When it was announced that Alkaline Trio front-man Matt Skiba would be filling a Tom Delonge- shaped space on the upcoming Blink 182 live dates, a few people questioned if it was a wise idea. Fortunately, leaked crowd footage of those shows confirm he is doing fantastic job.
Bass player and vocalist Mark Hoppus told the crowd:
“He’s new here, but he loves every one of you so very, very much.”
The pop-punk icons played The Roxy in Los Angeles on Wednesday (March 18th) as awarm-up for their upcoming MusInk festival appearance. They played a set of Blink classics including tracks from their 2003 self-titled album such as ‘I Miss You’ and ‘Feeling This’ (video below), as well as ‘First Date’, ‘Dammit ‘All The Small Things’ and a cover of Misfits’ ‘Skulls’. Check out the video of their opener below:
Matt recently said in a podcast interview with his new band mate Mark Hoppus, that Blink-182 “Feels like home”.
He went on to explain the difference between himself and Tom, ahead of their dates with A Day To Remember:
“Tom and I have a very different guitar playing style. I had to kind of relearn guitar in a sense,” he says. “But it was a lot of fun. I’ve been a fan of Blink for a long time, I’ve known you [Mark] for 15 years or something? And I was a fan of the band before we knew each other. I knew a lot of the songs already just lyrically, and of course it’s a totally different thing when you’re playing the songs, but it was a blast.
You can listen to the full podcast here
Blink 182 (with Matt Skiba) have no UK dates scheduled but there is always time! Check back for future news on the Blink, Tom Delonge and Matt Skiba front.
What do you think of Matt Skiba in Blink 182? Let us know in the comments below.
