Punk’s not dead. It’s far from dead. If there’s anything we learned at Blink-182’s Kansas City show at T-Mobile Center on Saturday night, it’s that punk is alive and well and still talking trash.
The buzz was already high for the night, since the band cancelled their Kansas City show last year at the very last-minute. This make-up show sent everyone exploding through the roof (the steady stream of pyro helped). My God, there was so much pyro. In every song. It was like giving a 13 year-old’s first band an unlimited pyro budget. Yes, they had explosive energy and powerhouse ballads one right after another. But to us, the best part of the night was listening to Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge run their mouthes.
Half the fun of seeing a punk or hardcore show is listening to the shit talking coming from the stage– and man, these guys were masters of it. “I love when a song finishes like that. It’s like when I finish inside your mom!” Hoppus would blurt out. Or when the band asked everyone to hold their phones up and yelled into the mic “Hey Siri, text mom: ‘What does that mouth do.’ Send.” It was 90 minutes of nonstop dick jokes (as expected since it was called the “Missionary Impossible Tour”) and calling St. Louis cousin-fuckers (they didn’t really let up on this comment).
Blink-182 decorated their stage backdrop like a real punk dive bar, with flyers plastered all over the panels and dark lighting overhead. We could’ve swore it was a replica of the Replay. The set design, plus the trash talk, was a masterclass in how punk ages and still holds its own. Travis Barker didn’t do so much shit talking. He mostly just left everyone with their jaws on the floor. It’s not often drummers get to take center stage anymore, but man, whatever accolades this guy has for his drumming skill is well earned.
The band snuck in a Descendents cover before plowing into their three biggest hits for the big finale, “What’s My Age Again?”, “All The Small Things,” and “Dammit.” By the time they got to “Dammit,” the floor was shaking (we can’t remember the last time a T-Mobile audience got the floor to shake).
They were joined by Alkaline Trio, who came touting recently released single “Oblivion” and recently added drummer Atom Willard (it must have been wild for fans who’ve seen them in dive bars their entire lives to suddenly see them at the T-Mobile Center). Baltimore hardcore act End It opened up the night.