I was a Blink fan back in the day.. [nearly a decade ago? hell.. I feel old..] I suppose it's a weird/guilty/nostalgic pleasure. Cheshire Cat & Dude Ranch were my favorite albums.. Carousel was the first song I'd ever heard by them. I loved the opening riffs..
I'd thought Enema of The State was a 'fun' album, but I hadn't liked it as much. Their live album, The Mark, Tom & Travis Show, was great. Beyond that, I had no interest.
They were the first band I'd ever gone to see live.. I was 15.. what an odd day that was.
Went with one of my closest friends, this cynical IxTP guy.. Bodyjar & New Found Glory opened.
As NFG was finishing up, etc, the energy in the crowd was at its highest. IxTP & I were pushed together.. sort of squashed face to face.
Just as Blink hopped onstage and struck out their first chord, he leaned in and kissed me.
..and just as we parted, and I stood there for less than half a moment, dazed, everyone around us going insane.. a crowd surfer fell on me
My sneaker was trampled off in a dense forest of frenzied legs and feet. I never found it. I had a footprint on my face and couldn't stop laughing about it..
The IxTP offered me one of his shoes, but I politely declined.
[The show itself rocked, of course.]
The whole scene was just, ridiculous.. in every sense of the word. Like something out of a bad teen summer blockbuster.
That, and the nostalgic, drunken scream-alongs to Blink 182 that were either held in my home, or wandering around downtown in the middle of the night with some of my closest friends a few yrs back, are what I tend to associate with this band.
..Seems fairly approprate.. the chaotic, absurd, wonderfully intense mess of adolescence that leaves us reeling.
