Review: Blink-182 returns to old shenanigans in St. Paul reunion tour kickoff

Watch out, baby boomers and Gen-Xers. The millennials are moving into their nostalgic rock phase and are pretty darned excited about it.

Thursday's sold-out Xcel Energy Center concert with pop-punk trio Blink-182 had all the markings of a good-ol'-days affair. Never mind that the band in question had its biggest hits only 20 to 24 years ago.

One sign of it being a nostalgia-fueled event were the heftily jacked-up ticket prices — around $200 or more, save for a last-minute drop of $25 "see, we're still punk" seats behind the stage. Fans lined up, nonetheless, and about 16,000 of them packed the arena.

Another sign was the story line of it being a reunion tour by dudes who don't get along — until they can charge jacked-up ticket prices, anyway.

And there were many attendees who brought their kids out on a school night to see one of Mom and Dad's favorite bands. Fortunately for those first-timers, Blink-182's members still showed the sense of humor of 12-year-old boys.

Male genitalia became a long topic of discussion/tee-heeing just a few songs into the 90-minute concert. Later came lots of sexual innuendos and "your mom" jokes. Surely there'd be good marketing crossover between this tour and new episodes of the similarly revived "Beavis and Butt-Head."

Fortunately for the old-timers, though, the band's performance was no joke beyond the usual yuk-yuks.

Coming off a nine-year hiatus — during which drummer Travis Barker and bassist/singer Mark Hoppus toured with a Sammy Hagar-like fill-in for guitarist/singer Tom DeLonge — Blink really had its act together Thursday night, nostalgia act or not.

St. Paul wound up with the kickoff night for the trio's reunion tour, following an appearance at both weekends of the Coachella festival last month. Reports from Coachella raised questions of whether DeLonge, 47, was ready to go again after nearly a decade away from the band. He spent much of that time chasing aliens — also not a joke.

DeLonge's voice sounded a little extra pip-squeaky and a tad weak in some of the more dramatic/emo tunes, such as "Up All Night" and "Always." But it helped greatly that he had most of the crowd singing along in those tunes — and most others, too.

Thursday's 25-song set list was largely culled from the trio's two biggest albums, 1999's "Enema of the State" and 2001's "Take Your Pants Off and Jacket." About half of each was played.

The show's walloping but melodic opening songs, "Anthem Part Two" and "The Rock Show," came off the latter LP. So did one of the emotional highlights: a dramatic spin on "Stay Together for the Kids" lit up by cellphones from the crowd.

A couple of surprising inclusions were "Cynical" and "Bored to Death," each Hoppus' songs from the 2016 Blink-182 album without DeLonge. The crowd didn't know those ones so well, though — a chance to rest up before the giant singalongs near the end in "I Miss You" and "All the Small Things."

The one and only serious moment of banter also came toward the finale: "Two years ago, I was ready to go into chemotherapy for lymphoma," Hoppus told the crowd, "and tonight we're starting a giant [bleeping] tour."

His comment got even more cheers than the phallic jokes.

The second of two opening bands, thrashy but groovy Baltimore punk quintet Turnstile, came off way too dark and stormy for the cheery Blink audience. What a riveting performance, though. Leader Brandon Yates sounded like a screamo version of Jane's Addiction singer Perry Farrell, while the band took wicked twists and turns reminiscent of Bad Brains.