The bad boys of turn-of-the-century pop-punk, Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker hit Auckland’s sold-out Spark Arena last night for the last stop on the Blink-182 world tour, their only New Zealand show after controversially cancelling Christchurch and dissing the city. Have the scoundrels grown up? Should they?
The first Blink-182 song I ever heard left an indelible mark on my brain. That memory is tattooed on there, a little fuzzy around the edges now, but still clear and the energy discernible; watching weekend music video countdown on TV and All The Small Things burst on.
It was one of the biggest singles on their third album, 1999′s Enema of the State, with that distinctive cover starring star Janine Lindemulder, which sold 15 million albums. It was the era of the parental advisory sticker on albums. I rented the CD — yes rented — again and again from the library — yes, the library — and ended up copying it on to a cassette tape.
To my adolescent ears the music was buoyant, upbeat, naughty. The music videos were too. There’s a reason that speaks to a young teen in suburbia It was all very of the moment, part of a zeitgeist that included Jackass, MTV, Vice, Dirty Sanchez. Edges of a youth culture that now, decades later feel at once too soft and too hard from our hyper-speed 2024 vantage point, with everything more intense and immediate.
Since those early days, the band has drifted in and out of the culture I consume, and I play their music when I want to feel young and dumb again.
Irrefutable earworms and manic energy, they distilled pop-punk, inflected with a formulaic flavour that, though it drew criticism at the time, in hindsight seems fitting of the flattening mall culture and post-Regan expansion of the USA during the 1990s. An antidote to the ambitious yuppies and the disaffected detached ennui of Gen X, they captured suburban frustration and the maniacal energy of the turn of the century.
Now, no longer in the past, they’ve reunited once more — in 2022 — and are on the last stop of their world tour.
How does that adolescent angst and immaturity age? All the rough-housing physicality that shaped the band’s mythology — the story goes that a young Hoppus ended up on crutches after scaling a lamp post to impress DeLonge.
Is that high-energy performance style still there? They’re not 20 anymore. The crowd, myself included, mostly in its 30s, 40s and 50s. Fans filling Spark Arena for the sold-out show. They were there early, crowds spanned everyone from elder Millennials and Gen-X wearing old merch and new, and younger punters too — teens, some with their parents, some kids.
The vibes were chill, friendly, everyone was stoked to be there and keen to chat. One guy in the line with us had skated on the famous Warped Tours in the US that had Blink-182 on the lineup.
But back to 2024 and downtown Tāmaki Makaurau. Doors opened at 6.30pm, with openers Rise Against, the famed Chicago band, kicking things off promptly at 7.30pm, hard and fast.
Rise Against, opening for Blink-182, playing at Auckland's Spark Arena on March 2, 2024. Photo / Tom Grut
Most of the crowd was there already, and Rise Against were just as much of a draw for some attendees.
“You’re the final stop on this tour,” lead singer Tim McIlrath tells the crowd. “It’s bittersweet,” he says, launching into an acoustic song, Swing Life Away, about settling down.
“Auckland you’ve always felt like family,” he says fondly, reminiscing on past gigs here, like the Big Day Out, and opening for the Foo Fighters. “We’ve had an absolute blast on this tour and we’re sad to see it end.”
With pounding drums and guitar and impressive energy levels, it wasn’t a gentle entree. They even deployed a megaphone. And judging by the full arena, a lot of the crowd were here for them too, for hits like Re-Education.
However, Blink-182 is, of course, the main act. Lights dim at 8.45pm and the crowd starts up. The familiar, famous opening bars of Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra from 2001: A Space Odyssey play as the scrawled Blink-182 logo slowly appears on screen.
They take the stage and launch straight into it with Anthem, Part Two from 2001′s Take Off Your Pants And Jacket kicking off the show alongside pyrotechnics, lasers and animations that will play throughout.
Next The Rock Show, the expletives of Family Reunion, and a symbolic ejaculation of white streamers exploding on the crowd.
So, despite the prompt start time and tight, impressively high-energy set, they haven’t grown up too much then.
They still look cool, boyish, and seem as fit as they’ve ever been — something Mark Hoppus, 51, mentions proudly later in the show, after Tom DeLonge, 48, compliments his six-pack. At one point DeLonge seems to kiss him on the cheek.
Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge of Blink-182 playing at Auckland's Spark Arena on March 2, 2024. Photo / Tom Grut
“What’s up Auckland we’re Blink-182,” Hoppus says, finally addressing the crowd. “I’m so glad to be here.”
He and DeLonge co-captain the show banter, with Travis Barker, 48 — someone we’ve seen a candid side of in recent years alongside wife Kourtney (also in Auckland this weekend) on The Kardashians — silent behind the drums.
Barker does give the fans a performance, with his drumming the talk of the show. So good that at one point, in an impressive magic trick of sorts, Hoppus, asking the audience if they “wanna see something cool?” blindfolds his bandmate, who continues playing the rest of the song seemingly unbothered.
“Nice work Travis Barker,” Hoppus drawls, before launching into some of the strategically profane quips that they know guarantee attention; at this point, it’s expected of them.
Travis Barker of Blink-182 playing at Auckland's Spark Arena on March 2, 2024. Photo / Tom Grut
“Be nice to us, we just came from f***ing Australia,” says Hoppus. “F*** that place, I’m glad to be here. F*** Australia.” He clarifies — surely having seen the Christchurch headlines after he said the same thing about the Garden City after the band cancelled its show there — that he means “have sex and intercourse with Australia” before adding “your continent doesn’t have snakes, I f***ing love this place”.
They’re savvy, they’ve been saying this stuff for decades. It’s all part of the show.
“This is the first year we’ve ever been good,” he jokes, before getting serious. ”Tom had a really hard day today,” Hoppus says, and asks the audience to send him some love.
Showing their age perhaps, or a desire to acknowledge what they’ve been through over the years since they birthed Blink-182 in 1992; DeLonge talks about the challenges they’ve had; Barker survived a plane crash, Hoppus survived cancer, DeLonge “survived quitting” the band.
Lightening up again, they reveal more tidbits about their lives, including a stop at Taco Bell on the way to the show. “You wanna know some facts about tonight?” DeLonge teases. “Auckland has some of the most beautiful women in the world, too bad they couldn’t be here tonight,” he negs, before Dance With Me.
Tom DeLonge of Blink-182 playing Auckland's Spark Arena on March 2, 2024. Photo / Tom Grut
Then, a change in tone. “It’s the fucking emo part of the show,” DeLonge announces. “I want that angst back, I want those bangs grown out,” he says. “That s***ty ass mullet” and skinny jeans you’ve probably borrowed from your girlfriend and a My Chemical Romance tee.”
There’s a shout-out to the roadies before Down, then Hoppus declares “this is a singalong”, warning the crowd to wait for the second verse. “Don’t sing over me. That’s rude,” he jokes, kind of, before launching into Miss You, wrapping up their most gothic hit with a powerful shredding finish.
Then, finally, it’s “that time” — 10 o’clock to be precise, suggesting the band has a finely tuned schedule and maybe after all these years, underneath the larrikinism, they are a honed, professional unity. What’s My Age Again kicks off, earning the biggest cheer from the crowd so far.
Mark Hoppus of Blink-182 playing at Auckland's Spark Arena on March 2, 2024. Photo / Tom Grut
It’s time for the money makers, and they follow that up with another big single, First Date. The camera pans the front row of the mosh pit, kids and parents, and then another hit.
They’ve been clearly edging — they’ve got a song about that too — the crowd, saving the best for last.
Barely time to breathe and it’s straight into All The Small Things, leaving the chorus to the ecstatic crowd, stretching the song out.
Then it’s Dammit. “I guess this is growing up” the crowd sings along. Is it? Are we? Are they?
Maybe not entirely. Adolescence is part of Blink-182′s DNA. ”Crappy punk vibes” reads the animating behind them, that self-deprecating tenor of the band informing their visual identity as much as their songs and banter, even now.
There was an of-the-moment surprise, suggesting they don’t really live in the past, sidestepping with a few verses of Taylor Swift’s hit We Are Never Getting Back Together during This Is Growing Up.
Things go dark, is that it, we wonder? Surely not.
Blink-182 playing at Auckland's Spark Arena on March 2, 2024. Photo / Tom Grut
The crowd screams for an encore, the pounding of feet filling the stadium.
Blink-182 launches into One More Time. A fitting choice for an encore. Footage of the band over the years unfolds on screen, the nostalgia of the fans is palpable.
And that’s it.”Thank you for being here, bye bye.”
Travis throws his sticks in the ground, and the tour is done.
Back to reality. But that’s the magic of music, why Blink-182′s fandom persists and the shows still sell out (and why Taylor Swift is a billionaire). These songs exhume a past version of ourselves and erase time, even just for a bit. I felt like a teenager again, and while I wouldn’t rewind the clock — god knows the 2000s was toxic for girls, and not easy on boys either — let’s not grow up too much.
Emma Gleason is the New Zealand Herald’s lifestyle and entertainment deputy editor. Based in Auckland, she covers culture, fashion and media.
