Last Friday, we were able to check out Blink-182 perform at the Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre out in Tinley Park, just outside Chicago. The veteran Pop-Punk band, now featuring Matt Skiba (Alkaline Trio) as their new guitarist, were headlining a bill that also included sets from DJ Spider, All-American Rejects, and A Day To Remember.
Travis Barker, Mark Hoppus, and Skiba were on tour promoting their new album California, which helped from making this a legacy concert simply featuring Skiba playing the Tom DeLonge part. Instead, the set list featured plenty of new material that fit in perfectly with the group’s “greatest hits.” Not only was the new music not out of place, but it was rather appreciated by the crowd filled with tattooed, spike-/dyed-haired fans.
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Overall hometown boy Skiba, sporting his customized Cubbies jersey, fit right in with the boys as he sang lead on all the DeLonge tracks. I will admit that seeing Blink with this new lineup was a bit distracting at times when your mind is expecting DeLonge’s distinctive voice to blare through the speakers and then you hear the new vocalist’s more tame vocals instead. But once you get past that mini mindfuck, the lead guitarist turning those song interpretations all his own was a rather good twist.
The lead single for California, “Bored To Death” was the first instance in which you heard that this crowd could dig the new stuff as much as the old. It was one of my picks for the top 5 on the album and from the look of things, my fellow attendees would have thought the same. It really helps when a song instantly sounds like a band classic because fans will treat it as such. The reception for “Kings Of The Weekend” was damn fun too. Maybe it was the pyrotechnics, but that would belittle the fact the anthemic chorus is so moving. It was only right to hear the massive crowd woo and scream, pumping their fists until finally exploding when the chorus hit. “Los Angeles” got the best fan reaction of the night. This is the one track on the album where you can truly “rock out” in the more traditional sense. I’m so Chicago that sometimes I’m just like “fuck LA” for no real reason, but this live rendition got me honestly chanting “Los Angeles when will you save me!” along with everyone. This is the one track all night that got the most crowdsurfers floating around and it was cool to cap off the performance with a short but loud burst of fireworks. This was the loudest I’d heard a crowd at this venue since I saw Black Sabbath reunite at Ozzfest about 15 years ago or so.
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The hits were expectedly met with positive reactions, of course, especially thanks to Hoppus’ charmingly “immature” and silly intros. Before going into “I Miss You,” the bassist told the crowd: “this next one is practically an Emo song. It’s so sad…. It’s like when you had bangs in 2001, locked yourself in your room and said ‘you don’t fucking get me, mom!’ sad.” Another fun piece of banter came prior to “Happy Holidays, You Bastard” with Hoppus saying that this special moment will be remembered by fans telling their future grandchildren about it and these responding with “no way you old piece of shit” to which he said you’ll respond with “fuck you, you little grandson!” Then Hoppus asked for the stage lights to be turned off and told the crowd to hold up their phones to illuminate the amphitheater with their phone’s flash light as they played the track (like this).
To further hit you in your nostalgia bones, for the encore the band reappeared under black lights like the kind we all had gotten from Spencer’s back in high school, rocking pink guitars to play “Carousel.” For “All The Small Things” the crowd exploded and danced around wildly. Plus there was a kiss cam, but I didn’t see anyone smooch. The final song of the night was the ultimate fan-favorite: “Damnit.” The group gave a lively performance that culminated with a whole mess of confetti raining down during the last chorus.
When the lights came on and the crowd started clearing out, I saw one guy walking in the opposite direction of me with a cut on his lip and a swollen cheek bone. Something tells me that guy had the night of his life.
