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blink-182 makes good

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It's been a long time coming, but tonight's the night Sarah Obringer has been waiting for. Who's Sarah Obringer? It was back in December that our Jason Genegabus was out querying people for our regular Saturday column "Barometer of Cool" and asking who they'd like to see perform here in 2004. Obringer replied, "I would like to see blink-182."

blink-182 With opening local band The Quintessentials Where: Blaisdell Arena When: 7 p.m. today Tickets: $29.50 and $35, although tickets from the canceled sold-out concert originally scheduled for April 3 will be honored. Call: 591-2211

It was Genegabus' sad duty several months later to break the bad news that blink drummer Travis Barker had broken his foot while the trio was touring Australia. Concerts scheduled for Oahu and Maui in April were being canceled -- or, at the least, postponed indefinitely -- while blink took a month off before starting its North American tour.

For a while, it seemed that blink might not be able to squeeze Hawaii into the tour until sometime in October, but then some tour dates got rearranged and loyal fans such as Obringer got lucky.

And so, the hugely popular pop-punk trio of Barker, Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge return to Hawaii to make good on their long-delayed gigs, with shows on Oahu tonight and Maui tomorrow. The band then flies out westward for shows in Japan and Australia.

Fans such as Sarah will finally get to hear blink's new music played live eight months after the group's latest, self-titled album debuted in December. Rolling Stone magazine welcomed it with a rating of four stars out of a possible five, Spin gave it an A-, and the album has gone platinum, with sales in excess of a million units.

Local rock radio stations 97.5 KPOI and Star 101.9 quickly added the album's target tracks to their playlists. Fil Slash of KPOI reported "Feeling This" at numero uno on his station's Top 10 list in February and Jamie Hyatt reported "I Miss You" at the No. 3 spot on Star 101.9 in January. The song was still hanging on at No. 6 in early April.

Unfortunately, blink hadn't responded to our interview requests as of press time, so we're left hanging as to how big a stretch they feel the new album really is when compared with their earlier work. On one hand, yes, Hoppus does play acoustic bass on "I Miss You," but on the other, is their current sound really that much different?

True, the song "All of This," is a long way removed from the album's first hit single, with Robert Smith of the Cure guesting on vocals. But when the hard-rocking lament, "Here's Your Letter," comes ripping through your speakers right after it, it's suddenly the blink-182 we all know and love, back at full strength.

"We knew when we made this record that we needed change," Tom DeLonge told the Salt Lake Tribune earlier this year, when the band shared a successful mainland tour with No Doubt. "We love the Beatles. We love Queen. We love the Police, the Cure. It's like, 'Why don't we let all those influences come into us right now?' "

Be that as it may, the raw energy of a song like "Feeling This" makes it clear that blink is as powerful and exciting as the band was back in the days when "Enema of the State" and "The Mark, Tom and Travis Show (The Enema Strikes Back)" were newly released. Back then, no one felt the need to question or downplay the inherent integrity of blink-182's music.

To these ears, the guys are still aces when it comes to doing catchy, articulate songs about sex, lust, rejection and alienation. They still sound like blink-182 to me.

And I'm betting Sarah Obringer will find tonight's concert was worth the wait.

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