All the small things wrong with Blink 182 concert

Blink 182 is one of my favorite bands and has been for years.

Last Saturday I attended their concert in Denver at Coors

Amphitheatre, formally known as Fiddler’s Green. It was certainly a

good time, but failed to register as an awesome concert-going

experience.

I had seen the band perform twice before and always at the same

venue. Though they put on a pretty good show each time, the sound

quality tended to leave something to be desired. I was hoping the

third time would be the charm as I entered their concert last

Saturday, but unfortunately, it wasn’t.

After an unimpressive performance by a new band called Taking

Back Sunday, which was followed up by a set by the painfully

out-of-place group Cypress Hill, the boys of Blink finally took the

stage and attempted to revive the show.

What poured out of the sound system was a chaotic blend of

incoherent noise. Even with the trained ears of a loyal fan, I

frequently had to strain my ears to try and decipher what song was

being played. Typically the song in question was made known to me

by my fellow concertgoers who were singing along once they

themselves figured out what they were in fact listening to.

If you didn’t know the words to the songs before the concert

started, you definitely weren’t going to learn them by the time the

evening was over. When an audible lyric managed to clearly slip

through the overpowering bass, it provided an ironic if short-lived

feeling of excitement.

One frustrated concertgoer in front of me sat down in anger

before the band’s opening song, “Feeling This,” had even completed.

He began to immaturely, yet understandably, pout, while remarking

on the poor sound quality.

Despite the fact that Blink 182’s most recent, 2003s self-titled

release, is far the most “grown up” of their repertoire, there

seemed to be more preteens and teen-agers at the concert than were

in attendance in years past. I overheard one such adolescent fan

talking on her cell phone to her mom on the way out exclaim, “It

was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!”

Hopefully she will have her standards raised as she gets older,

however, if she was only referring to the visual portion of the

concert, then I can cut her some slack. In that department, the

concert was pretty impressive.

Blink 182 played against the backdrop of large shards of lighted

screens that alternated between glowing oranges and random video

clips. The visual highlight of the night, however, came when

drummer Travis Barker suddenly rose up from a concealed platform

among the crowd for an extended drum solo.

A fun, sign-of-the-times moment occurred when the band asked

everyone with cell phones to hold up their illuminated phones

instead of the traditional cigarette lighters. The sight of the

array of glowing screens across the crowd was pretty amazing to

see.

However Coors Amphitheatre failed to wow in the visual

department itself. The large screens on the sides of the stage that

are intended to give a better view to fans farther out in the

stands were in no way effective. Their dark images provided a sub

par and useless view of the concert, no matter where you were

located at the venue.

I was willing to put all complaints aside if my multiple,

valiant attempts to get backstage to meet/interview the band paid

off, however protocol overruled and I ended up ultimately being

denied access. The reason given was that it was too last minute to

be arranged. Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t bolster enough

sympathy from those who stood in my way.