Nineties Punk, Food, Drink, And Baseball: Innings Festival Tempe 2023

Innings Festival Tempe took place this past weekend, kicking off Major League Baseball’s Cactus League 2023 with two days of  food, drink, rock music, and baseball themed fan experiences. 

The musical lineup featured Weezer, Marcus Mumford, The Black Crowes, The Revivalists, Mt. Joy, The Head And The Heart, The Offspring, The Pretty Reckless, and more, headlined by 90’s punk powerhouses Green Day on Saturday, and grunge legend Eddie Vedder on Sunday.

This year’s lineup made me ridiculously happy, but also made me feel ancient, because this nineties music throwback that we’re experiencing roughly mirrors the oldies kick everyone was on when I was a kid. The nineties are exactly as far removed from the 2020s as the 50s were from the eighties. So there’s that. 

I was camped out at the Home Plate Stage for most of the day on Saturday, because The Offspring, Weezer, and Green Day were back to back to back, and those were the three bands that I needed to see. Anything else on the day was bonus. 

The Offspring kicked off my day with 1994’s Come Out and Play, before taking a tour through their decades spanning catalog. Dexter Holland and Noodles worked the crowd with their comfortably antagonistic banter, taking gentle shots at each other and the crowd. A few issues with the sound mix and heavy winds occasionally drowning out the music aside, this was a great way to kick off my personal trip down high school Memory Lane.    

Here’s the full set list:

• Come Out and Play
• Staring at the Sun
• Want You Bad
• The Opioid Diaries
• Behind Your Walls
• Hammerhead
• Bad Habit
• Gotta Get Away
• Why Don’t You Get a Job?
• (Can’t Get My) Head Around You
• Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)
• The Kids Aren’t Alright
• You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid
• Self Esteem

Weezer’s set was equally nostalgic. Rivers Cuomo played into the hands of the crowd with a cheeky nod to the day’s headliners Green Day. In the middle of El Scorcho, after he sang “I asked you to the Green Day concert,” he paused, let the lyric land, then stepped away from the mic and went into the iconic guitar riff from When I Come Around, before returning to the song with the next lyric “You said you’d never heard of them.” It was a classic, very on-brand moment that drew a Road Warrior pop from the Gen-Xers and early Millennials packed into the park.

Weezer’s set list:

• Beverly Hills
• My Name Is Jonas
• California Kids
• Pork and Beans
• El Scorcho
• Island in the Sun
• The World Has Turned and Left Me Here
• I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams
• All My Favorite Songs
• Africa (Toto cover)
• Say It Ain’t So
• Run, Raven, Run
• Hash Pipe
• Undone – The Sweater Song
• The Good Life
• Burndt Jamb
• The Greatest Man That Ever Lived
• Pink Triangle
• Buddy Holly

By the time Green Day hit the stage, the crowd had tripled in size. This is clearly the act that caused Saturday’s single day wristbands to sell out well in advance of the event. Billie Joe Armstrong, Tre Cool, and Mike Dirnt haven’t lost a beat. The massive crowd was eating out of their hands right up through the closing notes of Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life). 

Green Day’s full set list: 

• American Idiot
• Holiday
• Know Your Enemy
• Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
• Longview
• Welcome To Paradise
• Hitchin’ A Ride
• Rock And Roll All Nite (KISS cover)
• Brain Stew
• St. Jimmy
• When I Come Around
• Waiting
• 21 Guns
• Minority
• Knowledge (Operation Ivy cover)
• Basket Case
• King For A Day
• Shout (The Isley Brothers cover)
• Wake Me Up When September Ends
• Jesus Of Suburbia
• Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)