Parental Warning

Blink-182 is bassist/singer Mark Hoppus, from left, drummer Travis Barker and guitarist/singer Tom DeLonge. Barker has been temporarily replaced -- by Fenix, TX drummer Damon Delapaz -- while healing a hand he broke in a fight.

      No one should be surprised if a few offended parents yank their 12-year-olds out of Blink-182's concert at the MGM Grand Garden arena Saturday. The pop-punkers have been telling dirty jokes onstage for 10 years, but suddenly they've scored three straight radio hits, and now parents are strangely taking younger kids to see the band. Some concert mamas are freaking out, even though the name of the tour, "Enema of the State," really should serve as a heads-up.
      Guitarist and singer Tom DeLonge says certain parents just can't deal with Blink's toilet humor about masturbation, bestiality and having sex with each other's mothers.
      "We didn't invite parents. They've worn out their welcome," DeLonge says and snickers, as if he can't believe he just said that. He may be a tattooed punk, after all, but he's sensitive, right? And so the band has toned it down a little to protect the allegedly innocent.
      "We don't want to disturb kids," he says. "For 9 1/2 years, our band has been the same band, gnarly. Plus, we're in the punk scene, which has no rules," DeLonge says.
      Longtime fans know this.
      "Skateboarders and punkers all have the same sense of humor," he says.
      The San Diego band is riding high. Blink went multiplatinum with the 1999 album, "Enema of the State," thanks to the hits, "All the Small Things," "Adam's Song" and "What's My Age Again?" Before that, they had racked up only one hit, "Dammit (Growing Up)," through the 1990s.
      "What's My Age Again?" sticks up for how the band writes about what it knows. As DeLonge puts it, that's teen-age angst, "love, and girls, and food, and friends, and (breasts)."
      In "What's My Age Again?" singer and bassist Mark Hoppus sticks his tongue out like this:
      "I called her mom from a pay phone. I said I was the cops and `Your husband's in jail. This state looks down on sodomy.' And that's about the time (she) hung up on me. Nobody likes you when you're 23 and are still more amused by prank phone calls. What the hell is call ID? My friends say I should act my age. What's my age again?"
      One of the things that separates Blink members from a lot of punkers is that you can actually hear their words and notes. Some hard-core punkers look down on Blink-182 for winning pop audiences, but Blink did not conform to pop. Pop conformed to Blink. And DeLonge is kind of jaded about hearing Blink songs all over the radio and TV, lately.
      "I can't believe it half the time," he says.
      But Blink has gotten popular by playing clear and compelling songs. The band members work hard on songwriting.
      "We're not just playing the same thing over and over," DeLonge says.
      They also happen to be juvenile.
      "I don't think we're mature enough to worry about" losing touch with kids, he says. "We're not very smart kids. We got out of high school and formed a band. We never had to grow up."
      During the past three months, the three band members have had their share of agony. The band drew attention after a student at Colorado's Columbine High School hung himself while he played the suicide-narrative tune, "Adam's Song," in repeat mode on his CD player. The band then had to cancel the last leg of a European tour after everyone came down with strep throat or bronchitis. DeLonge dealt with a stalker, and then he had to take his sick dog to a hospital emergency room.
      "The doctor thought it was ironic my dog needed an enema, and that was the name of the tour. I didn't even think he knew who we were."
      Then drummer Travis Barker, who was already feeling twinges of carpal tunnel syndrome, broke his hand in a fight with two Ohio "rednecks" who took on Barker over a girl he wasn't even pursuing, DeLonge says.
      "We all knew these guys in high school" who picked fights for no good reason, DeLonge says.
      Barker has been replaced for six weeks by Damon Delapaz, the guitarist from the band, Fenix TX. Fenix TX, billed as "the musical equivalent of the Texas chain-saw massacre," is on the three-act summer tour with Blink-182 and Bad Religion. Delapaz, who is now doing double duty on the tour, substituted on drums just three hours after Barker got punched up. The substitute drummer is such a Blink fan, he already knew every song.
      "We were so lucky," DeLonge says.
      DeLonge likes touring with Bad Religion, one of the early punk rock bands. Some music writers expressed surprise at the pairing, since Bad Religion is a seriously political punk band. But Bad Religion also performs easy-to-grasp music and lyrics, so the coupling makes sense that way.
      "I think it's great," DeLonge says. "Kids are exposed to somebody that's influenced us, and we get to see one of our favorite bands."
      "If we have one show with all the bands doing the same thing, that's boring for the kids," he says. "What's funny is, Bad Religion is the opposite of us. And people think we're the crazy ones, but if you come backstage, we're sitting around, and Bad Religion's the one with the beer and the hockey sticks."
     
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      What: Blink-182, Bad Religion, Fenix TX
      When: 7 p.m. Saturday
      Where: MGM Grand Garden arena, 3799 Las Vegas Blvd. South
      Tickets: $25