Published on Nov 5, 2003
Pushing my way through my stacks of CDs, I trip and fall, and
stumble upon this mistake.
Shortly after Blink 182’s wildly disappointing
Enema of the State, they released this pathetic live album.
Bassist/vocalist Mark Hoppus and guitarist Tom DeLonge hop around
on stage whilst telling stupid sex/fart jokes and making general
asses of themselves. Drummer Travis Barker is the only one not
making a complete idiot out of himself, substituting his voice with
pounding on the snare drum and cymbal.
The album is comprised mostly of
Dude Ranch and
Enema of the State material. And while this is to be
expected, I hoped for at least one track off their unknown albums
Flyswatter and
Buddha.
I’ll continue my flame rant later on; now for the incredibly
small good news. The songs “Aliens Exist,” “Going Away to College,”
and the only new track, a studio version of “Man Overboard,” aren’t
half-bad. For once, Hoppus doesn’t sound like a total whiny bitch,
and the guitar is decent. The bass isn’t there, but then again, I
can’t find it in any Blink song, so that doesn’t really bother
me.
Back to the bad news. The remainder of the album is either a)
Stupid, boring, redundant angsty teen, lost-love, insert derogatory
adjective here pseudo-punk, or b) 0:30 songs about blow jobs and
curses. Item “b” doesn’t so much bother me for the “vulgar” lyrical
content (hell, I listen to Aborted), but just the fact that they
decide to waste almost a half-hour with songs like these. Though
the album technically ends at 20, there are dozens of “bonus”
tracks, all basically the same length, and completely incoherent
pieces of drivel, with some half-assed guitaring.
The only two things about this album that I can say don’t
totally piss me off are Travis Barker’s drumming, which is pretty
good, and the fact that they didn’t make it a double album. I’m
positive pre-teen kids trying to be “down” will eat this thing up.
As for myself, just give me some Misfits. At least they’re
cool.