Blink-182, The Vandals, Sharks @ Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne (26/02/2013)
There are many ways to introduce a Blink-182 gig, my first reaction being to type a bunch of scrambled letters coming from the excited 16 year old me. Alas, I’ll try my best to supress the fan girl within.
Upon arriving at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, it soon became clear I wasn’t the only one who had been jumping on my bed with an air guitar all day. Patrons could be seen sporting black band shirts of every variety, ranging from Nirvana to Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Not to mention the occasional Mohawk and buzz-cut.
Opening for the Melbourne Soundwave Festival that will take place this weekend, we were literally punched in the face with some of the best punk tunes out there. What could be better than a combination of Sharks, The Vandals and Blink-182? Not much my friends. Not much.
The night officially kicked off at 7.15pm, with English band The Sharks braving a punk hungry crowd. No Gods appeared to be a hit amongst fans, many could be seen waving their arms around and appreciating the fact that James Mattock’s lyrics could be understood.
Next up were The Vandals, stemming from California since 1980. These guys were, to say the least, overly entertaining. Opening with Its A Fact, The Vandals had everyone up and ready to go. Lead guitarist Warren Fitzgerald smashed a guitar solo sitting down and it was then that we knew. These guys mean business.
Following a compliment to the polite punk crowd, lead singer Dave Quackenbush led the band into the grunge-filled Anarchy Burger. Band members jumped everywhere and encouraged the audience to do the same. In being a favourite band of Blink-182, it is no surprise these guys blew us so far away. We were awake and ready for more.
After their performance the crowd grew more excited, shuffling to the front and attempting to get the best view possible. Fans began cheering at anything but a change of lighting, hoping this was the moment they had all been waiting for.
As the lights finally dimmed, the crowd roared as the animated Tom De Longe and Mark Hoppus made their way on stage, followed by Bad Religion’s drummer Brooks Wackerman.
As many of us know, Blink’s celebrity drummer Travis Barker was unable to join the band in their adventures down under. With this news came many broken hearts, still, if it weren’t for the tireless efforts of Wackerman (apt surname), Blink’s 2013 Australian tour would not have been possible.
To push us over the edge before the night had even begun, 2003 signature track Feeling This filled the arena and had everyone jumping like maniacs. The feeling was incredible, like we’d all been sucked back into the ninth grade when school sucked and video games were a way of life. Mark spent most of the night making references to Tom’s mum’s vagina, while Tom made references to some of Australia’s biggest icons.
“I want Hugh Jackman to sit on my chest without any pants on.”
Following this magnificent opener were iconic tunes Rock Show, What’s My Age Again and Always. Not having visited Australia in nine years (What?!), the band explained how much they’ve missed our red soil, yelling to the audience – “Australia! I Miss You!”
Touché boys! I see what you did there! I can’t even begin to explain how special this moment was- almost everyone in sight could be seen singing the nostalgic tune word for word. For any Blink fan, it is fair to say I Miss You is pretty damn special. It’s one of those songs an entire generation grew up singing, loving and sulking to.
It was beyond awesome hearing almost all of the older Blink-182 songs, alongside their newer releases from 2011 album Neighbourhoods. Wackerman blew us away with his talent, consistently mirroring the talent of Travis Barker. A definite highlight of the night had to be his minute long drum solo that led us into 2003 track Violence. This song is gnarly enough on CD.. but live? Holy shit. My jaw was on the floor.
As the night started to wind down, the band disappeared off stage for the infamous encore call. This crowd seemed to know the drill, as only a few started to yell for more. As expected the band bounced back on stage after a few minutes, with two acoustic guitars and what appeared to be a fancier set of bongo drums.
Mark and Tom began to explain how they had always wanted lead singer of The Cure, Robert Smith to feature on an album. This wish came true in in 2003 when the four recorded All Of This, a truly remarkable song. The song was then performed acoustically and had most of us trying to remember how to ‘sway’ after jumping around so much.
The acoustic set definitely added some sensitivity to the night, which I really appreciated. Three songs later and the boys strapped on their electric guitars once again for that heavy finale. It had to be. It must be. It was. Dammit. Girls were surfing through the crowd. Boys were throwing beer cans. It was ‘off the chain, man’. Tonight’s show was a winner all round in my books. Some fancy pyrotechnics would have been great, but hey, most of us were too busy singing to notice much else.
Kim Tedge
Follow me on Twitter - @Kimmers90
Upon arriving at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, it soon became clear I wasn’t the only one who had been jumping on my bed with an air guitar all day. Patrons could be seen sporting black band shirts of every variety, ranging from Nirvana to Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Not to mention the occasional Mohawk and buzz-cut.
Opening for the Melbourne Soundwave Festival that will take place this weekend, we were literally punched in the face with some of the best punk tunes out there. What could be better than a combination of Sharks, The Vandals and Blink-182? Not much my friends. Not much.
The night officially kicked off at 7.15pm, with English band The Sharks braving a punk hungry crowd. No Gods appeared to be a hit amongst fans, many could be seen waving their arms around and appreciating the fact that James Mattock’s lyrics could be understood.
Next up were The Vandals, stemming from California since 1980. These guys were, to say the least, overly entertaining. Opening with Its A Fact, The Vandals had everyone up and ready to go. Lead guitarist Warren Fitzgerald smashed a guitar solo sitting down and it was then that we knew. These guys mean business.
Following a compliment to the polite punk crowd, lead singer Dave Quackenbush led the band into the grunge-filled Anarchy Burger. Band members jumped everywhere and encouraged the audience to do the same. In being a favourite band of Blink-182, it is no surprise these guys blew us so far away. We were awake and ready for more.
After their performance the crowd grew more excited, shuffling to the front and attempting to get the best view possible. Fans began cheering at anything but a change of lighting, hoping this was the moment they had all been waiting for.
As the lights finally dimmed, the crowd roared as the animated Tom De Longe and Mark Hoppus made their way on stage, followed by Bad Religion’s drummer Brooks Wackerman.
As many of us know, Blink’s celebrity drummer Travis Barker was unable to join the band in their adventures down under. With this news came many broken hearts, still, if it weren’t for the tireless efforts of Wackerman (apt surname), Blink’s 2013 Australian tour would not have been possible.
To push us over the edge before the night had even begun, 2003 signature track Feeling This filled the arena and had everyone jumping like maniacs. The feeling was incredible, like we’d all been sucked back into the ninth grade when school sucked and video games were a way of life. Mark spent most of the night making references to Tom’s mum’s vagina, while Tom made references to some of Australia’s biggest icons.
“I want Hugh Jackman to sit on my chest without any pants on.”
Following this magnificent opener were iconic tunes Rock Show, What’s My Age Again and Always. Not having visited Australia in nine years (What?!), the band explained how much they’ve missed our red soil, yelling to the audience – “Australia! I Miss You!”
Touché boys! I see what you did there! I can’t even begin to explain how special this moment was- almost everyone in sight could be seen singing the nostalgic tune word for word. For any Blink fan, it is fair to say I Miss You is pretty damn special. It’s one of those songs an entire generation grew up singing, loving and sulking to.
It was beyond awesome hearing almost all of the older Blink-182 songs, alongside their newer releases from 2011 album Neighbourhoods. Wackerman blew us away with his talent, consistently mirroring the talent of Travis Barker. A definite highlight of the night had to be his minute long drum solo that led us into 2003 track Violence. This song is gnarly enough on CD.. but live? Holy shit. My jaw was on the floor.
As the night started to wind down, the band disappeared off stage for the infamous encore call. This crowd seemed to know the drill, as only a few started to yell for more. As expected the band bounced back on stage after a few minutes, with two acoustic guitars and what appeared to be a fancier set of bongo drums.
Mark and Tom began to explain how they had always wanted lead singer of The Cure, Robert Smith to feature on an album. This wish came true in in 2003 when the four recorded All Of This, a truly remarkable song. The song was then performed acoustically and had most of us trying to remember how to ‘sway’ after jumping around so much.
The acoustic set definitely added some sensitivity to the night, which I really appreciated. Three songs later and the boys strapped on their electric guitars once again for that heavy finale. It had to be. It must be. It was. Dammit. Girls were surfing through the crowd. Boys were throwing beer cans. It was ‘off the chain, man’. Tonight’s show was a winner all round in my books. Some fancy pyrotechnics would have been great, but hey, most of us were too busy singing to notice much else.
Kim Tedge
Follow me on Twitter - @Kimmers90