From Take Off Your Pants and Jacket album shirts to new tour merch, the Sunday crowd at Lollapalooza were repping headliner Blink-182—who reunited as the full original lineup in 2022 with Tom DeLonge on guitar and vocals, Mark Hoppus on bass and vocals and Travis Barker on drums. The final day of Lollapalooza is always a marathon after three days of seeing around seven bands a day. But Sunday, Aug. 4 was for the pop-punk emo kids and there’s no time to be tired when you have to relive your teenage years with your brother and best friends. I approached the final day solely as a fan, running around and enjoying the festival in all its glory.  

Afternoon metalcore 

After grabbing a free Coca-Cola from the Coke Studios Lounge, I was summoned to the T-Mobile Stage by an insane range of soft melodies that seamlessly transitioned into heavy screamo. HANABIE., a Japanese nu metalcore band from Tokyo, combines heavy rock with “Harajuku-core.” It’s a mix that makes for an undeniably intriguing performance—vocalist Yukina has an impressive vocal range and energy.  

Playing on the Harajuku aesthetics, the girl band is decorative in colorful clothing, with ribbons in their multi-colored hair. Their style pulls from Sanrio characters’ inspiration, creating an astonishing contrast that is impossible to look away from.  

Stop everything you’re doing right now and give them a listen here.  

Slow it down 

After a lovely intermission on the shaded grassy hill near the stage, Chicago indie-rockers Slow Pulp brought a calmer vibe to the T-Mobile Stage.  

“The last time I was at Lollapalooza was in 2012, when I was 16!” vocalist Emily Massey told the crowd. Man, no better time to go back to the festival than performing on one of the big stages.  

The band, joined by Javier Reyes of Chicago psych-rock band Post Animal, flew through songs off their latest album Yard—which is a gorgeous folk take on alternative rock, like Death Cab for Cutie.  

Adorned in bright blue eyeshadow and a long flowing black skirt, Massey dedicated songs to her mom, who was in the pit with everyone, and her sister. There with my brother, I got emotional from their performance of their title track Yard, which makes you think sweetly of familial relationships:  

They put the house “For sale” sign up / Did you know that I cared that much? / Tell my sister that she’s good enough / For me 

Massey leads the songs with an elongated vocal drawl that is pleasantly complemented by fuzzy guitar grooves and summery synth. As bubbles wafted in the air thanks to a guy walking around with a bubble machine, Massey dove into a harmonica interlude.  

The band is in-sync and moves together with ease, making for a smooth sound and an inviting nature. Slow Pulp is a summer sunset in the Midwest, offering gentle comfort in its presence and in its departure.  

Immediately after Slow Pulp wrapped up, pop-punk band Waterparks took the stage across from the field. I caught enough of their set to hear songs like Stupid For You, which was heavily rotated on my playlists in 2016. The last time I saw the band live was at the last Warped Tour in 2018—a lineup that featured other popular 2000s pop-punk/rock bands All Time Low, The Maine, Knuckle Puck, State Champs and Sum 41. 

Waterparks have good energy with that overly pop-punk whiny, nasal voice that makes me reminisce about days of sitting in my childhood bed staring at the ceiling while blasting their music. 

Piercing Veil  

Two hours before Blink-182 were set to hit the T-Mobile headlining stage, their tour opener, San Diego rock band Pierce the Veil, brought immense energy. I had listened to the band offhandedly through the years but seeing them live gave me the itch to see them on a headlining tour.  

A seasoned band, Pierce the Veil have experimented within the limits of rock, hitting progressive, emo and metalcore vibes—while somehow still sounding melodic. Every single person on stage is exciting to watch, as they prance around headbanging and whipping guitars around. It’s not often that I’m entranced by a drummer, but wow, I could not take my eyes off Lionel Robinson—who just joined the band as a touring drummer in 2023. Repping a Bad Brains T-Shirt, his arms flew around his drum set with fluid expertise, somehow not knocking over a small plastic hand that sits atop his cymbals. He also played the fan favorite bongos.  

Thousands of fans came out for the band, holding up and flailing handwritten signs in the air, hoping to get chosen to go up on stage. A young blonde girl, who was on the barricade and belting out every word to every song, was selected to go on a stage—a tradition the band maintains at every show. She was dressed up as the girl in the band’s album cover art for 2010’s Selfish Machines. Gazing into each other’s eyes, vocalist Vic Fuentes sang passionately with her and gave her a red Gibson to take home. She was so excited, tears in her eyes and mouth agape, it made me emotional. Music fandom runs deep, and she will never forget that moment.  

The band also covered Radiohead’s Karma Police and, surprisingly, not many in the crowd knew the words.  

Ultimate headliner 

Though I was bummed I didn’t land another interview with Tom DeLonge, it was good to hear Blink-182 as a fan—to experience it among others who have the same connection with the music. After Pierce the Veil’s performance, my brother, partner and I moved up through the crowd to be directly in the pit for Blink-182’s set—which wasn’t for another hour. The last time my brother and I saw blink-182 together was in 2009.  

It’s difficult to describe the moments leading up to a performance you’re eagerly anticipating. The time somehow simultaneously goes by so slowly and so quickly. It’s as though you wait forever for this moment and then it’s gone in the blink of an eye.  

As the lights dimmed at 8:45 p.m., my heart jumped and tears swelled in my eyes. My brother, who is three years older than I am, introduced me to Blink when I was an annoying third grader looking for a place to belong. Our parents divorced when we were young, and I leaned on him for everything. Rather than pushing me away, he brought me into his world—which was full of crappy punk rock like Blink-182 and Green-Day. We saw Blink-182 together for the first time as kids, so getting to experience them live together again 15 years later was pure magic. 

Blink kicked off the show with Feeling This, a song off my favorite album Take Off Your Pants and Jacket. It foreshadowed a night of early Blink classics, mixed with newer songs off their 2023 album ONE MORE TIME … plus, they played an unreleased song off their ONE MORE TIME … deluxe album set for release later this month.  

Surprisingly, we were surrounded by the most respectful crowd I have ever experienced. The last time I saw Blink at a festival was Riot Fest in 2019, and I was so squished and pushed around that I couldn’t breathe. At Lollapalooza, I had room to dance and flail my arms in the air like a psycho. It was the best experience I could have asked for.  

In between typical banter between DeLonge and Hoppus, and fireworks shooting up out of the back of the stage, Barker was lifted in the air with his entire drum set—and he didn’t miss a beat. The small circular stage he sat on slightly shifted from left to right, and he even stood up without a harness. He stayed up there 20 feet above the main stage for about five songs and went hard, going through pairs of drumsticks as though they were sticks of gum. 

Though I know every word to every song, my favorite song to hear live is always Stay Together for the Kids, a song my brother and I feel was made for us. To sing it along with him, arm over his shoulder, a little bit of our childhood hearts was healed. We needed that performance. And hearing a short rendition of Box Car Racer’s song There Is was the cherry on top.  

Now, if you aren’t familiar with Blink-182, you might be shocked to hear the stupid dick jokes on stage, but it lives up to everything Blink was when they first formed in 1992. They were just a group of young, dumb, punk-rock kids who wanted to make music to distract them from the noise in their lives. In their late 40s, early 50s, the band still maintains that childish punk energy proving you’re never too old to have a bit of fun and let go. Their music is upbeat and in your face, best described as pop-punk because of its catchy melodies. Which was fitting when they melded one of their songs with Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club.  

The band capped off the night, past curfew, with ONE MORE TIME, the first song they released for their reunion. It’s an emotional ballad about life being too short not to spend it with the ones you love. I’m already itching to get to their next show.  

Kendall Polidori is The Rockhound, Luckbox’s resident rock critic. Follow her reviews on Instagram and X @rockhoundlb, TikTok @rockhoundkp