Score: 10/10
Ok, so we want to start off by saying that this was hands down the best concert we have ever been to. As you can see we gave it a 100 out of 10 and we really feel that it deserves it. Starting off was Chester French. They did not greatly impress us, but they were pretty decent and got the crowd going. The stadium was only about 1/3 full when they played but more started coming by the end. It was still light out when they played. Next came Panic at the Disco. They had an interesting backdrop set up (A guy with a curly mustache with deer antlers holding a torch in a boat...or something like that) and put on a good performance. They played many of their popular songs such as "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" and "Nine in the Afternoon". Although they played well and got the crowd pretty excited, we felt that their performance wasn't the best and that they sounded way too much like Fallout Boy. Up next was, of course, Fallout Boy. They also had an interesting backdrop (some kind of anime character wearing a bear hat or something with some kind of flying thing above it) and brought out three huge letters on wheels (F, O, and B) that lit up with many different and interesting colors. It was around the time they went on that it started getting dark out, which enhanced their performance greatly. They played a lot of their old songs (starting off with "Sugar, We're Going Down") as well as newer songs ("America's Sweethearts") and even covered Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" (with Panic at the Disco's Brendon Urie helping out with the vocals). They put on an amazing show and had the entire stadium (which by this time was basically full) going crazy. During one of their songs it went completely dark and all of their guitars lit up, and the letters lit up occasionally in sync with the beat of the song. It was really cool and came as a nice surprise. They were full of energy and got everyone pumped. After they finished people started handing out lots of free things to crowd members, including Famous Stars and Straps balloons and flyers.
Then, after a lot of waiting, Blink 182 came on. The stadium (now full of all 20,000 people) went wild. Starting off with "Dumpweed" it was like a dream seeing them play together for the first time in so many years. The stage was set up with a really cool arrangement of screens in the background that added a lot to their playing and talking between songs, often having their Blink bunny doing all sorts of funny things. Some of the props they had set up on stage included a large Blink bunny sitting on one of the amps, as well as "wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube men" that were going wacky and waving their arms as you would expect. They played so many songs that it would be difficult to think of every single one, but some of them included "All The Small Things", "Always", "The Rock Show", "Stay Together For The Kids", "Adam's Song", "Dammit", "Easy Target", "Feeling This", "Not Now", "I Miss You", "Josie", "Carousel", "Obvious", and "Reckless Abandon". It seemed like they had never broken up the way they acted on stage performing in the typical Blink fashion with tons of swears and jokes and everything you would expect. At one point they all posed for a "myspace pic", and it just seemed to show how close they were as a band. Many times Tom switched the lyrics of songs to include anything from farts to butt sex, and was eager to mention that their guitar tech Doug had most likely slept with your father. The whole time they were up the entire crowd was screaming and during their songs everyone was singing along, dancing, and jumping like crazy. As if it all wasn't amazing enough, they started off their encore with the world's coolest drum solo. Travis Barker, whose talent is unbelievably incredible, and his drumset were lifted into the air on a large suspended platform. As he was showing off his skills, the platform swayed to the left and to the right slowly and at steep inclines. At one point in the solo he was completely vertical and still did not miss a beat. For the finale of the solo he was again inclined facing the crowd and his drumset started spinning around until eventually it was over and he was carefully placed back onto the stage. Blink 182 ended strong, and had tons and tons of confetti shooting out for the last song. Even after they left the stadium was out of control and it took quite a while for the people running the event to get everyone out. Seeing that concert was an experience unlike any other. It was the most fun we've ever had at a concert and the only possible way it could've been better is if we were in the pit. But pit or not it was so amazing that we wish we could relive it over and over again.
After reading this review our score should go without saying. Chester French and Panic at the Disco were good, and Fallout Boy and Blink 182 were amazing.
Drew Bartlett
Alex Tironati
Stephen Vicino
Eli Reznekervitz
Cameron Bartlett
Kris Lori Fuentes Cortes
Brittney Reyna
Keith Ouellette
Matthew Mikaelian
Jonathan Faulkner