blink-182's Mark Hoppus On Missing The "Magic" Of Live Shows

If you were thinking it's only us music fans desperately missing live music right now because of the COVID-19 pandemic, then you can perhaps take some comfort and reassurance in knowing the performers themselves are just as saddened by a lack of live shows. And particularly blink-182 bassist/vocalist Mark Hoppus – who not only misses "that sense of community" that gigs provide, but even some of the more mundane aspects of being on the road, too.

Speaking to Hanuman Welch on Apple Music's ALT CTRL alongside Adam from The War On Drugs, Mark laments that, "Everything about touring I miss."

"I miss performing," he begins. "I miss traveling. I miss the smiling faces of people singing songs back to me when we're performing them. I miss hanging out with Travis and Matt, and our road crew, and our tour manager and my manager… I miss seeing the people in the places and being tired and getting on airplanes, and getting in buses, and seeing new cities and all that."

Read this: The 10 best songs written in lockdown

Reflecting on lockdown and the impact of that on getting together with fellow music lovers, Mark continues, "I think that's something that this quarantine has really stolen from everybody, is that sense of community, whether it be going to a show, just that feeling of everybody gathered together in a space to experience something as a cohesive unit. We don't have that at all. We log in to a Zoom and you can see everyone's face, but you're not together.

"I feel like I can communicate with people just as well as I ever have, but I don't feel like I fully connect with them," he says. "Because there's something magic that happens at a show where people are performing music and music defines people's lives in such a way, that when you go and you experience it together, people cry at shows. We'll finish a tour and it's a long tour, and I'll get home and I'll cry just from the emotional release of all the travel and everything else like that. And people get together and they laugh, and they smile, and they have a good time and they rock out. And that special night that you go out with your friends and you put in the CD of the band you're going to see, and you sing the songs on the way to the concert. And then you're in the room and the curtain's drawn and the band comes out and that anticipation, the curtain drops and the lights come up.

"That's stolen from us. We don't have any of that right now. There's nothing that we can do in quarantine that mimics that spirit of camaraderie and togetherness and sharing a special experience, and I can't wait for that to come back."

Hear, hear!

Read this: The 20 greatest blink-182 songs – ranked