A week before Blink 182 would release their 7th studio album, California, the trio played a few one off shows.  These were fairly small capacity rooms compared to their upcoming summer tour.  The little town of Bethlehem was one of those lucky date.  With a show sold out months before, Bethlehem was going to witness the newest version of Blink 182.

On these select dates, Blink 182 took out Hawthorne Heights as the opening band.  Hawthorne Heights ripped through a quick set which a good amount of the crowd knew.  For a fairly young crowd, it seems like Hawthorne Heights is starting to gain a new generation of fans.  However, when the last song played, “Ohio Is For Lovers”, the rowdy crowd burst into a huge frenzy.  There seems to be new life in Hawthorne Heights.

http://www.hawthorneheights.com/

As Blink 182 took the stage, the crowd and myself, were curious of how the new Blink 182 would handle the new and old songs.  The setlist was a greatest hits setlist with new songs that have already been released.  Unlike other shows where new songs are played for the first time and no one knows what to do, this crowd knew the words already and embraced the new songs.  The onstage banter was very minimal now it seemed, but helped with having more songs in the setlist.  Matt Skiba seems to fit in quite nicely, once the summer tour starts I think he will start to feel more comfortable on stage with Blink 182.  Mark skipped from one side of stage to the other, while Matt would move to the center once and awhile but stayed fairly close to his mic.  It’s interesting seeing the evolution of Blink 182 from listening to them in middle school to now.  I think as the years go on we will see a lot of changes with this band and quite frankly it won’t be a bad thing.

http://blink182.com/