Live Review

Blink 182 – Brixton Academy, London

• 6th Aug 2014

Blink 182 may have been around for more than 20 years but when they hit the stage in Brixton for their Reading and Leeds warm up shows last week they still sounded as fresh as ever. Powering through Feeling This, What’s My Age Again? and The Rock Show the crowd went wild, what a way to start a show.

There wasn’t a huge amount of onstage chat but when you have so many massive tunes to fit into an hour and a half or so, I guess there isn’t a lot of room for talking. Pretty much every song you would want to hear was crammed into the set list including songs never before played live on these shores from their Dogs Eating Dogs EP and a cover of Hybrid Moments by The Misfits.

The atmosphere never let up the whole night, everybody in there was excited, loving every minute, singing back every single word and bouncing so high that the structural soundness of the building may have been compromised. This was adulation to the highest degree, 4,000 people eagerly eating out of the palms of their hands.

Their three song encore of Violence, Dammit and Family Reunion was accompanied by a huge, blazing FUCK hanging above them, something that I’d take a guess at being the most Instagrammed gig background ever.

As soon as it was over I wanted to do it all again. Luckily, Blink 182 are headlining Leeds and Reading Festival later this month.

Venue: Brixton Academy, London
Support Band: Prides