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The Enema Strikes Up

by Spencer Ross

These guys have balls. Blink-182 is so full of themselves that they can't help but make fun of it. And its a good thing too. Thus comes the new release of The Mark, Tom, and Travis Show (The Enema Strikes Back). Forty-nine tracks totaling almost 72 min in length. The breakdown of the album, though, goes like this: 19 live concert tracks (with concert banter), 1 new song, followed by 29 tracks of more concert banter. I'm not sure whether they think of this as a "best of Blink" (in which case the one new song would be stupid), a live Blink, or "the best of Blink live." Either way, this is a CD that actually works.

It basically takes us through an edited concert, not in content, but in length. Opening with crowd shrieks, we hear the first chords of "Dumpweed," some jokes, and then "Don't Leave Me." All the hit songs are on this album, including but not limited to, "What's My Age Again?" "Adam's Song," "All the Small Things," and "Dammit." And I'm not sure if this is order to not alienate new Blink fans, but much of the rest of the songs are from their most recent hit album, Enema of the State.

I know these guys play punk, and I don't know too much about punk, but the best part of this band is the drumming of Travis Barker. There's different types of drumming styles that I like (such as Travis Lamothe's (of rane) "drummerboy" style), but Barker is one of the fastest drummers that I think I like. And after hearing him on Enema of the State, I didn't think he could drum any faster, but apparently I was wrong, since just about all the songs were cut in half time from before. If you don't like crass, vulgar humor though, then you won't like this album. They make numerous jokes about masterbation and sex, which is weird since none of their songs deal with those issues except maybe the impromptu "Blew Job" ("It'd be nice to have a blow job x10/from your mom"). So if you like the music, get the album and fastforward through the talking, but if you don't mind some crude humor, then listen to these guys and take wonder in how some 30somethings can talk like 17 year olds. Hell, even Satan makes several appearances on the album, which is kinda humourous. For a live pop-punk album, I'd give this 3 1/2 stars and recommend getting it if you don't mind being around some teens at heart. You could tell these guys to grow up, but you know that'll never happen. So let them have their moment in the sun, even if it took them 15 years to get to.

11/27/00