The "One More Time" Tour!
Featuring:
Photos by: Samantha Madnick
Words by: Rudy Flores
It's Sunday night in San Diego, the 182nd day of the year, otherwise known as "Blink 182 Day", so how about we head on down to PetCo Park for the Blink 182 show with Pierce The Veil, shall we? Does that sound like something you might be up for? Hmmmm? I thought so!
LET'S GET INTO IT!
As Pierce the Veil, whom we last saw at San Diego State for their last tour, made their way to the stage, the crowd quickly rose to their feet collectively to show the homegrown scene kids some love. People were filing into the stadium in droves as Lead Singer Vic Fuentes dove headfirst into "Death Of An Executioner," which they followed up with a quick question for us all... "WHAT'S SO GOOD ABOUT PICKING UP THE PIECES?!" The crowd participation was in FULL EFFECT as they asked us to raise both hands in the air to help bring in "Circles," followed by a little waving 'em side to side about mid-way through. Their cover of RadioHead's "Karma Police" got the "Elder Millennials" (myself included) into it, and allow me to say THEY NAILED IT!! There seemed to be a slight issue with bassist Jaime Preciado's pack during the performance, but it was handled without even so much as a hiccup in the music. True performers, to say the least. This is actually only my 3rd time seeing Pierce the Veil, and every single time it's better than the next, and I do not see that changing any time soon. "Emergency Contact" was, is, and always will be a crowd favorite, and tonight's performance just further proved that statement as everyone in the audience sang each word as if they were on the stage with them. "The band from down the street," as Vic put it, ended their set with "King For A Day" as the sun finally set, bringing in the cool downtown breeze that was welcomed by everyone, because it's been a bit on the warm side lately here for us So-Cal folks. Another fantastic performance, but I expected nothing less!
PetCo Park was now fully packed as the photographers filed in alongside the sound stage, getting into position to hopefully get the perfect photo of Mark, Travis, and Tom, otherwise known as BLINK-182! The "One More Time" Tour was about to go into overdrive! As the lights went down, the crowd went crazy as a video of the trio walking through the backstage played on the big screens. Epic music played as they took their positions before Tom gave us their first song of the night, "Feeling This." Mark belted out the classic "The Rock Show," well, him along with the now sold-out crowd, that is.
Fireworks erupted above the stage, lighting the stadium up like it was the middle of the day for a bit, right before going into "Man Overboard." Tom informed us of a sexual conquest he once had "in the dirt" not too far from here, to which Mark quickly informed us that he "was that girl." Some things never change, and quite frankly, I love it! Smoke billowing from the stage during "Aliens Exist" completely covered Travis, who was showing us why he is one of the best rock drummers in the world! Wait, let me rephrase that, one of the best drummers PERIOD! Absolutely incredible to see live!
They reminisced about how back in the day, their biggest dream was to sell out a club called SOMA, a slightly smaller (I say in jest) venue out in the Point Loma area. To go from that to completely selling out the biggest venue in San Diego is INSANE! Tom, however, thought they were going to reminisce about the time they went to a sex club where interesting things were said to have happened to him. I feel like this is going to be a trend; side note... it most definitely was , hence Tom's new favorite mouth spray "Mark's Dad's Dick in a Bottle"!
Mark asked the crowd to settle down because a serious song was about to be played; he then asked us if anyone in the audience was from a "broken home," to which he quickly let everyone know that it WAS their fault. Which, of course, was a joke but kinda the perfect way to jump into "Stay Together For the Kids." They treated the audience with a special performance of a song they wrote just a few weeks earlier called "Can't Go Back," a somber song that has us all hopeful for some more new music soon!
Then there was a song "for the ladies"...
When the opening notes of "I Miss You" started, the crowd was chomping at the bit for their moment to shine, and Blink gave it to them when Mark said, "Alright PetCo, you sing it!" just as one of the iconic lyrics was about to be sung... are you ready? SING IT WITH ME...
"WHERE ARE YOU?! AND I'M SO SORRY, I CANNOT SLEEP, I CANNOT DREAM TONIGHT!"
Hearing the crowd sing in unison is always such an incredible thing to witness, and this was no exception. Everyone from the pit all the way up to the "cheap seats" was screaming the nostalgic tune at the tops of their lungs, and it was such a beautiful thing that never gets old!
There were two more covers, "When Your Heart Stops Beating" by +44 and "There Is" by Box Car Racer, that were just a quick verse and chorus
before Travis hopped on the mic for his heartfelt performance of his song "FUCK FACE" (a must-see, so definitely go YouTube that shit). Towards the end of the set was when Blink busted out the heavy hitters like "What's My Age Again?", "First Date" (with a little Blitzkrieg Bop to bring it in), and of course, the song that was my introduction to the trio and a personal favorite of mine, "All The Small Things".
Just before they ended their set, they gave us a little Taylor Swift with a snippet of "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" during "Dammit". The final song of the set was, of course, "ONE MORE TIME" because DUH!!, it's only the name of the tour. And while the song played, the big screens showed highlights of their career, photos from the road, and good times that were had. And as the night of nostalgia came to an end, Blink-182 walked off stage to everyone screaming "MORE! MORE! MORE!", hopefully, we get a chance to get just that, but if not... at least we had tonight.
Comments