Blink-182 and Lil Wayne Light Up San Diego

Images by Johnnie Crow
Words by Johnnie Crow and Blaake Johnson

The much talked about Blink-182 / Lil Wayne tour stopped in San Diego on August 7, 2019 at Chula Vista’s North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre. The band which began in nearby Poway now features founding member Mark Hoppus on bass and vocals, long-time drummer Travis Barker, and Alkaline Trio guitarist and vocalist Matt Skiba, who replaced founding member Tom DeLonge in 2015.

The band is celebrating the 20th anniversary of their landmark breakthrough album “Enema of the State”, and they opened the show by playing it front to back. The stage set was elaborate with animation projected over speakers, and streamers, confetti, smoke, fire and inflatable aliens all added to the mix. The crowd was very excited to sing along with the classic songs.

The self-proclaimed (with much agreement) Best Rapper Alive Lil Wayne opened up his set blasting a well known 6 Foot 7 Foot, cranked through 27 tracks during his hour long performance, and ended every song with a “Thank You”.

Lil Wayne has always been a fan of rock, incorporating a lot of guitars and drums into “IANAHB” and “Tha Carter V”. For the tour, he heavily used a punk twist on alot of his songs that even had the people there for Blink-182 dancing along. There was a lot of controversy about whether Lil Wayne would even finish the tour after experiencing a few cities where he didn’t have enough support. Luckily for San Diego, he stuck it out. Near the end of his performance, he was so thrilled with the crowd he joked about possibly moving out here.

After concluding with his new song “Uproar”, Lil Wayne had this to say, “Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen my name is Tunechi! I am here on behalf of Young Money MFN Records. That’s my DJ, DJ T Lewis. This is my amazing ass band. That’s the one man band, I got the man behind the band, and I brought the fam. Ladies and gentleman, 3 important things before we get out this bitch. #1 is we all ain’t shit without the love above. #2 is I know I ain’t shit without you. Ladies and gentlemen what is #3? I. AIN’T. SHIT. WITHOUT. YOU! My name is Tunechi, thank you. Get ready for BLINK-182 N****!”

Welsh pop punk band Neck Deep opened for Lil Wayne and Blink-182. Their performance was a lively 45 minutes that really had the crowd engaged. The singer took time to make jokes for the crowd, even stating, “I’m trying to sound like Blink-182, so you can blame them for my shitty American accent when I sing” between songs. Their most notable song was “December”, off their 2015 album “Life’s Not Out to Get You”. The band is heavily influenced by Blink-182 and was gracious for the opportunity to go on tour with them.