ELDER emos assemble! After years of “indefinite hiatus” followed by Tom DeLonge’s departure, and last year’s reunion shows postponed at a moment’s notice due to drummer Travis Barker having a family emergency... The boys are back.
This is a band with real survival instincts. The hiatus broke after Barker survived a very real air crash, and DeLonge reconnected upon hearing bass player Mark Hoppus was battling cancer. The odds have always been against Blink and somehow, they’ve beaten them every time. How else could three lads gain legendary status with toilet humour and girlfriend songs?
The last time Blink graced the stage in Glasgow, Alkaline Trio frontman Matt Skiba was filling in on six-string duties. Now the classic line-up is back in Scotland for the first time since 2012 and it was clear there was more excitement. The original date sold out in minutes, forcing a second date to be arranged almost immediately. Last night could have easily sold-out Hampden.
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The tail end of a world tour which has just seen blistering sets performed at Leeds and Reading, maybe it’s best that we were forced to wait. The new material from the latest album One More Time... has had time to rest in our collective minds and those tracks are ripe for singing along to.
The support for last night was The Story So Far. A band that are well on their way to selling out similar venues on their own merits. Pop punk heavyweights in their own right, they came onto the stage like they owned it and already had the crowd singing along from the first note. When I say singing – shouting may be more accurate. More angsty than the headliners, the Californian sextet were serving to get all those darker feelings out before we got doused in the bubblegum pop punk we came for.
The warming of the crowd quickly turns to exhausting them as the pit of The Hydro bounces along to chunky riffs and emotive yelling. It was safe to assume that from the arms flailing from the crowd, there were a lot of people who had come for these guys alone.
I imagine that there’s going to be a similar reception when the band comes back at the end of October to headline SWG3. If I had one complaint, it’s the lack of movement on the stage – something I hope changes for their own show.
Once the house lights fell and Jim Johnston’s Rest in Peace (which some of you will know as The Undertaker’s song in the wrestling world) filled The Hydro, the cheers started immediately.
The unmistakable drum intro of Feeling This started us off and it’s been a long time since I’ve heard such a thrilling reaction to a drummer beginning a song. There’s a reason Barker is seen as one of the best in the world. Two of the fastest hands in rock work relentlessly through this set while constantly throwing in tricks and phrases that elevate the recorded versions that we know too well. He even got to be the frontman with vocal duties on F*ckface and is the consistent member in Mark and Tom’s side projects – +44 and Box Car Racer – whose songs also find spots in tonight’s setlist.
The set list was full of what could now be considered classics – The Rock Show, All the Small Things, What’s My Age Again?
Most of the night’s selection comes from older albums such as Enema Of The State and Take Off Your Pants And Jacket. With a back catalogue like Blink’s, every show at this point could be a greatest hits concert. If you turned the microphones off, the crowd in the arena would make sure not a word was missed.
The fans were often given the chance to sing key lines such as the now infamous “Where are yewww...?” from I Miss You without accompaniment. DeLonge’s return brought a more polished guitar playing and singing style (although it occasionally seemed as if he was mimicking himself at parts) than those who have seen this line up before are used to.
The band sounded incredible. There was a sense of DeLonge taking his role a lot more seriously now that he’s back in, although we still get the immature banter and middle fingers throughout, so he’s still his old self.
It finished with an encore of One More Time which was uncharacteristically sad and definitely elicited a few tears from the majority of the crowd. I didn’t want a concert ending feeling sad and it was clear no one was ready for the party to end. Maybe finishing on a rowdier number such as Dammit (which came with a slice of No Scrubs) would have left the crowd with smiles rather than tears and only one question... How are all these people fitting in The Cathouse?
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