Page 57 - Black Velvet Issue 94

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BLINK-182 / FRANK TURNER AND THE SLEEPING SOULS / THE FRONT BOTTOMS – BIRMINGHAM BARCLAY-
CARD ARENA, 07.07.17
The last time we saw Blink-182 in Birmingham was 2012. And in the five years following that tour a lot has changed. Most notably, Tom Delonge
disembarked the Blink ship and Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba has jumped on board. It’s with great anticipation that pop punk fans both young and old
make their way to the Barclaycard Arena – which was known as the NIA last time the band were in town.
A lot of UK frontmen tend to have an American twang to their vocals, such is the inspiration of their heroes growing up. New Jersey vocalist/guitarist
Brian Sella, however, seems almost to have a Scottish vocal style. The Front Bottoms perch themselves on an indie singer/songwriter-designed seat.
Singing about getting stoned in opening song ‘Skeleton’ is a bit of an eye roller, although the sofa at the back of the stage gives an idea of the homely,
down-to-earth vibe the band have. ‘Au Revoir’ is a humorous ditty in an almost conversational style. Brian sings, ‘Before I say au revoir, au revoir, you
probably don’t even know what it means’. There’s a fair bit of emo to their indie, acoustic-bled rock. It’s quite endearing when they thank the crowd for
not booing them. They weren’t that bad!
Campfire punk rocker Frank Turner
is up next. Like The Front Bottoms, Frank
Turner’s music is very different to Blink-
182 but he manages to impress the
crowd with his professional singer-song-
writer sounds. He brings Blink’s Matt
Skiba out to play the harmonica on
‘Dan’s Song’, joking that Matt won a
competition to join Frank on stage, and
Blink-182 won a competition to play after
him and his Sleeping Souls. He definitely
puts on an entertaining show, even if mu-
sically he’s very different to the headlin-
ers.
Big ups to Blink-182 for doing a big,
in-depth UK tour. Lots of bands play just
two or three shows, but this Blink-182
tour sees the trio play 11 shows (this
should have been 12, but Bournemouth
unfortunately was cancelled due to ill-
ness), which kicked off in Cardiff on July
3rd and ran all the way to London on July
20th, with a day off in between most
shows, making it more of a holiday, with
family members coming along for the
ride too. Birmingham, 4th in the set, sees
a short but sweet setlist comprising of 22
songs, but including short 30-second dit-
ties such as ‘Built This Pool’ and ‘Bro-
hemian Rhapsody’, that lasts a total of
just over 1 ¼ hours. It’s a case of quality
rather than quantity, with the band putting
all of their energy into quick-paced pop-
punk hits such as ‘The Rock Show’ and
‘What’s My Age Again?’ as well as songs
from their new release, ‘California’, with
Matt Skiba on vocals. Mark Hoppus and
Matt Skiba, the latter in black and white
stripey trousers, share vocal duties while
Travis Barker is, as always, the drum ex-
traordinaire at the back. It’s nice to see
the band as still a three-piece on stage.
A lot of bands bring added touring mem-
bers to boost their songs, but Travis,
Mark and Matt show that they don’t need
anyone else, although Travis’s son Lan-
don makes a guest appearance on the
drums at the end of the set. Travis him-
self performs a short drum solo before
‘Violence’, although it’s shorter than ex-
pected, less than one minute to kick off
the sobering song, which ends with pow-
erful bursts of smoke.
“Are you ready for some rock
music?” someone screams before a bit
of lounge music acts as a humorous intro
to ‘All The Small Things’, which gets the
biggest singalong of the evening. The en-
core ends with ‘Dammit’, the band’s first
hit single from the late 90s. “I guess this
is growing up,” they sing. It’s definitely
great to have grown up with Blink-182 as
a soundtrack, and we hope they’ll still be
around for a long time to come.
YYYY
SBV
Matt Skiba (Blink-182)
Photo By Shari Black Velvet
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