blink-182ʼs reunion tour: Why now is the perfect time for their return

It was the reunion every pop–punk fan had been hoping for yet never quite thought was possible. But, after teasing us with some well-placed billboards and links to secret websites, blink-182 confirmed back in October that the Mark, Tom and Travis show would indeed ride again. And though the exact start date may have been slightly delayed due to injury, the timing of this reunion could otherwise not have been better. As for younger listeners who missed out on that first Enema-led wave of success, this tour will provide the opportunity to see the definitive lineup of a band whose influence on the alternative and pop scene has arguably never been greater. 

“Their music has held up,” Waterparksʼ Awsten Knight says. “You listen to ‘Always,ʼ and that could come out today and be fucking huge. There is not another band like them.” 

Read more: Every blink-182 album ranked

“blink were not the originators of that sound entirely but were the ones who expanded it and nailed it,” Neck Deep frontman Ben Barlow adds. “They perfected it in its most palatable sense. They always had that secret formula going for them.” 

“You got these new bands like Meet Me @ The Altar and Magnolia Park that are putting their own twist on it,” Simple Planʼs Chuck Comeau says. “So thatʼs part of whatʼs happening with this big resurgence of that sound. To have blink coming back, it just adds to the whole momentum of it all.” 

Beyond their collective impact as a band, the trio have also put their own individual stamps on the current alt-rock landscape. Drummer Travis Barker has fast-earned a reputation as the hardest-working man in music, collaborating with Machine Gun Kelly and Avril Lavigne to great acclaim, as well as helping jxdn translate his TikTok fame into musical success. Alongside producer John Feldmann, he has been at the forefront of pop punkʼs commercial revival, cleverly and expertly leading the sound into the 2020s. But it is his instantly recognizable playing style that has had a truly lasting impact on the scene. 

“Travis Barker is one of the main reasons I even play drums,” State Champsʼ Evan Ambrosio says. “Absolutely everything he did was inspiring to a young drummer. Heʼs inspired most, if not all, drummers in our scene. I didnʼt want to play the average, run-of-the-mill drum beats. I wanted to play like Travis.” 

Mark Hoppus has also worked with a wide variety of alternative artists over the years, including Motion City Soundtrack, New Found Glory and most recently with newcomers like Beauty School Dropout and Hot Milk. But beyond his obvious musical talents, it is his years of experience and advice that have proven most valuable, acting as something of a father figure to several generations of pop-punk bands. 

Simple Plan were lucky enough to work with Hoppus early in their career on the single “Iʼd Do Anything.” “It was a game-changer for us,” Comeau says. “To put it in perspective, they had sold millions of records. They were on top of the world. They were the biggest band in rock music at the time, and we were an unsigned band. He didnʼt have to do that at all. They came from the pop-punk scene where a lot of bands probably helped them out when they started, and he had this ethic or desire to give back to the scene and help out young bands. It was completely out of the goodness of his heart.” 

“It was just super inspiring to not only be with someone from such an iconic band but someone who is that talented and that creative,” adds Evan, who worked with Hoppus on the State Champsʼ track “Time Machine.” “It was just such an amazing experience to not only be in the same room but have him be so nice to such a young band.”

Prior to his return to blink-182, Tom DeLonge had just released some of his finest work to date with Angels & Airwaves, channeling power pop and stadium-sized synths on singles like “Kiss & Tell” and “Rebel Girl.” The accompanying U.S. tour in 2019 saw him fall back in love with his older material, revisiting “Aliens Exist” and “I Miss You” in a solo acoustic set that was predictably drowned out by the nightly crowd singalongs. But while these moments were more than enough to satisfy longtime fans, there was a certain extra thrill in hearing his iconic vocal style trading lines back and forth with Hoppus once again on the recent blink single “Edging.”

“Tom in blink brought a slightly punkier, snottier side,” Barlow says. “He was sarcastic, satirical and silly but also a soft and emotional guy. I think that sums up pop punk, or at least what Iʼm trying to do with our music, showing two sides of it. At least show some depth as a person. That definitely comes out in a lot of Tomʼs songs.” 

Even in their absence (previous blink album NINE is now four years old, and this particular lineup last recorded together for the 2012 Dogs Eating Dogs EP), their songs have endured with classic singles like “Whatʼs My Age Again?” and “First Date” as popular as ever, endlessly requested on rock radio stations around the world. But for many musicians of this era, it is 2003ʼs Untitled album that remains their musical high point thus far, channeling emo and post-hardcore influences to create a sound that holds up 20 years later. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzmSlPiaeRU

“All of my mix CDs started with ‘Feeling This,ʼ” Knight explains. “For about nine or ten years, I would make sure that for every new year, the first song I heard was ‘Feeling This.ʼ I had to start my year with that song…I love when the “silly” group goes on and shows people, forces them, to see the depth and the extent of what they are capable of. That album did that for them, and I think that inspired me more than any song could.” 

Mixing stadium dates with European arenas, blink-182ʼs victory lap is the must-have ticket of 2023. However, much like My Chemical Romance before them, this is a band who are not interested in nostalgia for nostalgiaʼs sake. Their headline slot at When We Were Young festival will cater to those of us old enough to remember when “All The Small Things” dominated TRLm but with a new album on the way (which DeLonge has already described as their best yet), blink are seizing their moment, taking their rightful place on the charts alongside those megastars they subsequently inspired. As they said to themselves, “Look at the mess we started… Wanna play?”