Although they are great musicians, I don’t care much for Britney Spears and Taylor Swift. Fresno has had some big bands in town, but there are not often bands I would like to pay $100 to see.
Blink 182 returned from hiatus last year with their irreverent attitude and songs about teenage problems. Playing at a venue such as the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, Nev. to kick off their greatest hits tour last year had to be a great concert. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend. I did however do some backtracking to make up for lost time.
Getting off the plane, you are reminded where you are, Las Vegas. The sound of the slot machines in the airport is unmistakable, as I have never seen anything like this in California. A few individuals were trying to strike it rich on these machines, but the games they were playing largely looked confusing. It was odd that never once did anyone smile while playing these games.
The venue Blink played at the beginning of last year’s tour is a haven for all things music. The walls are lined with guitars, and there is an abundance of memorabilia for every kind of music lover. The well-known Hard Rock Café is just outside of the hotel and had food which was expensive and delicious.
The Blink-182 concert I was able to attend was held at the Red Rock Hotel on Oct. 7, 2011. This was a concert for what seemed to be a local crowd more than partied-out been up all night crowd. Ironically, Up All Night was the title of the recently released hit song from Blink-182. Walking into this concert was different in that almost no one was dressed up, and the emphasis of the crowd was on the music, not gambling. Everyone on the floor looked like they listened to punk rock. There was black clothing, skate shoes and baggy shorts here and there despite the cold temperatures.
My Chemical Romance opened up for Blink-182, and put on a spectacular show. The setlist included the songs The Only Hope for Me Is You, Mama, Helena, Famous Last Words, Teenagers, Welcome to the Black Parade and concluded with Cancer.
Not long after Gerrard Way uttered the words “the hardest part of this is leaving you,” Blink-182 tore onto the stage with the song Feeling This. The crowd looked like a sea of jumping bodies by this point, screaming the words to the song with some type of infatuated excitement. The Rock Show was next up. Mark introduced it as a song about Travis Barker, the drummer of the band.
The song What’s My Age Again was more audible from the screams of the crowd singing along than the loudspeakers at times. With the exception of All the Small Things, this seemed to be the crowd favorite.
To finish the concert, Blink played All the Small Things, Josie and Dammit. The bassist, Mark Hoppus, announced it was too cold to pretend the band was going to leave the stage. So they just played the final songs and left. “Ladies and gentlemen, at this point in the show we normally act like it’s the end, and then we go off the stage for a while, and then we come back. But it’s too cold for that, so I want you to keep on rocking,” said Hoppus before the encore performance.
