Cringe-worthy and repulsive, Blink-182’s headlining performance was unworthy of closing out this year’s Lollapalooza. The set — though filled with lively songs and an engaged audience — was filled with all-too-memorable, odious remarks from the two lead singers, Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge.
Why are two older men, aged 52 and 48, respectively, who have wives and children, making jokes about sleeping with the other’s mother? The crude humor may have landed with some, but to continue throughout the hour-and-fifteen-minute long set was a bit much.
It’s a question that was never answered. One would think maybe they’d stop and the joke may stand as a one-time thing. It wasn’t. The entire performance, in between songs, DeLonge and Hoppus made quips sticking to the vulgar theme.
They included drummer Travis Barker into it after his introduction, where DeLonge noted “Travis has a giant d— … You may have seen it in Godzilla.”
No amount of stage production could have made the experience more enjoyable — not even the six times the band shot fireworks into the sky.
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
When they came on the stage, Hoppus admired the crowd and his hands held up two fingers in the shape of a peace sign. The crowd echoed the gesture back to him, an array of peace signs scattered throughout the audience.
Viewers repeated the gesture throughout the night, hailing rock ‘n’ roll signs up in the air after bobbing their heads crazily to the rock set. At least some of the crowd was having a good time.
Blink-182 performed songs “Up All Night,” “Aliens Exist” and “MORE THAN YOU KNOW,” and a number of crowd members visibly and audibly welcomed this, dancing and singing along.
More songs, including “I Miss You” and “Down” were also fan-favorites, and onlookers could tell part of the crowd was having a good time, despite the commentary.
Some welcomed the excessive amount of off-putting humor. When Hoppus remarked: “I like that they made a statue of your mom’s clitoris here in Chicago — it’s called The Bean and it’s actual size,” the crowd laughed. Some even applauded.
The “The Bean” comment was an intro to “I Miss You,” a song the audience sang along to well. Moments in time passed where the band gave up singing and pointed the microphone toward the audience to hear just them singing the words back, but it did not erase the immature joke made just moments before.
“Mark, you wanna know what I envision?” DeLonge started. He went on to give a graphical depiction of getting touched between the legs — it was his vision of what the crowd, a group of “perverts,” would do after watching band sets.
The arguably unnecessary comment was said in response to DeLonge and Hoppus surveying the crowd and determining it must have a high number of positive UTI and STDs.
On and on, the duo repeated remarks like these. Unfortunately, their songs, lyrics and stage presence were not enough to make up for their excessively crude commentary. May it be an acquired taste, but the level to which they kept going surely was inappropriate enough to easily determine they should not have closed the T-Mobile stage on the final day of the festival.
