourne gig in March.  While performing ‘Jesus of Suburbia’, Armstrong switched the lyrics from “Am I retarded or am I just overjoyed?” to “Am I retarded or am I just JD Vance?”.

Their Coachella performance marked Green Day’s debut appearance at the Californian festival. It comes after Armstrong popped up during The Go-Go’s set the day prior (April 11) for a surprise reindition of their 1984 hit single ‘Head Over Heels’.

They sailed through a setlist of their biggest hits, including ‘American Idiot’, ‘Basket Case’ and ‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams’, as well as a brief cover of Tom Petty‘s ‘Free Fallin”, as a mini-precursor to ‘Wake Me Up When September Ends’.

A few fans were also invited on stage, with the first, Brooke, welcomed to join Armstrong for a duet of ‘Know Your Enemy’ before he lead the audience in a chant of her name. Then, as the set drew to a close he invited someone from the crowd to play guitar for ‘Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)’, the final song of the night.

Green Day’s Coachella 2025 setlist was:

‘American Idiot’
Holiday’
‘Know Your Enemy’
‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams’
‘One Eyed Bastard’
‘Longview’
‘Welcome to Paradise’
‘Hitchin’ a Ride’
‘Brain Stew’
‘St. Jimmy’
’21 Guns’
‘Minority’
‘Basket Case’
‘When I Come Around’
‘Wake Me Up When September Ends’ (with Tom Petty’s ‘Free Fallin’ intro)
‘Jesus of Suburbia’
‘Bobby Sox’
‘Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)’

Elsewhere this weekend, Lady Gaga performed a theatrical five-act set, A. G. Cook brought out Danny Brown, performing a host of tracks before remixing Charli XCX’s ‘Party 4 U’.

Charli XCX brought out Lorde, Billie Eilish and Troye Sivan for her highly-awaited performance, and there was controversy during Kneecap‘s set after they led an anti-Margaret Thatcher chant, with fans reporting the online stream had cut out shortly after.

YouTube will be livestreaming the festival via the Coachella YouTube channel. Check back here for all our Coachella updates.

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