Damn the three inches of rain that poured down onto Hollywood Thursday (2/13), Blink-182 and Alkaline Trio played a benefit show for various LA fire charities, and they were all feeling it.
The two pop punk bands filled the historic Hollywood Palladium on Sunset Blvd. and delighted the crowd with a reunion many predicted when the lineup was announced.
Alkaline's guitarist, Matt Skiba, who filled in for Tom DeLonge for nearly five years beginning in 2015, hopped on stage with Blink for a tune.
"When we announced this show, we opened up a contest for people who know how to play guitar," bassist Mark Hoppus told the crowd. "I'd like you to give a big round of applause for our contest winner."
Out came Skiba, who hadn't played with the group since January 2020 at The Forum, and they broke into "Bored to Death."
Hoppus sang the first two verses then he made way for Skiba. It was sweet.
Los Angeles has seen a bunch of benefit shows over the last few weeks to raise money for the hundreds of families whose homes burned down or were displaced from the two enormous fires that took place in Pacific Palisades and Altadena, neighborhoods on opposite ends of LA.
FireAid which saw a reunion of sorts of Nirvana and took place at two nearby arenas in Inglewood has raised over $100 million. Smaller shows like The Coverups at The Troubadour and the I Love LA festival, also used the power of rock music to funnel funds to those in need.
Blink's set followed an almost identical, yet scaled-down version of their One More Time Tour setlist, kicking it off with "Feeling This" and "Rock Show," and ending with "What's My Age Again?" through "Dammit" with "One More Time" as the encore.
If it aint broke, why break it?
Despite being a relatively small venue for Blink at 4,000 capacity, the trio has played it now seven times including three times in '96 and twice in 2013, which was their last time at the venue until last night.
February 13 is an interesting date in the Blink annals. On 2/13/02 Blink and Green Day announced a co-headlining tour on MTV's Total Request Live called The Pop Disaster Tour.
The spring tour had 46 North American dates and supported their 2001 release, Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, their fourth album.
More than two decades later both groups are bigger than ever. Green Day, for example is headlining Coachella in a few months.
Even though everyone is still talking about Kendrick Lamar's halftime show at the Super Bowl, Blink was there too.
The online gambling app FanDuel and Spotify hired the boys to play a pre-Super Bowl party and they did not disappoint. Strangely Mark wore an LA Rams jersey instead of supporting his hometown Chargers. Is he mad they defected from San Diego to LA?
Someone needs to ask him.
Blink has nothing more on their schedule until late in the year when they headline When We Were Young in Vegas.
Will the boys be family men the entirety of the year and simply putz around the house mowing the grass and shuttling the kids to soccer practice? Go to Blink's website, sign up for their email list and be the first to know when tix go on sale for either a tour or cool gigs like this one.
