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Story Time: I saw Blink at Saturday Night Live


veeRob

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31 minutes ago, Champ182 said:

Yup obviously it's because they've gotten older and spend more time just doing family stuff, but it's kind of ironic that they were WAYYY out in front of the whole social media explosion, and now that it's easier than ever to do online stuff they do less than ever. All their webcam/chatroom/behind the scenes videos/etc. were enormous in their success I think.

You gotta think youth naivety, alcohol, maybe drugs, and just that party atmosphere had a lot to do with it. They were also understandably more humble back then and had a higher drive for success, now they live comfortably and don't need to make any extra efforts. 

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42 minutes ago, Champ182 said:

Yup obviously it's because they've gotten older and spend more time just doing family stuff, but it's kind of ironic that they were WAYYY out in front of the whole social media explosion, and now that it's easier than ever to do online stuff they do less than ever. All their webcam/chatroom/behind the scenes videos/etc. were enormous in their success I think.

It's just funny how it plays out. They were ahead of their time when it came to the social media stuff I think, like the cheetah videos. Was it even called social media back then? Haha. But I remember they used to be on TV all the time, whether it was talk shows, stupid games they played, music videos, interviews or whatever.

I know Tom started to avoid the public eye way more around the 2004-05 period. I mean I've always heard stories about him having anxiety with crowds and stuff like that, but you could never tell. I know he wasn't a fan of having cameras following the band about for Meet the Barkers too, but he had no problem with this before then. Kinda strange, but I think the band being less open to its fans was partly because of Tom. He did hype up AVA shit loads before their first album but probably felt embarrassed when the first AVA album didn't receive the critical acclaim he expected. It made him look stupid so he probably felt like he shouldn't do that again.

The plane crash obviously had a massive effect on the guys too. I think for Mark, he's just a family guy, like you said. Obviously back when blink were in their prime, he wasn't even a father yet, or had only just become a father. Travis on the other hand seems to love cameras following him about, but he's a work horse. Blink isn't the only thing he does since they aren't as active as they were in their prime, so we don't hear much blink stories from him nowadays outside of his book and the odd interview.

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1 hour ago, Kvothe said:

They were also understandably more humble back then and had a higher drive for success

the most amazing reversal to me is that when i was around (95–98) mark was super full of himself, and tom was the humble approachable one. this many years later, mark seem the nice humble fella and tom the conceited one.

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14 hours ago, daveyjones said:

the most amazing reversal to me is that when i was around (95–98) mark was super full of himself, and tom was the humble approachable one. this many years later, mark seem the nice humble fella and tom the conceited one.

It's always weird to know that Mark used to be like that haha. Wasn't he meant to be pretty shy when he met his wife?

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My guess is that Mark was probably overcompensating for feeling low about himself. Then when he did get that recognition, he got humble?

But I also thought Mark was doing a Chevy Chase impression throughout the 90s.

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On 8/23/2018 at 9:08 AM, boxelder said:

tell me about it. when looking for stuff for the blink twitter, i groan every time there's not something interesting from between 1992-04. there's nothing entertaining about the reunion era or what we have now haha

Man, I just read an article about how Mark wrote Dammit in like 10 minutes and thought: fuck, guess they were more interesting in 97 than 2018 even though they still have the same approach to writing music. 

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9 minutes ago, vic vinegar said:

Man, I just read an article about how Mark wrote Dammit in like 10 minutes and thought: fuck, guess they were more interesting in 97 than 2018 even though they still have the same approach to writing music. 

You have to evolve and get better from 97-2018 though to stay interesting.  Dammit had a bit more edge to it too, making it more punk rock, which was more in at the time.

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3 minutes ago, Vera Mathews Band said:

You have to evolve and get better from 97-2018 though to stay interesting.  Dammit had a bit more edge to it too, making it more punk rock, which was more in at the time.

Good point. Obviously I like Dammit more than anything Mark shits out in 10 minutes in Feldy's kitchen or whatever.

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  • 2 months later...
On 8/20/2018 at 4:45 AM, veeRob said:

In January 2000, my friends and I decided to take a 2 week trip from San Diego to New York as we had just turned 21. I don't remember the full lineup, but I believe it was myself, Chris Lewis from Pivit (who went on to be in Fenix TX and now Unwritten Law), Mike Levinson & Greg Schneider from Agent 51, and Rick Savage (who went on to be a DJ at KROQ). We didn't have any real plans other than to be New York tourists, and I got us tickets to see a taping of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

I found out at some point that coincidentally Blink-182 would be on Saturday Night Live the week we were in town. I hadn't talked to them in quite some time, but I sent Mark an email to an old email address that likely didn't work anymore. Getting no response, I thought I'd roll down to the NBC Studios on random weekday as they do rehearsals all week. No luck randomly running into any of them, that'd be some crazy luck, but I figured I'd come back on Saturday afternoon and try one more time. My friends were nice enough to humor me and see what would happen.

Saturday afternoon rolls around and the lobby of the NBC Studios are a MADHOUSE! I only wish I had a cell phone camera to capture the vibe, but it was no secret that Blink was playing the show. Like 100 superfans in the lobby trying to meet the band. Nobody had any information on when they were coming, or even if they were already inside the studio or not. All of a sudden the crowd of girls starts going nuts as it's Beatlemania in the year 2000. Blink walks through the front doors and there is a lot of screaming going on. No chance I'm going to be able to talk to the guys. Somehow Tom happens to notice me there and is like, "ROB! I NEED YOU TO FIX MY COMPUTER!" Me: "OK, Tom, get me in and I'd be happy to!" And just like that, they're gone.

Hmmm.

I see Rick Devoe, the band's manager, and go over to say hi. "Hey Rick, what's up man? Think you can get me in?" Rick: "I need to get MYSELF in!" Oh, right, why is he outside the studios while the band is inside? He's talking with security to explain he's the band's manager and eventually gets cleared to go up. As he leaves, he tells me he'll "see what he can do" about getting me in. I wait around a few minutes but start feeling bad for wasting my friends time. I suggest we bail, and we're discussing our next move for being tourists in NYC when I get a tap on the shoulder.

"Are you Rob Perelman?" says the NBC employee.

Me: "Yes, I am."

NBC guy: "Come with me."

Me: "Can I bring my friends?"

NBC guy: "No."

Me: "See ya, guys!"

Nobody had a cell phone and I had no plan for how to find my friends or the place we were staying at, but I didn't care at that moment. I was going up to see Saturday Night Live! The NBC employee brought me up to the green room and explained that there weren't seats in the crowd but I could hang out here. I was stoked with that! I met back up with Rick, and eventually saw the guys from the band. It had been almost a year since we had last talked so I made awkward small talk with Mark as his life had changed dramatically. Met his girl for the first time, and then I met Carson Daly at the the height of his TRL fame. I guess he was tight with the band.

Show time was approaching when a different NBC employee came in the green room and asked if anyone wanted to sit in the crowd as they had a few seats. I was like oh hell yes and jumped up to volunteer. They sat me at the way back of the theatre and I got to see the entire episode of Saturday Night Live. Two other people came from the green room to sit next to me and were DYING LAUGHING at everything host Jamie Foxx said, so I think they were in his crew. I was stoked to see Blink play such a big deal TV show. It was totally awesome.

When the show was over, all of the crowd was being let out of the theatre and I ducked back into the green room to say thanks. "Dude, Rick, thank you so much for this, it was a totally awesome experience." Rick: "No problem, are you gonna stay for the show?" Uhhhhhhh, I was confused. Didn't I just see the show? Or did I just imagine the whole thing? "No, that wasn't the show, that was just the dress rehearsal." An entire new audience comes in for dress rehersal so the jokes are fresh for the actual show. "Hey, Rick, if I stay for the show I'll miss my train. Is there any way I can crash on your floor?" "Of course!" Guys, as well as being a fantastic movie concessions actor, Rick Devoe is a rad dude.

So I chilled in the green room. Same deal: no seats available in the actual crowd, but I was OK with that. A short time later, the same scenario played out. "Does anyone want to sit in the audience? There's just one seat." Of course I was ready and willing, but this time I don't think I could have asked for a better seat. They put me front and center, about 3 rows back from where the host comes out and does the opening monologue. I got to see most of the same sketches, though some lines had been changed and a few had been cut. It was cool seeing eveything from a diffent vantage point, mainly the shooting of the show rather than the show itself.

The show let out, and this time I was pretty sure it was all over. I went back to the green room and everyone was celebrating. I wasn't too familiar with the cast, but a bunch of the cast members came back to the green room to high five Blink and have a drink. I wish I had watched more SNL then as I would have probably had a chance to meet Jimmy Fallon and Will Ferrell, but I didn't know who they were then. Anyway, everyone was on such a high (and perhaps on other things) as was I. I needed to use the bathroom but had a weird fear that I'd come back and Blink would be gone, and I'd be lost in NYC at 1am with no place to stay. Weird fear, right? "Hey, Rick, I'm going to go to the bathroom, DON'T LEAVE OK?" Rick: "No worries, I'm not leaving."

I go the bathroom and when I return, I don't see Rick. Wait a second, I don't see Mark, Tom, or Travis either. Uhhhhhh... maybe there's some post-show business they need to do? I ask an NBC employee where to find the band. "Oh, they left." WHAT? I said it was a weird fear, and here it was coming true. I had no idea where the band were staying, I had no cell phone number, maybe even no cell phone at that point. I mean I could go throw a credit card down and buy a hotel room, but that would have been a pretty expensive thing to do at 21.

Then I saw Carson Daly with a couple of his friends. "Hey, Carson, so Blink apparently left and I was supposed to crash on Rick's floor, is there any way I can crash on your floor?" Half of me just wanted this to happen because it'd be an amazing story one day. "Sure, man, any friend of Blink's is a friend of mine." I didn't want to mellow his parting, so I said, "OK cool, I'll just be chilling over there, let me know when you're ready to go." A short time later, his friends came over and said, "Hey, sorry, you can't stay at Carson's place." I didn't really understand as he said I could, but they claimed he was staying on their couch or something? "We got the name of Blink's hotel" and he handed me a piece of paper. Great.

There's no Google Maps to make this easy, so I have someone else give me directions on how to get to the subway, which subway to take, and where to get off. To this day the hotel name is committed to memory because it was my life's mission to get there: the Soho Grand. I brave the cold and the perhaps dangerous NYC subways (this was 2000!) and get to the hotel at like 3am maybe? The problem now is I don't have a room number, and hotels don't just give you room numbers when you give them a guest name. But I guess this was pre 9/11, so I gave it a shot. "Hi, I'm looking for Rick Devoe's room number, please?" "Sure, it's 303." Are you kidding me? How did that just work?

I go up two flights of stairs and knock on the door. Nothing. I knock again. Nothing. Shit, they went to some cool afterparty and who knows when (if?) they'll be back. I decide I'm just going to head down to the lobby and sit in a chair until they show up. Hopefully they show up! I start my way down the stairwell and who's coming up the stairs but Blink! Rick's like "OH MY GOD ROB I'M SO SORRY! THEY RUSHED US OUT OF THERE I HAD NO CHOICE!" No worries, man, it's over now, I found you guys, whew. Tom: "Dude, I need you to fix my computer!" Sure Tom, in the morning I'll take a look. I'm exhausted and amazingly fall asleep on Rick's literal floor, with like half a blanket. It was not a great sleep.

Their wake up call was super early, so I only slept a few hours. Rick and I are in the lobby and eventually Tom comes down and guess what? He wants me to fix his computer! Rick says there's no time, and Tom wants me to jump in the van and help him out on the way to the airport. I want to help, but I'm tired and don't really want to go all the way to the airport and then figure my way back to the city for an hour-long train ride back to where I'm staying. Sorry, Tom.

They were out the door and that's where the story ends. This was one of the last time I got to hang out with the guys. I was on tour with Midtown for 3 days a year later when they opened for Blink-182, but they were so big at that point I don't even know if I got to talk to Tom or Mark. I did run into Tom in Vegas years later, and I saw Travis a few times. But I think that conversation with Mark in the SNL green room might have been our last.

*Casually hits up mark through email*  Ok buddy you're in the blink circle, totally.

Edit: Only joking, that's rad. \m/

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12 hours ago, daveyjones said:

rob did indeed design their website oh way back when. i was there too... there are a couple old fossils from the san diego scene like us on the boards.

Haha that's awesome, I was just joking. :)

 

Cheers man, rock the fuck on

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