As the lead singer, guitarist and frontman in blink-182, Tom DeLonge has become rich and famous by co-writing, recording and performing songs that celebrate the joys and angst of adolescence, ideally with as much gleeful profanity as possible.
As the lead singer, guitarist, periodic keyboardist and frontman in Angels & Airwaves (or AVA, as fans call it), he is able to use his wealth and fame to co-write, record and perform a far more serious style of music that focuses on such major issues as war, peace, idealism and existential dread. To underscore his serious intentions, there isn’t a hint of profanity in Angels & Airwaves’ lyrics, which accompany songs that take their cues from moody art-rock far more than they do from punk-rock.
With both groups co-existing — blink, which disbanded acrimoniously in late 2004, reunited early last year — DeLonge finds himself in a rare position. He is now one of the few rock stars who is able to fulfill his adolescent and adult musical ambitions at the same time.
“I think it probably is the best of both worlds, because they’re so drastically different,” said DeLonge, who performs an all-ages show with
Angels & Airwaves Thursday at downtown’s House of Blues.
“Maybe not to the passive listener,” he continued. “But most people will notice vast differences and see that I’m expressing myself in completely different ways with each band. That kind of symbiotic relationship, for a musician, could be wonderful — or self-destructive.”
In fact, wonderful and self-destructive have both applied to DeLonge, a Poway native who has achieved worldwide success and undergone personal turmoil as a direct result of his success with blink.
The band, which he formed in 1992 with bassist-singer Mark Hoppus and drummer Scott Raynor, started to take off following the arrival of drummer Travis Barker in 1998. The trio’s next album, 1999’s multimillion-selling “Enema of the State,” transformed the group’s fortunes almost overnight. DeLonge, a 1994 Poway High School grad who worked a day job hauling concrete before blink broke big, became successful beyond his wildest dreams. Blink appeared in the 1999 movie “American Pie” and was later featured (in animated form) in an episode of TV’s “the Simpson.”
Similarly popular albums and world tours followed for the band, thanks to its brash but very well-crafted brand of pop-punk. By focusing equally on teen turmoil and proudly potty-mouthed humor about sex and various bodily functions, DeLonge, Hoppus and Barker struck a major chord that helped make them one of the biggest rock acts in the world.
At least it did until late 2004.
It was then, after an extensive international concert trek with blink, that DeLonge informed his bandmates of his des...
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