In 2005 Tom DeLonge of Blink 182 parted ways with band mates Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker in a quest to fulfil his creative vision, and “change the world” with his new Angels and Airwaves super-group (strangely abbreviated to AVA in homage to his daughter Ava). This left bitter feelings on both sides - thus snide remarks can be found in various interviews over the internet, most obviously with Hoppus and Barker’s criticism of DeLonge pretty much implying he’s lost the plot.
DeLonge’s AVA persona is a significant departure from his foul-mouthed toilet humour of old. Blink 182’s music was childish and comical whereas AVA have adopted a far more serious U2 esque arena rock style. Gone are the crude jokes and juvenile antics, we are now looking at an older more serious Tom DeLonge.
To suggest that DeLonge’s ambition is a tad far-fetched would be a huge understatement. Through the medium of his music he had hoped to end wars, unite the world in peace, inspire everyone to just be nice to each other all the time, and hopefully coax God to come down and reveal himself. Aside from this, his mid-song preachy bits have given his concerts a somewhat unwanted notoriety, reportedly having suggested to fans to “Stop worrying about being cool, I remember when a Rock Concert could change the world” among several other bizarre statements.
Despite his reputation at tonight’s London Astoria performance Tom has managed to keep his preaching to a bare minimum. In fact it isn’t until halfway through he even addresses his audience, and when he does it’s merely to thank us for coming and tell us that we are “awesome”. Tonight Tom has perhaps taken some of people’s comments on board and is letting the music speak for itself. He plays through his Angels and Airwaves hits “The Adventure” “Everything’s Magic” “Secret Crowds” and “It Hurts” as well as some other welcome acknowledgments of his musical past, playing a verse and chorus of Blink 182’s teenage anthem “Reckless Abandon” as well as Boxcar Racer’s “My first Punk song”
Tonight Tom comes across not as an arrogant git, but as an entertaining, enigmatic and charming front-man. You’d have to be a sour-puss if his stride across the stage and weird hand-gestures didn’t make you smile, and the some thousand here in attendance sing along in complete adoration. It’s only at the end he decides to throw in one of his clichéd “I can inspire you” moments, telling us that “You can be anything you want to be, do whatever you want to do, make sure it’s great” before stomping into his anthemic anti-war finisher “The War”. Despite his sentimentality you can see that the man is completely sincere. This isn’t a persona he’s adopted, this is the real man. For that reason it’s very difficult to not to like Tom DeLonge the way he is.