Blink 182 Drives The Crowd Wild at Holmdel's PNC Arts Center

What better way is there to kick off the 2011 Honda Civic Tour than to start it with a sold-out show at New Jersey's finest PNC Bank Arts Center. Fans poured into the venue to catch Blink 182, along with My Chemical Romance and Manchester Orchestra on Friday, August 5th.

Upon arriving to the venue, I immediately knew the night had a lot of fun in store. The line of fans waiting to get in stretched back across the entire lawn, as they anxiously awaited the night ahead of them. As I walked up the steps, I was ambushed with free fliers and pamphlets, and was nearly knocked over several times by all of the people running around. 

Manchester Orchestra was the first band to take the stage for the night. It was still early in the day, but the venue was already exceptionally crowded by the time the band began their set. Opening with "Pride," Manchester Orchestra had their dedicated fans in the crowd singing along. The band played a seven song set, consisting of their popular song "I've Got Friends,"as well as others such as "Shake It Out" and "April Fool." The band played for a half hour before ending their set with "Everything To Nothing."

My Chemical Romance performed next. The 5-man band from New Jersey started with a bang, beginning the set with "Look Alive, Sunshine." After three songs, the band released giant balloons into the crowd which had fans screaming and cheering as they dedicated themselves to keeping them up.

The rest of the band's hour long set included hit songs "Sing," "Welcome To The Black Parade," "Helena" and "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)," before ending their set with "Famous Last Words." The band's energy on stage had the crowd going wild from the front all the way to the very back. 

After My Chemical Romance's set, I once again took my place by the sound board and prepared myself to photograph the nights headliner, Blink 182. Fans began scurrying to their seats right away as the lights dimmed down, and the main screen began to play popular music videos for some of the bands songs including "What's My Age Again?" and "I Miss You." Following this, the legendary punk rock band took the stage right away, beginning their set with "Feeling This."

The rest of the Blink 182's hour and a half set consisted of quirky remarks back and forth between Mark Hoppus and Tom Delonge. Hoppus also made it a goal to introduce his drummer, Travis Barker, to the crowd on several occasions. The band played several fan favorites throughout the night , including "Rock Show," "What's My Age Again?" "I Miss You," "Always," and "All The Small Things." They even played four new songs off their latest album, "Neighborhoods."

After shooting the first three songs of their set, I went up on the lawn to watch the show for a little while and was amused by all of the teens, and even adults, jumping around like crazy while singing along to every song -- I even joined in. 

Of course, Blink 182 had to do something insane to make the sold-out show one to remember. Just when you thought the night was about over, drummer Travis Barker swung out over the crowd for a drum solo, which kicked off the band's three song encore. After that, the boys played "Carousel," then ended the night with fan-favorite "Dammit."

That was a show I'm sure nobody will ever forget. 

Nicole Mago writes for for Broken Records Magazine