BY JEREMY HAAS
On Friday, September 23, the fathers of Pop-Punk, Blink 182, played a huge show at the Cruzan Amphitheatre. The audience ranged from questionably dressed girls to frat boys and skaters, but the vast majority were young adults who grew up listening to this band. The venue was ideal for the amount of people there, featuring a floor/pit area, a fairly big middle section of seats, and a completely packed lawn area behind.
Blink 182 is headlining the Honda Civic tour, which also features My Chemical Romance and Matt and Kim as openers. However, the band that truly won the audience over-the band everyone was there to see-Blink 182, definitely played the set that their audience of mix-matched youths wanted to hear.
Blink 182 started their show off with a hit off of their 2003 self-titled album entitled “Feeling This” which kicked off the performance on a positive note. It is a fast-paced song that got everyone up, singing, and moving, no matter where they were. It ended with great harmony singing between the two vocalists, Tom Delonge and Mark Hoppus. In between songs these two had the same playful toilet humor that they are famous for, cracking jokes, and keeping the mood light.
Memorable songs in the set included the slow-tempo hit “I Miss You.” This song was a definite crowd pleaser, with everyone singing along a little louder than they were for most of the others. Another highlight was the super fast, punk rock jam “Dumpweed.” This may have been the band’s most energetic song, and I couldn’t help but feel some envy for those in the pit area while this song was playing; it was almost painful not to push and shove to such a fun, speedy track.
The band ended on an old classic called “Josie”, which was a great performance, but left the crowd craving so much more. It took around 10 minutes for the band to come back on stage for their expected encore. What came before the encore was irregular and downright impressive. Travis Barker, the band’s drummer, was lifted in the air, high above the audience, to play an epic drum solo. It seemed a little over the top, but with the rest of the show filled with Mark and Tom’s tomfoolery, it was nice to see Travis Barker tower over everyone, literally.
After a generous portion of drumming to fast-paced techno music, the rest of the band came out to perform the best part of the show. The encore consisted of the bass/guitar jam session of “Carousel,” the old, loud punk anthem “Dammit,” and a fan favorite, the one-and-a-half-minute masterpiece of power chords and curse words “Family Reunion.”
This show had just about everything for a Blink 182 fan, old stuff, new stuff, fart jokes, a well-done drum solo, high energy, and a truly magnificent encore. It completed the childhood of anyone that grew up jamming to the catchy punk geniuses that are Blink 182.
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