Rock band Blink 182 performed at Nottingham Motorpoint Arena on the 4th of July 2017.

By Jane Howkins.

Blink 182 recently returned to these shores for a new UK tour, and they stopped off at Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena on Tuesday, blowing the crowd away in the process.

There was some trepidation amongst fans due to the line-up change, with Tom Delonge being replaced by Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba before the release of last year’s album California. Whilst some criticised the band over this and seem to have strayed from their fandom since, we thought California sounded like a breath of fresh air for the band, and their gig in Nottingham only solidified this. The last few years with Delonge were troubling, and live performances were shocking. However, seeing Skiba play with the band showed that they were truly back on form, and the atmosphere was amazing, with the band seeming like they were having a lot more fun than before.

The setlist was made up of tracks from across their career, although we were slightly disappointed to see that older songs like Carousel had been cut, with finale Dammit being the earliest track played. However, they played a relentless gig, managing to pull a whopping number of songs out of the bag in the short time limit they had to perform in.

The crowd were wild from the get go, and it was pleasing to see that they seemed to know all the words to every song, including the newer ones. Skiba also showed that his singing and guitar playing was a lot better than Delonge’s ever was, which also went down well with the audience. Travis Barker is still one of the best drummers in the business, and Mark Hoppus was perhaps the most energetic of the three, bouncing around the stage like there was no tomorrow, with a Robin Hood hat on towards the end of the set.

In Nottingham, Blink 182 showed that there was no reason for fans to fear, as whilst the band have changed, it’s clearly for the better, and they’re a much better live act now than they ever have been.