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“What’s my age again?” sang Blink 182 as their high-octane show came to a close. It’s a good question, and one I Googled on my way home. Tom DeLonge is 47, Mark Hoppus is 51, and Travis Barker is 47. Yet the show was littered with crass patter worthy of a high school corridor. “We want to f**k all of you,” Tom told the 21,000-strong Manchester crowd as they kicked things off. And the talk of genitalia and shagging continued for the next 90 minutes.
Often it was misogynistic, with talk of bedding mums and non-existent female orgasms. What might have been silly in the early 2000s didn’t land, instead coming across as dated and offensive. But the AO Arena didn’t sell out twice over (tonight was the first of two shows in Manchester) for fans to hear them speak. And, in fact, when Blink 182 stuck to what they do best – pure punk pop rock – the show was a lot of fun.
The Rock Show, Family Reunion and Man Overboard ramped up the energy to almost manic levels, with assaulting strobe lighting to match.
No expense was spared on the pyrotechnics, something Mark commented on, saying: “We paid a lot of money for these.”
It showed, and fans lapped up the fire, steam, streamers and fireworks that peppered the show throughout.
As with Muse a week or so before, the sound in the AO Arena didn’t start strong, and Mark and Tom’s lyrics were somewhat muffled to begin with.
Things seemed to improve somewhere around Feeling This.
Travis, who wisely only spoke two words the entire night, was a highlight. Drumming until his fingers literally bled – as gruesome camera close-ups revealed – he was mesmeric, particularly when raised into the air on a plinth for Down and Bored To Death.
Mark placed a towel over his head for Violence, and he continued to play blind.
To absolutely nobody’s surprise, the big hitters of the night were Miss You and All The Small Things.
The former saw Mark blow imaginary smoke off his fingers triumphantly once finished, and the latter saw the crowd raise the roof.
Frenetic, Blink powered through their hits in a frenzy.
But it was the more subtle moments in which there was real magic.
Mark, who battled stage four lymphoma in 2021, and considered taking his own life, opened up to the crowd before Adam’s Song.
“When I wrote this I was in a dark place and I didn’t know if I wanted to carry on,” he said. “And then again when I had cancer, there were days when I felt like I was dying and days when I wanted to die. I didn’t know if I’d ever be on stage again. This band, this tour, this album, and every single person who is coming to these shows is saving my life a second time.”
Indeed with a new album – One More Time – and new songs – of which More Than You Know, Edging and Dance With Me made the setlist last night – Blink 182 are back.
And it’s good to have them, even if they need to wash their mouths out with soap.
