MattA75's Full Review: The Mark, Tom & Travis Show: The Enema Strikes Bac...
In punk rock circles, there is no worse crime than "selling out." Different people have different definitions of the term (some say it's sacrificing art for money, others say it's merely using the promotional machine, others say it's both of those, and still others have other ideas), but it can be said with a good amount of certainty that most people who love punk music see Blink 182 as sell-outs. And their argument isn't a bad one in the least. Blink's music has gone through an evolution where it seemed their music has become more and more commercial, starting with some of the songs from 1996's Dude Ranch. The band followed that up with the quadruple platinum Enema of the State, an album that spawned no less than 3 huge hits on modern rock radio and MTV (What's My Age Again, All the Small Things, and Adam's Song.) and an album that truly started the large magnitude of sell out cries.
For those of you who don't know them, Blink 182 is a 3 piece pop punk band from California. Some of their material is very generic that just about any Californian pop punk band could play. But then there is the material that truly is a cut above the rest. Dude Ranch held a lot of this material, and in certain spots on Enema, (namely the aformentioned Adam's Song) they reached that plateau as well.
This live album, subtitled The Enema Strikes Back and culled from a pair of home-state appearances in November of 1999 (it was the summer of 1999 where they became hugely popular on MTV) features 19 live tracks, a new studio track, and 20 or so more tracks of the band's uninventive, immature potty humor. It also is a limited edition release, as the album is no longer being printed as of today, the first of the year. Therefore, once record stores are out of this printing, good luck finding it in new condition.
Most of the live tracks are culled from the Enema album (hence the subtitle), with a few tracks from Dude Ranch also appearing, as well as a couple of previously rare or unreleased tracks (Family Reunion, from the Short Music for Short People compilation, and Blew Job).
As a whole, it stands up better than the sterile Enema of the State, which suffered from a serious lack of energy. In the live setting of this album, the band seems much more energized, even if the energy seems to come from a whole lot of screaming teen age girls. One of the only funny parts of the jokes at the end is bassist Mark Hoppus saying "hey, put those 13 year old boobs away." That line alone makes me wonder about young girls today. But I digress.
It is the songs from Enema that get the biggest applause. If you buy this album, be prepared to cover your ears when the intro to What's My Age Again starts. The amount of shrill, piercing screams are incredible. The other two hits from Enema do not get as good a crowd response, mostly because Small Things had only just been released at the time of this concert, and Adam's Song was still a good 4 or 5 months away from being released. The only other song coming close to the response for WMAA is the band's only prior hit, Dammit (Grwowing Up), the closing concert track.
Immediately following Dammit is Man Overboard, the single studio track on this record, and a song that is currently burning up the modern rock charts. In sound, it is very similar to the material found on Enema of the State. The lyrics however, point at the band possibly finally growing up, just a bit. Is there any sign of the band completely growing up in the very near future? No, not quite. However, it does show there is hope for this band to grow and evolve much the same way Green Day has. (After all, the similarities between the two bands are very much there, 3 piece pop punk bands from Cali, both immature and seemingly proud of it, both blowing up on MTV with their third album with 3 singles becoming huge etc)
Most people who buy this are probably buying it because they're happy to see all the band's hits on one CD, live setting or not. It's not a bad album by any means, and it does have it's moments of perfection (Adam's Song sounds incredible here). However, it surely is not one of the "great live albums" of all time. Perhaps Blink 182 has their identity down better than anyone. After all, they say they are like Fisher Price: "My first punk band." There are certainly worse places one could start if they wanted to get into punk music than Blink 182 or this live album.
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![The Mark, Tom & Travis Show: The Enema Strikes Back [PA] [Limited] by Blink 182](http://di1.shopping.com/images1/pi/4b/7a/e4/2006760585-177x150-0-0.jpg)
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