One of my favorite pop-punk bands is Blink-182. So when I heard they were coming to town I decided to take my two oldest sons and go check them out. They played at the McKay Events Center in Orem, Utah on September 7, 2009.
Blink-182 is a 3-piece punk band consisting of Tom DeLonge on guitar and vocals, Mark Hoppus on bass and vocals, and Travis Barker on drums. In case you hadn’t heard, Travis Barker survived a plane crash on September 28, 2008 and suffered second and third degree burns on his lower body and torso. He was very lucky to survive and is still able to play drums as well as ever.
Blink-182 took the stage and immediately launched into “Dumpweed”. You could immediately tell they had the energy to put on a rockin’ show on this night. They followed that up with “Feeling This” from their landmark 2003 album ‘Blink 182’. The guitars were mixed too low in the mix at the beginning of the show and there were some technical problems with one of the guitar changes. Tom DeLonge let his guitar tech have an earful about the guitar not working properly and made him apologize to the audience. It was all in good form though and they had the guitar mix fixed by about the 4th song.
Tom and Mark both sing in Blink-182 and they do a lot of vocal harmony. I really like the interplay between the two singers and love the arrangements they have for their music. Neither Tom nor Mark are top notch singers but they do well enough that the music is enjoyable. In fact, they have a very good sound together and I hope they never stop singing together.
Travis simply wailed on the drumset. He plays with a fiery fury that’s really a pleasure to listen to. He had a cool trick up his sleeve for the band’s encore. When the band came back onstage, the drum riser lifted off of the stage and floated forward on cables that suspended it above the stage. The drumset and riser then lifted about 30 feet into the air while Travis played a drum solo. The riser tilted to the left and right as well as forward overlooking the audience. The coolest thing that happened was when the drum riser tipped at a 90 degree angle to the stage (Travis was harnessed in) and the entire kit began to rotate on the drum riser. It was really cool to see the spinning drummer! The crowd of course, went nuts.
Another really cool effect was the use of several large confetti cannons at the end of the show. The entire stage was turned into a giant snow-globe. The confetti was so thick you couldn’t see the band. Tom was heard to say “It’s soooo beautiful!!”. As the band left the stage, Mark laid down in the confetti/snow and made a snow angel for good measure. It was truly good use of a 3-dimensional effect.
The band was in good humor and Tom let the F-words fly freely all night long keeping a lighthearted feel to the entire show. All in all it was a fantastic show. The musical highlights for me were the songs “Obvious”, “Down” and “Stockholm Syndrome”. The band really rocked the entire night. Thanks for a great show Blink-182!!
