blink 182 - Meeting my favourite band!

In my last post I spoke about my recent trip to Amsterdam and Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Part of the reason for my trip was to go watch Blink 182… my all-time favourite band!

I bought myself a VIP All Access ticket to their show, which included free merch, access to the band's sound check, a meet and greet photo and to hangout backstage with the band before the concert.

I arrived with @edenmichelle and @queensteem at the Rotterdam Ahoy arena in Rotterdam. We made our way to one of the outside gates at the back of the arena. Immediately I saw all the bands tour buses (they’re known for having an on-the- road crew of 70+ crew members) as we were greeted by a security guard who gave us our All Access backstage passes.

We entered the arena and a crew member gave us a briefing of the backstage itinerary.

First off was Sound Check! We got taken into the main concert hall and walked up to the front row barriers, waiting for the band to come on. Mark Hoppus was first to walk on stage and everyone gave a cheer. He played on his bass a bit to check it was all sounding ok with the sound engineers, then whilst waiting for the other band members to come on stage he asked all of us if we had any questions for him. Next was Matt Skiba to come on stage and finally the infamous Travis Barker!

(Mark Hoppus on stage at Sound Check)

They jammed a little whilst the sound engineers did their thing, afterwards one of the guys in the crowd asked if he could come up and play a song with them… they were a little hesitant but said yes. I was seriously jealous and thought “damnit why didn’t I think of that!?”.

Mark asked him what song he wanted to play on guitar and he said “The Anthem Part 2”. The band all looked at each other and agreed. They rocked out that track and I won’t lie it was proper bad ass, that this guy got to jam with them!

Afterwards everyone cheered and screamed on for the guy, then we all made our way backstage to get one on one photos taken. They had a cool set up of an old classic American car (Travis Barker is known for his love of these type of cars) with a blink 182 logo backdrop.

(@edenmichelle and I with one of the band's roadies - he was such a cool guy and stoked we wanted a pic with him)

After I had my one on one picture taken with the band we went to chill in a lounge, which had couches, food and drinks and a Playstation set up. The band came over and sat down and played a few rounds of racing with all of us on Playstation. We then just all chatted and got the chance to hang-out with them one on one and ask any questions, take selfies and get autographs.

Travis was the coolest of the lot, he was so down to earth and genuine. He genuinely seemed interested in the conversation and hanging out and chilling with us. We chilled backstage with the band for an hour and then they said goodbye to go get ready for the show.

(Me & Travis Barker backstage)

(Me & Mark Hoppus backstage)

(Me & Matt Skiba backstage)

(The whole VIP Backstage group)

We then left the backstage area and went into the concert hall and waited for the show to begin. It was an amazing experience getting to meet my childhood heroes, whose music I have listened to for 17 years. It was definitely a day I will always remember.