BLINK 182 | LIVE REVIEW
Motorpoint Arena Cardiff, Mon 3 July
There are kids here, there are teenagers here and there are middle aged people dressed as teenagers here. That can only mean one thing. Blink 182 are here. It’s not quite California here in Cardiff tonight, but it is pretty warm this evening as we await the California European Tour from our favourite pop punk heroes. Before that, Frank Turner And The Sleeping Souls deliver a rousing set, in front of a rabid audience, further elevating Turner’s status as the UK’s finest punk poet.
A giant Union Jack with Blink 182’s logo emblazoned across it hides the stage, while the theme from Stranger Things blasts out over the PA. The curtain drops and the Blink boys are here. An unusual opener in Feeling This makes for a lacklustre start, that even some great pyrotechnics can’t rescue, but it soon kicks off when the band storm through Rock Show. Swapping those two around may have had better effect, but what do I know.
As always, Travis Barker is an absolute whirlwind in the engine room tonight, while newcomer Matt Skiba – doing a fine job replacing founder member Tom DeLonge – and Mark Hoppus make good use of the big Motorpoint stage. New songs like Bored To Death from latest album California are well received alongside MTV staples like What’s My Age Again? and I Miss You. Banter with the crowd is par for the course with Blink 182 in between tracks, and tonight is no exception. A bit of Christmas misery is handed out in the form of Happy Holidays, You Bastard, which gets a modest pit going.
At times I have to remind myself that they’ve been around for 25 years now and tonight’s set, whilst including a healthy dose of the new album, is a career-spanning one. A mass singalong ensues with late 90s smash hit All The Small Things, followed by a 40-second barrage of pure punk rock in Brohemian Rhapsody, before they finish off with Dammit, from 1997’s Dude Ranch. It would have been nice to hear Adam’s Song or Stay Together For The Kids, but that tiny gripe aside, the Blink boys have brought exactly what they promised: a little bit of California to Wales.
words CHRIS ANDREWS photos NATHAN ROACH