Blink-182 are back! The pop-punk trio dropped a bombshell earlier this week announcing a new album, world tour, and the long-awaited reunion with singer and guitarist Tom DeLonge via a promo video that can only be described as “very blink”.
The band will be making their triumphant – and long awaited – return to Australia in February 2024, which will mark the first time they’ve been to Australia in 11 years. Blink’s last Australian shows took place in 2013 when they rocked Soundwave festival, however drummer Travis Barker didn’t join DeLonge and bassist/vocalist Mark Hoppus. Barker was in a plane crash in 2008, and up until last year, he hadn’t flown again since.
The crash saw the death of both of the pilots as well as two of Barkers friends, assistant Chris Baker and security guard Charles Still. The accident left Barker covered with third degree burns on approximately 65 percent of his body, and according to Men’s Health he had almost 30 surgeries following the accident.
With this in mind, as well as Hoppus’ recent battle with cancer (which he’s now recovered from) and DeLonge’s lengthy departure, it seemed as though this announcement would never come. But the Australian pre-sale with Live Nation goes on sale on October 19, so get ready for the rock show!
So how did this happen?
The group celebrated their 30-year-anniversary this August, which saw the release of new merchandise. However, rumours of a reunion with DeLonge rose when he shared a photo of a young Blink-182 to Instagram. Singer and bassist Mark Hoppus assured fans that there was no reunion in sight, and that the post was to celebrate the group’s anniversary.
But a couple months on, we’ve got a new single and music video titled “Edging” featuring DeLonge’s return to Blink-182 vocals.
While the song doesn’t exactly take you back to their Enema of the State days, the lyrics certainly give us a hint of the “old Blink”. Fans took to social media to discuss the new song, happy to see and hear the trio back at it again after so long. But while some love the new song, others aren’t impressed. One fan says it’s “Punk rock meets autotune,” while another is generally unhappy with the “vibing”.
“Blink fan here… this isn’t a good vibing song at all. Chorus is pretty annoying too. But what do I know. Like if you’re going to do a single why release this crap so it can play on the radio that’s why….3/10.”
Originally tweeted by it’s a Travisty (@itsATravissty) on October 14, 2022.
Some are even asking for the return of Matt Skiba, who filled DeLonge’s spot of guitarist and vocalist from 2015 when DeLonge left the band to pursue other avenues.
In his absence from Blink, DeLonge made progress with his other band, Angels and Airwaves, and of course, focused on his interest of UFO’s and extra-terrestrials.
He even co-founded a company dedicated to the research of UFO’s in 2017, coined To the Stars Academy of Arts & Sciences. The company gained traction in 2017 when it published three videos showing unidentifiable objects in the sky, with audio of pilots questioning what the objects were. The videos, recorded in 2004 and 2015, have since been legitimised by the United States Navy, who confirmed that the videos are real “unidentified aerial phenomena”, the new term for UFO’s.
But now that he’s back with Blink-182, DeLonge has thanked Skiba for “keeping the band alive” in his absence through an Instagram post. Skiba is yet to respond publicly, and so far there’s no information about how Skiba’s departure and DeLonge’s return happened.
But in the meantime, some fans are sharing valuable advice in light of the upcoming tour, reminding us that our bodies aren’t what they used to be when we were growing up with Blink-182.
Personally, I think I’ll be visiting my chiropractor leading up to the show.
For more ticketing information visit Live Nation.
PHOTO: Blink-182 by The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas available HERE and used under a Creative Commons License. This photo has not been modified.