Blink-182 at ESPN’s X-Games

Really wish Brohemian Rhapsody was longer haha! - Diggin' the double time vibes.

 

Feels like they wasted some amazing rifts on a short joke song with Brohemian Rhapsody

 

yeah that song isn't that great lol.

 

It's a pretty simple riff. I wouldn't necessarily say they "wasted" it, and for all we know, instrumentally it could serve as some sort of outro to the song California.

 

Skiba sounds really good!! Not that I thought he wouldn't, I'm just super stoked with how well he's doing live. He even overshadows Mark at times hahaha

 

Skiba has sounded better than I have ever heard him vocally on some of these shows. He is singing with vibrato which I am not sure he has ever done - he is taking this seriously and killing it. Awesome.

EDIT: Vibrato was on their first shows this year, not on this specific video

 

Riff not rift.

 

Brohemian is so rad, haha.

 

Awesome they played Not Now and Reckless Abandon

 

Right!? Those are hands down my two all time favorite blink songs. So rad to hear them live. Wish I was there.

 

Sucks the whole set wasn't streamed on ESPN like the X Games said it would be. It wasn't even streamed on Watch ESPN like Metallica was last year.

 

Still not convinced this is anything more than a cash grab under the old brand name.

 

Yep, they are indeed providing goods and services in exchange for money. Total cash grab.

 

Fair enough. I just don't understand why this band gets a pass yet when other bands do the same thing (i.e. half-baked version of what is used to be at higher ticket prices) they get torn apart. If Mark Hoppus was the main/sole songwriter of Blink-182, I don't think it'd be a problem. The fact that the band relied on the dynamics between the two was what made them who they are. Bringing on what is essentially a hired gun, even if it's Matt Skiba, seems cheap but then again, if people are satisfied, doesn't matter what I think.

 

If they hired Matt in 2006 nobody would have been cool with it. The only reason it is working now is because Tom has lead his fans on for too long with empty promises. New Blink got in the studio the moment they were all free and they seem to have delivered in a way old Blink hasn't been able to since 2003. If Tom hadn't turned so many people against him it would be like Sublime with Rome with people constantly dissing it.

 

Man, I feel blue-balled after hearing those Brohemian Rhapsody riffs, then having the song end so prematurely.

 

Yeah, I totally get why the situation can rub people the wrong way, but try to look at it from Mark and Travis's perspective. They've got a massively lucrative back catalogue of songs from their band to pull from that people clearly still want to hear live, they have new material written for their band that people are also chomping at the bit for, and they've bent over backwards to accommodate Tom for years and years. So, you can either call it a day on your life's work, or you can continue it as best you can at the expense of some people whining on the internet about it.

 

But we're paying for a live performance that is obviously far superior to anything in a decade plus from blink. And please nobody mention the words "unique" or "charm" when discussing Tom live, k thanks.

 

I'd argue that the years they got back together from 2009-2014 were more of a cash grab than they are now. Nothing like paying $40-50/ticket minimum to see them force a reunion tour, plus half-ass record an album (Neighborhoods) & EP when the 3 of them had clearly lost chemistry. I think it's great to get miserable Tom out of the picture and see Mark, Matt and Travis actually having a great time on stage and in the studio.

 

these joke songs are stupid. Feels really contrived and forced. 40 year olds making jokes about gay sex isn't funny. It was when I was 14, but now it just feels super unnecessary and almost offensive.

 

Is it okay if I refer to Tom live as sounding "like a cat being ran over by a lawnmower"?

 

Taking Back Sunday has pretty much done the same thing, over and over. No one told them to start a new band after John left, or after Fred left, or after Matt left. Or even with Underoath, when Aaron left, and he was the only remaining original member of the band, but Underoath did another album without him.

Basically, if the remaining band members are gonna play the same songs then it can be the same band. It wouldn't make any sense for Blink to stop continuing Blink if they didn't want to stop playing those songs.

 

I know it's kinda a cop out to just say, "it's different", but in all seriousness: "it's different".

John/Fred/Matt were never the main songwriters or co-lead singer.
I don't know about Underoath's writing process, but they didn't get a replacement clean vocalist for him, they just did more screaming.

And when it comes down to it, blink is blink. I know it's just a name, but when it comes down to it, no matter how much Mark and Travis assert it, blink-182 without Tom Delonge just simply isn't blink-182. It's something I try to shy away from, but while blink doesn't just have a single "face of the band", when Tom is singing, he's the face of the band (same goes for Mark). John/Fred/Matt were never the face of TBS.

 

but when it comes down to it i'll love california and listen to it on repeat >10 times and love every second of it because fanboy. same for the dream whisperer or whatever tom's next thing is called