The Rock Show

Every now and then I feel like a loser for being into punk rock.

Mainly because it doesn't have much substance, seems to be an immature phase and all the musicians are just recording the same crap.  Then I reconsider, because since when have I not felt like an immature loser for liking and doing the things I do? And as it turns out, I have friends along with thousands of others who appreciate the same too.  And so, we went to see blink-182 for the second time around (Reunion Tour was August '09) last Thursday!  Oh, and one could actually credit them for being one of the originals that influenced subsequent bands in this genre.  Tom DeLonge, Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker (who joined the band a few years later though) have been making music about as long as I've been alive.
After a few years of being reunited blink is traveling across the States to promote their new album Neighborhoods that should be released in September.  So, we grabbed our groupie-est garb, set the playlist to their 40+ songs and drove to Darien Lake.

The tour is sponsored by Honda-Civic and there were tons of promotion tents, like the airbrush tattoos and ridiculous Tom DeLonge masks.  We're frugal-minded people and only forked over $20 for the lawn, though of course we made the best of it!  Manchester Orchestra was the first opener, and I know they're a great band, but it was just a terrible venue and audience for their performance.  Then My Chemical Romance came on and we spent that hour with our eyes twitching and openly laughing.  I'm sorry, your transition from emo to anthemic rock can't fool me, Gerard Way!   
Finally, at 9:15 PM our boys came on and I had that heart-wrenching swell of adrenaline and elation and spent the rest of the night dancing and screaming with my friends and trying not to be hurt by the mosh pit in front of us.  All of the above was a success!  Ha, and I learned the next day over 60 people were arrested for under age drinking and the roller coaster at the connecting amusement park had another accident.. fortunately no one was injured.

And here is some lame, severely distant footage of blink-182 playing "I Miss You" that I shot on my iPhone. I was rotating the thing and switching off hands because my arms were tiring, but you can generally see the immense lasers and hear Tom's warble.  Their set was definitely shorter than the Reunion Tour and their energy felt off, though I should quit comparing this concert to the previous one and just feel fortunate for being at their concert!  I have realized that sometimes during concerts, I'm so focused on taking videos and pictures that I lose the furor of the moment.  "I Miss You" is a blink classic, however, and needed to be recorded.
To bitch once more, they didn't play "Adam's Song", "Another Girl, Another Planet", "Not Now" and a few other older favorites. 
The rebuttal to my bitching:  They're raunchy, hilarious, the audience is dangerously fun and they know how to put on a damn good show!!!

During the encore, Travis Barker did another sick drum solo too.  No flying drumset this time, yet he mashed up hip-hop and electronica, and the percussion beats are allllll him.  At 40 seconds for this video there's lots of pretty lights :).

There's something about him that is oddly... sexy.  Maybe it's because in his late-thiry years he hasn't gained any chub like Mark and Tom?  He just seems to have aged differently. :B HAHA

 

I have another post in the works about the weekend that followed, but what a stellar way to kick it off. We squeezed our way through traffic, wolfed own atrocious food at Denny's and I was home and in bed by 2 AM. Ahh, summer concerts.

Listening: "Another Girl, Another Planet" by blink-182.
p.s. Here's an article about them that's hard to look at graphically but at least contains beautiful pictures an a rundown of the band's history.  CHEERS