Monday, 19 August 2013

Review of Blink 182- Written June 2012

Just about anyone who has grown up in the last twenty years knows at least one Blink-182 song. On the 9th of June, London’s O2 arena filled with crowds to watch the American Punk-Rockers play their come-back tour after it being postponed for a year to allow the release of their album “Neighborhoods” last summer.
Opening the show, Scottish rockers, Twin Atlantic played tracks mainly from their latest album “Free” to fire up the crowd. They were on fine form with heavily scottish vocals (by the impressively named Sam McTrusty) covering catching guitar hooks. However, having previously seen them before I feel that they were never allowed to reach their best on the night; they would have benefitted from a chance to play a much longer set.
The All American Rejects followed and were disappointing. They opened with the well-known “Dirty Little Secret” which received a less than impressive response from the crowd- which was to be expected.  Tyson Ritter’s vocals were piercing and displeasing making their 40 minute set almost painful.  The alternative rock band finished with what they had probably hoped to be a crowd pleaser, their best hit “Gives You Hell”, yet this was not enough to win the audience over.

Blink 182 hit the ground running by opening with the upbeat “Feeling This” and continued in the same fashion playing hit after hit. In between songs, Tom and Mark kept the crowd amused with their tongue-in-cheek jokes.  The atmosphere in the O2 was electric as fans sang at the top of their lungs and mosh pits formed as the punk rock trio played classics from their first album “Cheshire Cat” to 2011’s “Neighborhoods”. While anxiously awaiting the trio’s encore, fans who were standing were sent into a frenzy when Mark and Tom travelled through the crowd to make their way to the sound booth to perform a simplistic version of “Reckless Abandon”, preceding Travis Barker’s heroic drum solo on the main stage, reminding the audience that he is one of, if not, the world’s best drummer.

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