The Concert Post

A few months a go I got a call from my good friend Zach and he let me know he had grabbed us tickets to go see Blink 182 on their reunion/we’re back tour. I was stoked, from the day they announced they were back together! I was so excited and wanted to get a chance to watch them live. So when Zach called saying he had bought us tickets, I could say nothing but – I’m in!!

Zach drove in Thursday night and got here just after Salina put the whooping on LG. Tina, Zach, and I stayed up late watching King of the Hill and talking and the next morning we headed out to see the show. The closest show was Kansas City or Dallas, and since KC was closest to Scott, that’s the one Zach chose. So we spent the morning and early afternoon fighting the rain on the way to good ole Kansas City. In fact we drove past the worlds largest McDonalds. Well, it used to be. Anyway – we rolled into town and met Scott for some Applebee’s.

The great part was that Travis and Dustin decided to go – which was awesome! They headed up Thursday night. It was great hanging out at the show with all my friends from college. In fact, if it hadn’t been for Travis and Dustin we would have had horrible seats! Yahoo for Dustin and Travis! They spent a lot of time in the rain waiting.

Zach, Scott, and I got into the Sandstone Amphitheater at about 3:30 p.m. The rain had stopped by then and Chester French was finishing up as we walked in. We missed them though and spent the next 10 minutes trying to find Travis and Dustin and figure out how to get to where they were saving seats.

The first act I caught was the Von Bondies. They were alright. They played a short set but were real jerks about the sound. True professionals. They asked the monitor guy to send a fax to front of house so he would get the message to fix the sound. If I were mixing I would have just turned them off. Anyway, decent performance – wouldn’t buy a record. C’mon, C’mon was their finale.

The next band to hit the stage was Taking Back Sunday. I really like them and was excited to see their set, and I was not disappointed. They were energetic, had a great set list – and you could tell they were having a great time. It was still daylight out when they were on and I am sure that took a little away from it, and they were blue-mixing so, yeah. But anyway – they were wonderful and closed with makedamnsure. Absolutely amazing! I would have loved to seen their set after dark with the full production of lights and such. Two thumbs up.

Then next up was Weezer. They stole the show! Best set of the night in my opinion. In fact you can check out their set list. It is pretty accurate, one or two got cut and a couple of songs were moved around. The guy sitting in front of us worked for the venue, so we got a little sneak peek. Anyway, the only thing I wish they would have played that they didn’t was El Scorcho.

They came out in jump suits and were amped up. Their set was tight and they sounded phenomenal, the mix, the harmonies, every little piece. Rivers was hilarious and had great stage presence, only picking up the guitar for part of the show. They brought out a mini-trampoline and he threw a guitar off of it, and later used it to jump on a little and to move around the stage, onto the drum riser and such.

They played a lot of my favorites, but when Rivers broke into the intro to “Say it Ain’t So” I was instantly a seventh grader again and all these memories came racing back to me from middle school to high school. It was amazing! The band took a break during the set while Rivers used a loop machine to play Island in the sun himself. He played the drums and they looped it, he got up and did the same with the tambourine, bass, acoustic, electric, then he got the crowd doing backing vocals. It was great! You can read their account of it and see pics here. It ruled. I want to see Weezer again and soon. They ended with “Buddy Holly” and a great cover of “Should I Stay or Should I Go”.

Now to the disappointing part. The headliner, Blink 182. Now, I realize that they were going through a lot, just losing a friend. But they clearly were not ready to come back to tour. The crowd had been so into it all night, but it seemed like it lost a little steam when Blink hit the stage. Their production was amazing. Great set design.

They opened with Dumpweed, and I was ready. Mark was bouncing all over the stage – their instruments sounded wonderful. Travis had turned into a monster behind the kit – however once Tom started singing I was immediately taken out of the moment. It was awful. He immediately looked at the monitor guy stage left and started making signals. But it didn’t help. All night long it didn’t help. Although Mark sounded better than Tom, it was still dreadful.

All my life I have given crap to bands who sound good in the studio, but then can’t reproduce it live – and now my favorite band is in that category. They didn’t sound that bad on their live album – but who knows, it was recorded and you can clean up recordings. The set sucked, for me at least as a result. Although I could have just watched Travis play all night. He is amazing.

The other thing I had been excited about was Travis drum solo. I had read reviews about it but had avoided any video of it because I didn’t want to ruin it. He didn’t do it however. Which sucked. They ended of course with Dammit – and a whole lot of confetti in the air. Travis walked off while Mark and Tom were still strumming. he was done – but it felt the whole set like they didn’t want to be there.

I wish they hadn’t shown up. I would have rather them take more time to recover and us go and watch later. Or they could have just let Weezer be the finale (that would have ruled). Anyway, I was not impressed with their performance. Everything seemed forced – their crowd interaction and their bits. Two thumbs down. I won’t listen to Blink for a while, that’s for sure. I need time to recover. I am extremely bummed about it.

Anyway, that was the show. A lengthy review I know, but whatever – you didn’t have to read it.