If any Blink-182 fans attending the opening show of the band’s tour had been wondering whether the band had matured during their five-year breakup, they quickly had their answer. After the group’s second song, “Feeling This,” guitarist Tom DeLonge announced, apropos of nothing, “Motherfuck fuck shit.”
“Good point,” agreed bassist Mark Hoppus.
Playing the Joint at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas last night, the band played 22 vintage Blink-182 songs in an hour and a half, seasoning the set with plenty of wisecracks. Hoppus congratulated the crowd at being present at the first real Blink-182 concert in five years—and then, following that thought to its logical conclusion, announced that the audiences at all the other shows on this tour could “suck it.”
The especially good news: Travis Barker, who nearly died in a plane crash last September, is not only up and around, but remains a beast on the drums. He attacked his kit like it had insulted his mother—and for an encore, did a show-stopping solo to a hip-hop track while spinning around on a giant turntable. (In larger venues than the 4,000-person capacity Joint, Barker’s drum riser will also have a rigging system that allows it to levitate during his solo.)
The set list was mostly drawn from the band’s last three albums (Enema of the State, Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, and Blink-182), and ranged from the pop-punk of “All the Small Things” to moodier material such as “Always.” The audience moshed and crowd-surfed like it was 1999, and shouted enthusiastically, if somewhat inchoately, at the stage. “We need
an elected representative to speak for you,” suggested Hoppus. “When you all speak at once, it gets jumbled.”
