It’s not every night that you and some of your 30,000 closest friends are being told ‘your mom’ jokes in the middle of Citi Field in between energetic serenades about aliens and first dates (a lá nineties skater kid diary entry). However, when you and your friends get the chance to experience that, you take it. Why? Because who doesn’t want Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge, and Travis Barker ripping into 25 years of hits on a summer Sunday night while shouting out vagina jokes to three generations of fans? Remember: this where the Mets usually play (and more recently, where they’ve been winning – sorry, Mark) so the baseball field is topped with plastic squares in a jigsaw fashion to create a sort of solid, non-muddy ground for concert goers, so your body feels every jump and stomp on the makeshift floor. The stiff groundwork of the concert, literally and figuratively, is nothing like the off-the-wall freedom of both the band and its fans.
Attendees were decked out in Blink-182 shirts and To The Stars merch, which makes sense as they were the headliner and that is Tom’s side business, respectively, and the occasional Pierce the Veil tee was spotted, too, because they were (and are) a beloved hardcore band and there is a good amount of fan crossover. That being said, t-shirts were far from the only outfit of choice at Citi Field on this night of vulgar, evocative punk music. No, no, no; if you looked around the sold-out crowd, you saw concert goers dressed as bananas, aliens, animals of sort, donning thick eyeliner, Y2K-like spray paint tops, or drag-esque makeup. Among the wildest of fans were small children – think 12 and under – in outfits best described as Mid-90s core, complete with safe, noise cancelling headphones and Chuck Taylors. No matter where you walked, stood, rocked, or moshed, you had no idea what you were going to see or what era you were seemingly part of. You see, Blink-182 is a reminder that you don’t have to ‘evolve or die,’ as the saying goes. You can evolve, grow with the band, start families, come across more respectable and mature, a rock fan of the modern, adult age. However, you can also live in the peak moment of Blink-182 and a majority of the songs on the current tour setlist, which harken back to the days of MTV, Warped Tour, JNCO jeans, backwards hats (this one never really died), and the chart-topping Enema of the State LP. It’s impressive how fiercely accurate a lot of the ‘throwback’ stylings were from fans in the crowd, but many lived through the early years of the band and the pop punk soundscapes they helped put on the mainstream map. Others almost cosplayed such looks, living vicariously through the music, tour, and era that it spawned from.
Blink-182 was in top form on July 21, and the show was worth the wait for those that had never seen the semi-original lineup live (Mark, Tom, Travis). Mark and Tom’s vocals were strong and enticing, an almost flawless match to the studio versions of the songs we know and love. Travis’ pounding energy on the drums was to die for; you can’t keep your eyes off his flailing upper limbs, whether he’s drumming on the ground or on a floating platform. (The platform that lifts him above Mark and Tom down on the stage is cool. Will it ever be as cool as when he playing the drums in a spinning gyro-sphere while on tour? Maybe not. He still kills it, though, and with passion and effortlessly swagger at that.) The new songs off of …ONE MORE TIME, the band’s first OG three-piece record from last year that topped many year-end top-album lists, fit seamlessly into the setlist alongside the older tracks and live staples. That’s a testament to the band not only truly being in top form and sort of going back to their roots, but it is a testament to the genuine bond (not from a sexual threesome as they joked on stage) this group of musicians have. Each member of the band feels the music, laughs during the stories told, and tackle these songs with conviction; not to mention that their youthful, reckless abandonment is mostly unchanged since they exploded on the scene in the late 1990s, no matter how much they have matured, endured, and grown (personally and professionally). Speaking of explosions, as well the use of fire, fireworks, and pyrotechnics as production on this tour and at this venue were immaculate. They were on beat, in the moment, and actually pretty beautiful to see.
This is a band that impresses, intrigues, makes you laugh, makes you cry, and reminds you of what human (and non-human) connection offers, and that is fun and freedom without judgement. Do you need a thick skin to attend a Blink-182 show? Maybe. Is there something for everyone at a Blink-182 show? Yes, because the band has never stopped crossing the line, pushing boundaries, and being wholly original on guitar, drums, bass, and (most importantly) lyrically. Does it make sense that us and 30,000 of our closest friends sold out the Queens, New York stadium for a band that makes penis jokes as often as the 7 Train runs? Also yes. Blink-182 is iconic and worthwhile for that and more.
