Blink-182 [ARCHIVED] Band • Page 1172

It’s funny, I still love blink and i’m glad they’re active, but I just don’t get excited the way I used to for them. I’m glad a lot of you still do, and i’ll never knock you for it. I just feel like they’ve said everything they need to say. Maybe it’s just being in my 30s and having less time to devote to searching and finding new music and being a grump in general haha. There’s an incredibly small group of bands I still get genuinely excited for new music from these days.

 

It’s funny, they’re the only band that has kept the “kid at Christmas time” feeling alive for me.

 

Quick show review for Tampa tonight:

Missed Neck Deep, but that's okay because I wasn't excited for them at all. While driving to the show I got a phone call from Ticketmaster saying Lil Wayne wouldn't be performing due to illness. Do I think he was actually ill? Not a chance. They were offering refunds to people as long as they didn't get their ticket scanned to enter the venue. A lot of pissed off people that were there for him were leaving as I was walking up. I understand it completely.

Onto blink. We had lawn tickets, but the venue didn't turn on the speakers for the lawn so the sound was absolute shit. Turns out if you complain they'll just upgrade you for free, so we got closer to the stage since seats became available from the people that left. Blink sounded great. Mark was hilarious as always. They dedicated "Aliens Exist" to Tom again. Matt stumbled over the same line in "Dysentery Gary" every chorus (I would like to find him Friday night). Alternating vocals was a smart move on "Party Song". Mark doing "No Scrubs" during "Dammit" was a huge nostalgia hit for me considering I used to watch live videos of him doing that back when I was in middle school. For new songs they only played "Blame It On My Youth". They were really great. Everything sounded great. They're having fun and it shows and Skiba was alive on stage this time. Last time I saw them he didn't move much. I recommend anyone that's on the fence to just hop over it and go. It was great.

Side note, my wife was looking at Matt wearing that hat he loves and goes, "Why is he starting to look more and more like Boy George?" I laughed and didn't have an answer. I just made it home and it's time to unwind.

 

Oh and one more thing, while blink fans are great there's a bunch of shitty ones too. Literally when Mark said "we wish Lil Wayne a speedy recovery and hope he's feeling better soon." some of the crowd applauded but a bunch booed. You could see the annoyance on Mark's face to that. Dude two rows behind us tried starting a "fuck Lil Wayne" chant and had probably 10 people join him. Luckily it didn't take off. So fuck the guy in the blue "boston strong" shirt. I don't understand people.

 

Damn, I'm lucky I got to see Wayne last night then. He didn't seem "under the weather" at all though, he fucking killed it lol


Also one thing I forgot to mention in my long post about the show is that Skiba really doesn't feel like a "replacement" anymore, he seems FULLY comfortable as a member of the band, like he IS in Blink-182 now. When I saw them on the California tour he was still great but you could tell he was still kind of getting used to it but he was soooo fucking good this time and fit right in

 

Also I've been hoping they'd let some Trio sound seep into the new songs and Darkside gave me exactly what I wanted, that first verse is SO Skiba and the chorus is fantastic. I wish it was a Matt solo song actually, I hope we at least get one or two

 

aww this was removed. What was it?!

the Boston strong person was also terrible? Checks out

 

I put on Enema and TOYPAJ on the way home from seeing Back to the Beach and my wife was saying how weird it is to hear Tom. It’s like a whole other lifetime ago.

 

This is a bit off topic but also kinda isn't! Haha. I see Feldy getting a fair bit of hateon here but my band were lucky enough to fly to L.A and record with him a few years ago. It was an amazing experience and he was super fun to work with! Here's one of the tracks we did with him.

 

Hey, cool to see you here. Indoor War is such a great album. Looking forward to hearing the new record!

 

Blink preorder featured as the first thing when I opened iTunes this morning.

 

Sometimes I really....REALLY hate people

 

I dig this song!

 

Yup when I saw them it was right before the California tour and matt felt like a stand in. Now he's legit part of the band and it shows. Dude is a beast. Can't believe I was skeptical of him when it was first announced he was joining.

 

Thanks man!

 

Whoa. I recognized the band name and I remember years ago LOVING your song Big Plans. Just listened to it and was hit with a blast of memories from like what 5-7 years ago?

Glad you’re still going and having a blast!!

 

Thanks man! Yeah it was 7 years ago now! That song was also Feldy produced!

 

Yes! That's what I was hoping to hear when he first joined the band

 

I think this is the only place I have seen the NINE logo as a neon sign. Very cool.

 

The band has surpassed 11 million monthly listeners on Spotify! Not bad
Darkside - 460k after one day.

 

Mark hanging with Camila cabello

 

Are we just gonna ignore the beauty that is Shawn Mendes.

 

For anyone curious, hitsdailydouble has listed as other Sept 20 releases:

Fitz and the Tantrums
Zac Brown Band
M83
Liam Gallagher

Last Zac Brown album debuted with 146k units

 

I'm thorn between being bummed and being satisfied/optimistic. The new album was 3/3 for me before "Darkside"...

BIOMY sounds fresh, urgent, different enough and was able to be thematically retrospective/nostalgic without falling on its face. It avoids California's lame self-stereotyping, the whole and repetitive "We are forgotten young suburbia" motto.

"Generational Divide" is a fine, short, throwback-ish tune that also seems to "push the band forward". It reminds me more of "Go", "Lycantrophe", "Heart's All Gone" or "Dogs Eating Dogs" than anything pre-EOTS. I can envision it working particularly well as an "interludesque" track (even more if it blended with the previous song outro or the following one intro...)

"Happy Days" keeps growing on me. While not as great, it's like the anthemic mid-tempo spiritual successor of "Adam's Song", "Stay Together For The Kids" or "After Midnight". I love how passionate Mark sounds and it's nice to have a solo vocal track for a change. On top of that, it's more spacey, atmospheric and, instrumentally-wise, I think it breathes better than anything from 2016 onwards. Along with BIOMY, it is top tier post-Tom blink (the little tweaks in the last chorus of both songs are so good) and it makes me wish Pagnotta and Malpass were the main co-writers/producers instead of Feldmann.

As for "Darkside", on the other hand, I'm disappointed. Really surprised it got the best reaction out of the four while BIOMY was thrashed (which proves once again how we - fans - see blink in such different lights and expect such different things from them). I do dig the moody electronic verses and the long pre-chorus – the “and I wait and I wait…” compliments its length” –, but then the chorus wrecks it. The mood shifts weirdly toward dancey and jovial as if they are trying too hard to have a hook. It kinda reminds me of what happens in Yellowcard’s “Make Me So”: strong verses, shit choruses. At least that one has a dynamic bridge building up the song, though. Here, the section is not developed at all…

To be fair, that was a recurring issue in California, with the ridiculous verse-chorus transitions and “nanana” vocalizing in “No Future” being the most obvious case (it happens with other Feldmann produced bands too, it seems to be his “thing”). It doesn’t help that the second half of the “Darkside” literally is “I don't care what you say, no / I don't care what you do / I'm goin' to the darkside with you” over and over again. Repetitive to the point of exhaustion and abysmal lyrics. Sure BIOMY and “Happy Days” weren’t excellent in that department, but they had some bright moments.

What happened to Mark’s consistently great lyricism (from the smiley album until DED)? I bet the “first thought best thought” mentality and approach that Feldmann infused into the band, seen as a solution to his self-confessed insecurities, ruined it. Oh well, at least instrumentally the outro is cool, bringing some variation.