Blink-182 Adelaide Review: Mark, Tom and Travis return for a night of uninhibited fun and nostalgia

Blink-182’s classic line-up of Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker returned to Adelaide for the first time in 20 years. Was it worth the wait? Read our review here.

• Blink 182 megastar dines in Adelaide

“Older, but nothing’s any different, right now feels the same, I wonder why”.

It’s Blink-182 bassist Mark Hoppus singing of the band – and, more importantly, friends – reuniting in the wake of his cancer battle on the title track of new album, One More Time.

But it’s also a sentiment that echoes around a sold-out Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Sunday.

The crowd who grew up with California’s pop-punk pioneers are older, but for an hour and a half on a warm summer night, they were young again.

And those songs hit in exactly the same way they once did.

Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge and Travis Baker were back in Adelaide for the first time in 20 years. Picture: Kelly Barnes

For the first time in almost 20 years, the classic Blink line-up of Hoppus, guitarist/vocalist Tom DeLonge and drummer Travis Barker were back on stage together in Adelaide on the band’s third stop of a huge 15-leg Australian tour.

But like in the lives of those singing back every word, a lot has happened since.

“I wish they told us, it shouldn’t take a sickness or airplanes falling out the sky,” Hoppus continues in the emotion-filled encore.

The trio broke up then reformed after Barker was involved in a deadly plane crash in 2008. They broke up again in 2015 when DeLonge left the band, leaving Hoppus and Barker to record two albums with Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba.

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But this time feels different. DeLonge reconnected with Hoppus after he was diagnosed with stage four lymphoma in 2021. The 51-year-old Hoppus was declared cancer free six months later and the band returned, embarking on a world tour that Hoppus said last year was “saving my life a second time”.

The reunion brought with it a sense of maturity, one that’s evident on the group’s ninth album.

Does it mean they are finally going to take themselves seriously, though?

When DeLonge walks out and gives fans a passionate middle-finger salute as Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30 reaches a crescendo, and the trio launches straight into Take Off Your Pants and Jacket hit Anthem Part 2, the answer is, not really.

It would be weird if they did.

“Give it up for Tom, he’s quit the band twice,” a sarcastic Hoppus remarks later in the set.

It doesn’t take long for a sex joke either. It’s part of the unmistakeable chemistry between Hoppus and DeLonge that’s on full show as the band blast its way through early favourites The Rock Show, Man Overboard and Feeling This.

Barker was at his showman drummer best on Sunday night. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Dysentery Gary and Dumpweed from 1999’s Enema Of the State had long-time fans moving, before new material dominates the middle of the visually-striking and pyrotechnic-filled set, with the third-ever live performance of Anthem Part 3 and a rousing, phone light-backed singalong of Stay Together For The Kids the highlights.

Sure, they’re still not taking themselves too seriously, but this is a serious performance.

Barker, and his impeccable rhythm, is still the glue that holds the band together, but the trio are as tight as they’ve ever been.

Perth cops it but the toilet humour takes a back seat as they nail hits from their entire back catalogue – even 2016’s Bored To Death, which was co-written and performed by DeLonge’s replacement Skiba.

The passionate crowd is in full voice during sing-a-long favourite, I Miss You, but Hoppus and DeLonge weren’t joking when they compared the response to another new song, Turpentine, as like being at the “Blink-182 Adelaide golf classic”.

But everyone, seemingly, saved their best for last.

The unmistakeable chemistry between Hoppus and DeLonge was on full show. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Mark Hopes of Blink 182 at the Adelaide Entertainment centre. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Four of the band’s biggest hits What’s My Age Again? First Date, All The Small Things and Dammit proved a memorable conclusion to a night full of nostalgia – one that started with Chicago’s Rise Against as the supporting act.

And the crowd – even some of those who remained seated for much of the night – duly obliged, dancing and screaming their way through 15 minutes of joy, before the significance of the event came to the fore during the delicate encore performance of One More Time.

“We’re so f****** good at what we do,” DeLonge gleefully exclaimed at an earlier show on the world tour.

And if he was talking about writing generational pop-punk anthems and still having uninhibited fun on stage playing them years later, maybe he wasn’t joking then, either.

Blink-182 play the first of five shows at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday before heading to Sydney and Brisbane.