Concert Review: Blink-182 – Big Heart, Big Show, Big Kids

September 20, 2009 by FromTheCrowd
Filed under Concert Reviews

Blink-182, Tom DeLonge (vocals, guitar), Mark Hoppus (vocals, bass) and Travis Barker (drums) took the stage shortly before 10:30pm to close out Saturday nights Arizona Fall Frenzy. The enormous crowd, which seemed to fill Tempe Beach Park to compacity, exploaded and screamed in unison as Blink-182 began their performance.

It was obvious that the crowd felt this reunion tour was well overdue and was immediately satisfied as their set featured their most popular songs, ‘Down’, ‘Dumpweed’, ‘What’s my Age Again?’, just to name a few.

Shortly after beginning their set, Hoppus stopped to recognize the significance of the day. Mark explained to the crowd that today, was the one year anniversary of the tragic plane crash that took the lives of their dear friend Chris, as well as the pilots and Barkers security guard. He continued to recognize Barkers injuries and shared that Blink-182 was going to donate $100,000 for tonight performance to burn centers in Georgia and Los Angeles.

The beginning cords of ‘I Miss You’ began to be play as Hoppus dedicated the song to Chris. While this could have easily mellowed the spirits of the crowd, the opposite effect held true as the concertgoers enthusiastically supported the band in singing the song, with many in the crowd remarking as to how impressed they were with Barkers performance.

It seemed at that moment that the boys of Blink-182 who were the heroes of teen angst in the late 90’s had matured… well… until immediately after the next song, ‘Stay Together For The Kids’. DeLonge asked Hoppus, if he remember about their early trips to Arizona and how with the extream desert heat, their ball sacks would just get bigger and bigger. Hoppus agreed and DeLonge continued stating ‘The he could t-bag your mother from stilts’…

With each new song came an anecdote or dedication, with both Hoppus and DeLonge taking time to address each other and the audience. At times they were obvious, such as dedicating ‘First Date’ to all those on a first date to Hoppus calling out DeLonge for totally blowing a song and then erupting into ‘All the Small Things’.

In addition to taking advantage of any moment to joke one another about each other’s playing the sexual references and lyric changes were plentiful the remainder of the concert . Boys will be boys… in some cases… forever.

This was undeniably a Blink-182 show, and although this tour is their first in nearly five years, the bands chemistry was obvious. Their musical performance met or exceeded everyone expectations and their on stage banter throughout the performance kept the evening entertaining and provided an intimate experience for the crowd. For many attending this concert, this was a flashback to a differnt era and if the vibe from this concerts hold true, Blink-182 should have a great future in store for us.