Review and Photos by Ash Taylor
As giant fireballs erupted and thunderous booms echoed throughout the Marcus Amphitheater, Blink 182 jumped onto the stage. The threesome thrashed around like retarded monkeys running from one end of the stage to the other, only momentarily stopping to spit out their lyrics to the crowd. The three chord cliche driven "Anthem Part II" opened the night followed by the similarly tired "Rock Show." With no break or pause in-between songs it was hard to tell where one song started and the next finished.
With almost a twenty song set list that included "What's My Age Again," "Carousel" and "Don't Leave Me," the songs rattled off so fast you had little time to take in the powerchord blastfest. The boys, all clad in the nu punk fashion du jour, baggy shorts below the knees, t-shirts and tattoos, desperately need a new look before they become passe. Blink 182 does let their fans cut loose from the travails of everyday life and have a little mindless fun. No need to think of the words or the songs meaning, just strap yourself in and enjoy the ride. You might have fun during the show, but hours later you'll have no idea why. Ending out the first set with "All The Small Things" only to remerge with the acoustically driven "What Went Wrong."
If you like a concert with no direction, Blink 182 is the band for you. The pyrotechnics and loud booms drowned out a lot of their performance. It is really sad, but Blink 182 is a great example of a band sounding good on CD, but seeing them live leaves you scratching your head. Their music falls apart like a 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzle that you just finished and throw back in the box while cursing all the time that you've just wasted. Next year if you can blink long enough you might get lucky and miss them.