So here we go. After releasing Enema of the State, Blink 182 was on top of the world. It was a enormous hit for them and spawned some of their biggest hits to date. They would later go on tour with Enema and release this album, The Mark, Tom, and Travis Show (The Enema Strikes Back).
Recorded over two days at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium & Universal Ampitheater, this is Blink at their best. This album was basically a Greatest Hits album at the time it was recorded, only the songs are live. Blink does throw in some "new" tracks into the mix as well. They're actually more like joke songs, such as the crowd favorite, Family Reunion, a song filled with many naughty words or Blow Job, which is about, err... you get the idea.
Along with the music you also get to listen to the band talk to the crowd. The jokes are funny and any self respecting Blink fan should get a kick out of their immature humor. There is one joke that does get a bit old, when Tom tries to act like Satan and talk to the crowd. It's funny at first but quickly gets old as the album progresses. However, after the music is done don't stop listening as there is about seven minutes of banter from the band at the end of the album making a total of 49 tracks.
Blink sounds much better live than they do in the studio and you can tell that from listening to this. In fact some of the more stand-out tracks are those from Dude Ranch and Chesire Cat. It's great to hear Blink play Carousel live, if you're one of those people like me who thought the sound quality on Chesire Cat was bland.
Also included in this album is a new studio track called "Man Overboard". It is clearly a song about saying good bye to someone. Most people think that it's about Scott, Blinks former drummer. The song is really good and has some really nice bass and equally good vocals by both Tom and Mark.
It's a shame this album was available for only a limited time. I hear it's goes for alot of money on Ebay. If you are a Blink 182 fan and you can get your hands on a copy of this, do it, its worth the money. I guarantee you won't regret it.
PROS
Just about everything you'd want to hear from Blink
New tracks
Blink is much better live
CONS
Some of the jokes are bland
Album is very expensive now
May be too immature for some people
