Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

https://www.facebook.com/davidmunnphotography, Photograph kindly reproduced from David Munn.

It might have been some years since Blink 182 had ventured to Liverpool, that they had taken The Echo by storm and left an indelible mark, the vibrant tattoo of youth, creative exposure and the insatiable pounding in the heart, for all to wear like a badge of honour for the following weeks as knowing glances and excited conversation took place around town and in the infancy of social media.

Age has no barrier when it comes to enjoying an artist of band who can be relentless, musically insistent and uncompromising, the once former glory of the mosh pit might not seem as a willing dance partner as it once did, the reluctance of some of the younger fans may not wish to admit that their parents, who with a huge smile put on an older tour T Shirt with pride and perhaps some amazement that it still fitted after the inevitable gap in years, were more than capable of handling themselves in front of a band such as Blink 182. Age after all is not some mystical impediment to being able to remember how you feel when music grabs you, and neither should it be seen as a yardstick in which to beat yourself as you live in the moment of grateful expression.

For those inside The Echo Arena, the July night was still and serene, for about the time it took them to cross between the realms of the outside world and into the web of a might of music; positive, anarchic and beating quicker than the pulse of the Universe, then that serenity was lost and forgotten about, for who wishes to be peaceful when a storming 90 minutes cascades round your ears and urges you to be who you want and not confirm to the hurdle of the age appropriate mundane.

To a person in the arena to ask if they were Feeling This, surely the answer would have only been in the affirmative, that each song was greeted with as much raw energy as the band were performing with, so much so that as old favourites and new friends were played with a smile and a grin, the scientific community at CERN could have adapted the Hadron Collider to life of the energy built up by the fans.

With a set list that included The Rock Show, Cynical, What’s My Age Again?, Bored To Death, I Miss You, Sober and All The Small Things, this was a night of wonderful Rock, of the memory of the beating heart and youthful expression colliding with the urge to kick life up the eternal backside, to remonstrate with it and punish it for taking us places which we should not go. For the mundane cannot afford to be allowed to dominate life, the drag-heeled tedious must never be allowed to overshadow those to whom age is just there to party harder.

Ian D. Hall