The Rock Show

Blink-182's album Take Off Your Pants And Jacket, the follow-up to their commercial breakthrough, Enema Of The State, finds the pop-punk trio looking back at their humble beginnings playing seedy dive bars in their native San Diego. The lead single, "The Rock Show," was particularly inspired by SOMA, an all-ages club that operated out of a former slaughterhouse and hosted up-and-coming bands in a basement dubbed "The Dungeon." In 1994, the club relocated to a former warehouse near the University of San Diego, and Blink followed, playing several shows there until the location closed in 1999. Blink bassist Mark Hoppus, who sings lead vocals on the track, shared his memories of the infamous venue: "It was covered with graffiti, it stunk, it was made of metal, the sound sucked, and the toilets were always overflowing. It was the best, we loved it. We used to watch bands play there every weekend. Blink-182 began in this club. This song is about those days. SOMA isn't around anymore. The city hates it when kids have somewhere to go and hang out. F--k them."

"The Rock Show" became kind of an anthem for the Warped Tour, thanks to the line, "I couldn't wait for the summer and the Warped Tour." Blink-182 first played the tour in 1996 and returned the next three years, building a core fanbase that set them up for stardom.

In the music video, directed by The Malloys (Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend"), the band is given a huge budget to produce a suitable clip, but they decide to blow all the money on destruction (trashing trains and TVs) and off-beat good deeds (taking homeless people to a day spa and hiring strippers to mow lawns). The band also handed out money to strangers but, according to Hoppus, many of them were wary to take it because they thought it was a scam. In an interview with Rock Sound, Hoppus explained that the record label was always pushing them to do videos with skateboarders to project the image of a SoCal skate-punk band, but Blink wanted to do their own thing, and by the time this video came around, they finally had the clout to push back against the label. "I called like a week before the video and I was like, 'Just give us money and let us do our thing and it'll be rad,'" he recalled. "We had to really put our foot down and say, 'This is what we wanna do.'"