Blink 182
Bad Religion
Fenix
June 10, 2000 @ World Music Theater, Chicago.

maybe if you werent such evil sellouts, this kind of disaster wouldn't have happened.  i hope you learned yer lesson, boys.

I was actually pretty anxious to go to this show.  There were a couple of songs that i really liked by Blink, and even though I knew they had sold out, it would be kinda cool to see them live.
I was disappointed.
My first impression came when the parking lot was overrun with parents' cars, dropping off their 12-year olds.  It was a Q101 show.  What else could i expect?  The lawn was already pretty full when we got there around 6:30, packed to the brim with 6th graders, Catholic high school posers, and the rare punk rawker (most likely there to see B.R.). 
After waiting too long, the show began with Fenix, a bad band that I hadn't heard of before.  They seemed to get a kick out of swearing and being obnoxious in front of a big crowd, and thats about all they did.  In all, they probably played only about 6 songs, which was plenty.  I was relieved when they got off the stage.
Next: Bad Religion, the band I really wanted to see.  I was in awe of these legends, Brett Gurewitz and his Epitaph *fame and all.  I had flyers of theirs from the 80's all over my walls.  Understandably, I was quite upset when I saw people taking their set as an opportunity to go fuck, piss, or buy an overpriced Blink shirt.  Especially because BR played really well!  Their set was longer, about 12 or more songs (I lost count) and when they had something to say, they said it.  They didnt fill their time slot with useless words to the crowd about how their mom was good in bed.  When they ended, the crowd (if you could call it that) got restless, waiting for their teen idols: Blink-182.
Blink was a different story.  They came on the stage to screaming crowds, overpowered by the shrieks of girls whose tank tops left not much to the imagination. (stupid whores.)  Their set was pretty uncreative, playing basically the first 5 songs of Enema, then deviating to a homemade song consisting of "fuck-shit-ass" over and over. They played all their singles, including "Adam's Song" which should have never been a single anyway.  I found it particularly despicable that ignorant spoiled preps would be cheering during a song about suicide.  Im sorry but you just dont give three cheers for falling on a knife.  Mark and Tom (Travis was injured, sadly) continued to play, however not very musically.  This may be a band-ish comment but their pitch went everywhere, and they kinda changed keys on accident during songs, and when they sang, it was like they were fishing fer the notes.  Sorry guys, but I really prefer the remixed cd versions of yer songs.  The highlight was when they played "Dammit" which in my opinion is their best song to date.  This song actually went fairly well.

Overall show rating: C or C-

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