Blink 182
Live at Leeds Festival 2010 on Saturday, 28th August 2010
During their five year hiatus, Blink 182 have inexplicably become much more popular than when they were actually together. There's a genuine buzz of excitement as one of the weekend's largest crowds gathers to see the band who bothered the 90's airwaves with 'What's My Age Again?'
Like Limp Bizkit, Blink 182 have been away for a while and know they need to remind the crowd of their past glories, treating us to an opening half packed with oldschool pop-punk anthems 'The Rock Show,' 'What's My Age Again?' 'I Miss You' and 'Feeling This.' Mission accomplished, they move onto lesser-known material, with a stirring rendition of 'Stay Together For The Kids' and 'Carousel' from their self-produced 'Cheshire Cat' debut, which elicits confused silence from the majority of the crowd, but clearly delights those familiar with the Blink 182 songs that never made it onto Radio One. The roar that greets 'The Rock Show,' 'All The Small Things' and 'What's My Age Again?' is the sound of an entire generation that grew up listening to these songs, but never had the chance to see them performed live - until now.
When so many of your songs have become anthems in your absence, you can't really go wrong but, from a technical perspective, Blink 182's performance is nothing spectacular. Travis Barker may be a talented drummer (at one point ripping out a machine-gun drum solo from the obligatory revolving drumkit,) but tonight his drums seriously need turning down, and everything else needs turning up. Likewise, the clattery punk-rock of faster numbers like 'Dammit' and 'Stockholm Syndrome' sounds sloppy, and Blink 182 fare much better on slow-burners 'Stay Together For The Kids' and 'I Miss You' - but, let's face it, none of us liked Blink 182 for their musical prowess.
Not a standout performance by any means but, after so many years of absence and the legendary stature of a handful of Blink 182 tracks with kids of a Certain Age, tonight nothing can pour cold water on the joyous nostalgia of 'What's My Age Again?' 'The Rock Show' and 'All The Small Things.'
