Whatever musicians you listen to these days, if you grew up in suburban America in the late ‘90s, that dreamland of strip malls and awkward high school dances, chances are you grew up on bands like San Diego punk rockers Blink-182. In an age when many bands are knockoffs of bands that themselves were influenced by this trio, it’s refreshing not just to see Blink, but, in Weezer and Taking Back Sunday, two bands who have been at the forefront of their rock sub-genres for almost two decades. Weezer, TBS and the newly-reunited Blink were all on display on August 27 at the Susquehanna Bank Center just across the river from Philly.
After playing a sold-out show at the Electric Factory this past June, Taking Back Sunday returned to play third-string on the Blink comeback tour. Despite a sea of mostly empty green seats – comeback tours always come with a sea of tailgaters, no matter who opens – Adam Lazzara and his Long Island boys were not fazed, playing 40 minutes of mostly hit songs, sprinkled in with some new cuts from their latest record, “New Again.” Little of the banter from their June show carried over, though, likely because of their limited stage time. But a highlight, as it always is at TBS shows, was the band’s performance of their biggest pre-major label hit, “Cute Without the ‘E,’” which the band dedicated to the “fans who have been with us since the beginning.”
In true Weezer style, Rivers Cuomo and his boys hit the stage in matching white jumpsuits, though the oversize “W” that is a staple of their backdrop was unable to attend this show. Rivers, always a true showman, implored the crowd to reach a crescendo on one of the band’s most singable hits, “Perfect Situation.” He also wowed the audience with “magic” when he played the drums, then the bass, then the guitar, all at the same time, to play the chill-out song “Island in the Sun” all by himself. Even audiophiles who understand how a “loop” works were impressed – Rivers played each instrument at the perfect tempo on the first try.
But the show truly belonged to the headliners, Blink-182. Kicking off their 21-song set with the “Enema of the State” cut “Dumpweed,” they set the tone for a fast-paced set, jumping from one song to another in quick succession. Much of their set was comprised of songs released after the TRL crowd was introduced to pixellation in the “What’s My Age Again?” video, but much more notable was the onstage chemistry readily apparent between Mark and Tom, who just a year ago were still not on speaking terms. In a sign that the co-frontmen (thankfully) have not grown up, genitalia and your-mother jokes were on the menu, as well as the humiliation of all the boyfriends in the crowd, when Tom announced, “your girlfriends like us more than they like you!” Ah, just like we remembered them.
While their backdrop LED setup was far from spectacular, and while much of their act was more vanilla than one might expect from a “reunion tour”, the beginning of their encore more than made up for their seemingly humdrum set. Drummer Travis Barker was the first to reappear, strapped into his throne as the riser lifted five feet, ten feet, twenty feet, thirty feet above the stage. Then, it began to swing back and forth like a giant playground swing. Unfazed and probably energized by this, Travis played a drum solo like no other, defying gravity and certain nausea as he swung back and forth, spinning vertically like a pinwheel as he stared down at the stage and ten second laters, up at the sky, as the band, in its encore, finally broke into its roots, playing “Josie” from “Dude Ranch” and “Carousel” from “Buddha”, before closing the epic night with “Dammit,” a song that had the whole pit flailing every which way.
It was an epic night, filled with bands that have helped shape the direction of alternative rock over the last 15 years. Though Blink did not play any new songs – they were concerned about anything new surfacing on YouTube – we can only imagine how well received anything they make will be when it is at long last released to the masses. Until then, we all have photos of Tom mooning the crowd and Travis doing flips to hold us over. And that’s more than just a consolation prize.
