Blink-182 And Lil Wayne Rock The Excel Energy Center

When I first heard Blink-182 and Lil Wayne were touring together, I thought it was an odd pairing but jumped at the chance to shoot them.  I had expected some fans to come late and others to leave early, but the crowds came early and stayed late.  The 2 put on a great show and had the Excel Center on their feet with fire, smoke, confetti, streamers and ALIENS thrown in.  

Lil Wayne took the stage first, but before he actually came on stage, his DJ played 15 minutes of warm up for the audience.  The audience didn’t seem to mind one bit, they were on their feet for entire 15 minutes, singing along and dancing.  The crowd erupted when Lil Wayne came on stage, with a large blunt in hand and a large, three finger ring that said HI MOM in diamonds.  Lil Wayne performed both live tracks with his band and DJ backed tracks for around 45 minutes.

After a brief intermission, Blink-182 took the stage and picked up where Lil Wayne left off.  The drum kit was in the front and center of the stage with Mark Hoppus and  Matt Skiba performing left and right of drummer Travis Barker.  Celebrating the 20th anniversary of their “Enema of the State” album, Blink-182 opened the concert by playing the entire album in order.  The trio played the first 3 songs back to back, unleashing a number of inflatable aliens of various sizes into the crowd at the beginning of the third song – Aliens Exist.  I was a fan in the 90’s and it was great to finally see them in concert.  They put on a great show along with Lil Wayne and touring them together turned out to be a great idea!