I just went to see blink-182 at Aaron’s Amphitheatre in Atlanta. This was an incredible show. I left right after my morning class and got there three hours before the gates were to open (‘cause I’m super cool like that and determined to get up to the front).
As soon as they opened the gates, I booked it to the stage—didn’t even stop to get a free spray-on blink tattoo (which I sincerely wanted to do). Dedication paid off. I got up to the very front on the rail and strategically positioned myself right in front of where I guessed that Mark would be, according to their previous stage set-ups. Made friends with the security guy, which paid off later when some kid (a.k.a. giant manboy) tried to rough me out of my spot and was promptly told to back off.
I’m not going to spend much time on Matt and Kim and My Chemical Romance (openers), because that’s not why I was there. I will say that Kim is frakking awesome and My Chemical Romance, despite the fact that I haven’t really listened to them much since high school, gave a great show and made me feel young..er…again.
Now for blink. They came out, and I lost it. No chance whatsoever of keeping my cool. They opened with “Feeling This,” and it was such a powerful start. Plus, I could not have been more in front of Mark. Success.
The rest of the setlist was a good mix of old and new. The new included “Up All Night” (which I screamed along to despite my personal distaste for it), “After Midnight,” “Heart’s All Gone,” and “Ghost on the Dancefloor.”
When they started to play “Heart’s All Gone,” Mark stopped and announced that they were filming their music video and would be playing through the song twice to get the footage. Win. Yes, I would like to be in a blink-182 video (fulfilling 15-year-old-me’s ultimate dream). No, I would not mind seeing one of my favorite songs from the new album played twice. Needless to say, I kind of freaked out a tad.
Other highlights of my show experience…Now, Mark had a Polaroid camera on stage, and he grabbed it at some point during the show to snap some photos. He went up to Travis while he was in the midst of some hardcore drumming and took a pic of him. He then went up to Tom and did the same. Guess who got the Polaroid of Travis? That’s right…me, and I shall treasure it forever.
Finally, at the very end of the show, after the encore of “Carousel” and “Dammit,” Mark decided to give me one last parting gift. In a diary-entry inspiring handoff (brief but glorious hand squeeze), Mark gave me his last pick. And that was it.
Emily is an over-enthusiastic lover of music, books, movies, fashion, and culture in general. Her love of music spans across all genres (what is a genre anymore? she waxes poetic to herself), though she was nursed on true punk and will never understand “redneck country” music – tractors are not and cannot be sexy. Emily currently lives in Brooklyn, NY and considers herself to be a great wit, though she is still waiting on validation from a credible source.