On the morning of Monday, March 16, blink-182 surprised fans with news of a warm-up show to their warm-up show. Their announcement was that blink with Matt Skiba (better known for being in Alkaline Trio) filling in for guitarist/vocalist Tom Delonge are scheduled to play at West Hollywood's The Roxy. The Roxy is a small nightclub with a max capacity of 500 people. Long story short, I struggled and struggled until I somehow managed to get my hands on two tickets. I already planned to see my favorite band in the entire world at the Musink festival on the following Sunday and I had failed to get tickets for the San Diego show set for Friday. Now, my dad and I both owned two tickets to see the legendary blink-182 at a small nightclub.
My dad and I got to the venue a couple hours before the doors were supposed to open. I was speechless looking at just how small of a venue this was. The fact that I was going to see the world-famous blink-182 at this small place. The only merch was a blink shirt and poster that were drawn by artists specifically for this event. There was also another shirt that was a Famous brand/Matt Skiba collab that said across the front "Who the fuck is Matt Skiba?" It's great that the guys didn't have to be so serious and got to poke some fun at the situation.
A Day To Remember opened for blink-182 and there were quite a few times that I questioned my safety. It's hard to suffer through a very cramped space and people pushing you when you can't even sing along to the music you're hearing. They put on a good show, and the crowd's behavior was just as I expected. I'm sorry I'm going to skip over a review of ADTR's set, but I'm not too familiar with the band.
At around 9 p.m., the curtains were drawn and blink started to set up. There was only one person separating me and the stage (which by the way, was not blocked by any barricades - people were actually allowed to lean against the stage). I was right in front of Mark Hoppus's mic stand, literally less than a foot away from where he would soon be standing. 45 minutes later, the curtains were pulled back and the next two hours will continue to be one of the best experiences of my entire life...
Get ready for action.
Blink began the night with a song from their self-titled album, "Feeling This." I was surprised at first that they chose this to open with because it is so heavy with Tom's vocals so Matt was put to the test right away. The crowd mostly sung loud and strong during Tom's parts, but I was still able to hear Matt and I was impressed. He wasn't too loud, but I could tell that he felt comfortable on stage which was really important. His voice took on a little bit of Tom's recognizable and unique accent that he has when he sings. Mark had the energy of a teenager (despite being in his early 40s) and Travis banged those drums with so much noticeable focus and passion. I spend a lot of my time watching and rewatching blink performances on YouTube, and I'm telling you, after just hearing and seeing one song, this band had more energy than they have had in years.
After the third song, "The Rock Show," was one of my favorite parts. Mark introduces Matt to the crowd by calling him our "new mom," which Matt replies with "Hi, kids!" It was the first piece of dialogue in the night, even though it was short. I was hesitant about having Matt fill in for Tom, but seeing the energy he shared with Mark and Travis made me like him right away. Mark was already calling him our new mom!? There was very little dialogue in the show compared to every single other blink show, but it was understandable. It's difficult to recreate the kind of potty humor banter than Mark and Tom shared on stage.
Mark was extremely interactive with the crowd. He would lean into the sea of people and occasionally toss out a bass pick. After over 20 years of performing, Hoppus hasn't lost his hops. Mark would skip over to Matt's side of the stage and then hop back over to his, then sometimes he would stand on the raised platform where Travis was rocking out. The first time I saw blink was in 2011 for the Honda Civic Tour, and there is such a huge difference with seeing a musician be himself from a giant screen and seeing him right before your very eyes, barely a foot away from where you're standing. There wasn't a single moment when Mark didn't have this huge cheesy grin on his face. I can see why they didn't perform some of the sad, serious songs like "Adam's Song" and "Stay Together For The Kids" because they were genuinely having too much fun to be serious. With every move that they made, it was obvious that they were so ecstatic to be in front of a crowd and not in the rehearsal room.
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Two of my favorite drumming songs were also played that night: "Always" and "Heart's All Gone." I absolutely have no clue how Travis does what he does. "He's a bad boy, but he's got a heart of gold," Mark told the crowd right before Travis began "Always." This song is really heavy with Tom vocals, but Matt did not disappoint. It was already noticeable that he was getting more comfortable with being on stage. He started to move around a bit, and the most important detail I loved about his performance was that he was not trying to be Tom. He didn't act like Tom (although his vocals contained some of that unique accent, but how do you sing a blink song without Tom's accent?). Matt even added some original harmonizing towards the end of the song which I thought was a nice touch. "Heart's All Gone" is an even more fantastic song to see what a beast Travis is. I didn't realize how special at the time it was to watch because it turns out that they only played this song for The Roxy. I couldn't take my eyes off him for the entire song. It blows my mind just how incredibly talented he is.Watching them perform "Man Overboard" created a feeling like none of the other songs did. It's crazy to think about how Mark and Tom originally wrote this song for their first drummer, Scott Raynor, and it's weird to think how accurately it fits for Tom now. I'm going to save my opinion and a recap of the drama for another post, but I thought I would just include this now.
After performing "Reckless Abandon," the trio left for a short time while the crowd chanted "encore, encore, encore!" The came back to play two more songs, "Carousel" and "Dammit." By then the crowd was going absolutely crazy and people were crowd surfing left and right (and sometimes right above me). Their actual final song was "Family Reunion" which is another classic blink humor song that was responsible for teaching me every swear word and how to sing them (it's a detail that I know would make blink proud)! Confetti rained down over the crowd and the band and then they wished us a good night and left the stage. In a blink (ha-ha) of an eye, the show was over and it was time to go home. All I can say now is that I am truly honored to have been a part of that very small crowd that night and witness blink-182 featuring the wonderful Matt Skiba performing in a club.
In a small recap, I couldn't have imagined a better show. Blink performed songs that they haven't performed in years and they performed with such passionate energy that reminded me of why I love this band so much. I know that Tom wasn't there and now the fans are all asking "What's going to happen next??" but for the time being, it was great to see Matt take on the role and help his friends out. There might not have been a show without him. So thank you, Mark, Travis, and Matt for making the night of March 18 one of the best concerts ever.Well, I guess this is growing up.
Side note, I got to wave hello to the boys from 5 Seconds of Summer and meet Josh Dunn from twenty one pilots that night. It was no surprise that the club was crawling with famous musicians and celebrities. Basically, I was in a room that also held so many of my favorite people on this earth and I couldn't be happier.
I felt like that recap was all over the place, but I could honestly talk for hours and hours about that show so I wasn't sure where to start and where to end. If you didn't already know, I also attended the Musink festival and saw blink perform there on Sunday night. I'll be writing a post about that probably tomorrow. I also want to write an updated post about all the blink drama that has happened since January 26 so stay tuned for that as well.
Blink-182 is my favorite band in the entire world so I hope you enjoyed my wordy (and unorganized?) review. After this show, I actually slipped into a bit of a Tom depression. I've always been a huge huge fan of his and to not see him on stage that night was crushing. However, Matt was terrific and he grew on me pretty quickly.
Check out my instagram and twitter for more pictures of the show.
Until next time,
Nikole
P.S. I changed the url for my blog. It was previously givemeonegoodtune, but now it is himynameisnikole. I hope that isn't too confusing. :)
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