USF Bulls Radio

The weather was hot and humid, smoke filled the air, and thousands of teens and adults alike screamed at the top of their lungs. This was the scene Sunday night (Sept. 27) at the Ford Amphitheatre, as Blink 182 took Tampa Bay by storm as part of their US Summer Tour. Before Blink 182 took the stage, three other bands performed short, thirty to forty five minute sets to warm up the crowd and set the mood for one of the best concerts to hit the Tampa Bay scene. The night started around six o'clock with “I Love College” rapper Asher Roth. Roth's set was one of the shortest sets between the four bands, and it was clear why. Roth's set consisted of the popular “I Love College” song with a couple of additional, lesser known songs. Most of his set sounded repetitive and included lyrics and remixes of the “I Love College” song.

After Roth cleared the stage, All American Rejects lead singer Tyson Ritter rolled on stage in a wheel chair, covered with glitter and intense make up that made him look like a member of the indie band Of Montreal. The Rejects began their set with their song “Move Along”, which the entire Ford Amphitheatre sang along to. After a few crowd interactions and a few songs recognizable to the average radio listener (and a few that only true AAR fans would know), they closed up the set with the latest AAR hit “Gives You Hell”. Fall Out Boy followed the All American Rejects and opened with their hit song “Sugar We're Going Down” (it became a pattern for all the bands who played that night to open their set with a song that is recognizable to everyone). Fall Out Boy's performance was not as strong as the All American Rejects, mainly because there was more talk than actual playing. However, when FOB did play a song, it got the crowd up and going. Towards the end of their set, lead singer Patrick Stump told everyone to rise for the national anthem and began to perform a cover of Journey's “Don't Stop Believing”. This performance blew the crowd away and set up the mood for the evening's main event, Blink 182.

At exactly 9:15 pm the curtain on stage dropped, the lights came up, and Blink 182 took us away with their song “Feeling This”. Blink had a very impressive stage set up with light designs that fit perfectly with every song played. After playing “Feeling This”, Blink continued playing songs that everyone knew, sang along to, and ultimately “rocked out” with. Included in the set were, “What's my Age Again?”, “Dumpweed”, and one of their latest songs “I Miss You”. Blink then took it back to some of their original and lesser known songs. An hour after Blink took the stage, Mark Hoppus announced that they were wrapping up the concert. Hollering and screaming for an encore continued for about ten minutes after Blink left the stage, until drummer Travis Barker took to the stage and began to play his drums. To the audience's surprise, the entire drum platform was hoisted into the air while Barker continued to play flying and rotating over the audience. After about five minutes of Travis playing, Blink took the stage once again and ended the concert with a great, well thought out encore. Extremely coordinated light, video effects, and confetti streamers took the Amphitheatre air, all to the sounds of the hit song “Dammit”, which wrapped up Blink's hour and forty five minute set.

If there ever was a concert were college aged students would feel old at, this would definitely be it. With the majority of the audience growing up with Blink 182, the concert was a great reminder of what music used to be and how good the late 90s were.
Overall Rating: 5/5