After kicking off the 2011 Honda Civic Tour on Friday in Holmdel, New Jersey, Blink-182 and My Chemical Romance headed east for a two night-stint at the Jones Beach Theater in Long Island on Saturday (Aug. 6). The mostly adolescent crowd was presumably full of hormones, angst, Red Bull, and whatever filled the red cups that were riddled throughout the venue's parking lot.
As openers My Chemical Romance played through their set and rain fell off and on, the majority of the crowd seemed disengaged-and anxious to see Blink take the stage. Still, the band grabbed everyone's attention as they ripped through anthems like "Teenagers," "Yesterday," and "Famous Last Word."
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Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge, and Travis Barker soon took the stage and broke into "Feelin' This" from 2003's self-titled record. In a way, the Honda Civic Tour is Blink-182's big comeback-over the past few weeks the group has released two new songs after an eight-year hiatus, and is gearing up for the Sept. 27 release of their sixth studio album, "Neighborhoods." Their second song was their new single, "Up All Night," an angst-ridden cut with a heavy guitar riff. It sounded fine, but one couldn't help but be happy that they were getting it out of the way early and focusing on their classic hits.
"The Rock Show" was followed by "What's My Age Again?," a rare song that's instantly recognizable from the first two notes, and the second DeLonge started plucking at his guitar the crowd went wild. Blink's set was heavy on cuts from their last record and 2001's "Take Off Your Pants And Jacket" and rolled through fan favorites like "First Date," "Always," "Stay Together For The Kids," and "I Miss You," the latter of which DeLonge introduced by saying, "This song is about the debt crisis."
Yet the show's highlights were undoubtedly the older gems: "Enema Of The State" opener "Dumpweed" was thrilling, as was "All The Small Things," "Carousel" and closer "Dammit (Growing Up)" provided one of the night's best sing-alongs.
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After nearly 20 years as a band, Blink are still a blast live, with Hoppus and DeLonge goofing off and running around the stage like kids on a sugar high, and Barker's arms flying everywhere yet still hitting the skins with precision. Still, those years are starting to show: On many songs Mark and Tom altered the vocal melodies, evidence that they could no longer hit some of the notes they used to. But at the end of the day, there are few things more wonderful than yelling along to "All The Small Things" with Blink-182 and several thousand other people, for a moment remembering exactly what it was like to be 13 years old.