My night at the Blink-182 show at the Metropolitan

Thursday, August 3rd wasn’t just an average day for me. I was jittery, nervous, extremely excited and anxious for my opportunity that the Metropolitan in Chicago offered me; my first photo pass for my favorite band, Blink-182.

Upon my arrival to the venue, I couldn’t think of anything other than being close to my favorite musicians. I told myself to be professional, as this is a great opportunity and I needed to stay calm and collective. No jumping around and rocking out like I would the next day at Lollapalooza.

When I entered the guest list desk, I was greeted with unbelievable service. Everyone who I had talked to was sincere, nice, and even joked around a little bit during some of our conversations. It’s easy for security guards to be fierce at times, but they had fun with their job while doing well at it. I felt at home.

When I walked over to the photo pit, utter amazement scattered throughout my body.

I was going to be two feet from Mark Hoppus.

Again, it was time to be professional and do what I’m supposed to do best.

When Travis Barker, Matt Skiba, and Mark Hoppus all came out, my trigger finger was ready.

As soon as they started their set, my camera had already taken 50 photos (Not all of them were great, still had to pick and choose the best). I was in such a trance of euphoria that I didn’t even recognize there was a crowd. It was my camera, Blink-182, and I.

Best part was when Mark went down on one knee and slammed down on his bass. Unfortunately, the lighting was blocked by his body, so the shutter took too long to close for me to get the photo. Either way, it was an experience like no other.

It was easily one of the best nights of my life, no doubt. Despite being that close to my favorite band, that wasn’t the full reason why it was the best.

I felt like I had an opportunity for my creativeness to shine like I do with my writing. My camera was my brush, and the stage was my canvas. I could create any angle and take an exciting photo anytime I wanted, just with the click of a button.

It opened my eyes to photo-journalism, which I’d love to do with my writing.

However, all of this is because of the likes of All Punked Up and the lovely people at the Metro.

Here are the photo’s from my legendary night. I hope you all enjoy them and I hope you can feel the excitement in each photo as I did.

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