Blink-182 Gets Back to Its Punk Business

We’re hearing a lot these days about the power of music to heal in times of tragedy, and the importance of continuing to exercise our freedoms as a way of defying the terrorists behind last week’s attacks.

So maybe in some strange way Blink-182’s concert Sunday at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim provided a kind of catharsis, or at least temporary escape, for the thousands of fans who turned out for the San Diego pop-punk trio’s lionizing of teen angst and infantile humor.

Drummer Travis Barker wailed (with Keith Moon-like abandon) behind a kit of red, white and blue drums; an American flag was draped over one bank of amplifiers; and guitarist-singer Tom DeLonge elicited a hearty cheer from the crowd by aiming the predictable four-letter profanity at Osama bin Laden.

Otherwise, the group went on with business as usual, with no toning down of its pyrotechnics-filled show, built around its latest album, “Take Off Your Pants and Jacket,” which debuted at No. 1 on the national sales chart in June.

Nor did DeLonge and bassist-singer Mark Hoppus give their crude stage banter any time off in the wake of last week’s events, tossing out one attempted joke after another through the 80-minute performance (rescheduled, along with Wednesday’s Long Beach Arena show, from last week’s original dates).

Even when the group did address real issues, such as the effect of divorce on children in “Stay Together for the Kids” and suicide in “Adam’s Song,” the topics seemed a notch less urgent than they normally would.

DeLonge did connect for a moment in the new “Anthem Part II,” as he repeated the refrain “Everything has fallen to pieces” with increasing intensity at each repetition.

More often, distraction from last week’s realities seemed more than enough for the preteen, teen and early-20s fans who constitute the bulk of Blink’s following. And distraction came by the barrel from rock’s answer to the Three Stooges in songs celebrating punk (“Give Me One Good Reason”) or about meeting Ms. Right at the Warped Tour (“The Rock Show”).

Florida quintet New Found Glory found a substantial audience awaiting its set thanks to regular gigs in Southland clubs. Some repetition crept in toward the end of its 40-minute set, but NFG has learned much from the always-keep-’em-humming example of the Offspring. The group headlines the Hollywood Palladium on Nov. 16.

Opening act Midtown made it a melodic punk show from top to bottom. The quartet appears inspired as much by ‘70s-vintage Cheap Trick in its energetic vocal harmonies and catchy guitar riffs as by the first-and second-wave punk bands evident in its high-speed rhythms and supercharged vocals.

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Blink-182, New Found Glory and Midtown play Wednesday at the Long Beach Arena, 300 E. Ocean Ave., Long Beach, 7:30 p.m. $27.50. (562) 436-3661