Last night (Friday April 14), pop punk legends Blink-182 made their return to the stage for the first time since guitarist Tom Delonge officially returned to the fold back in October. The trio, completed by bassist Mark Hoppus and drummer Travis Barker, made a surprise appearance at US mega-festival Coachella, having only announced that they were playing a few days prior.
Playing a hits-stacked, 18-song set in front of a delighted crowd in the hazy evening Californian sunshine, the threesome's show also marked the band's first public performance since Mark Hoppus' cancer battle in 2021. As well as playing hallmark anthems such as The Rock Show, Feeling This, First Date, What's My Age Again, All The Small Things and I Miss You, Blink also gave a live debut to new song Edging, and dusted off Aliens Exist from 1999's smash hit album Enema Of The State - the first time the band has played the track live with Delonge in over two decades.
Watch pro-shot footage from Blink 182's set below, and check out the setlist from the show at the bottom of the page.
I only paid for Twitter Blue so I could upload the entirety of Blink 182’s two-song finale at Coachella. An absolutely incredible experience watching these three back on stage together. Wish I was there. So happy for them. pic.twitter.com/cFUAorMKIgApril 15, 2023
Delonge's return to Blink-182 followed months of rumours that he had reunited with the band following his departure in 2015. Following his exit from the fold, Blink roped in good friend and Alkaline Trio frontman Matt Skiba in his place, releasing two well-received albums with the new lineup, 2016's California and 2019's Nine. Perhaps unsurprisingly, no material from either album was played during the band's Coachella set last night.
In October, Skiba revealed that he had recorded nearly an album's worth of unreleased songs with Blink, telling Vulture: ""I don’t know if they’ll come out. I think they’re really good."
"There’s almost a whole album’s worth of stuff," he added. "It was supposed to be an EP, and it just kept going, and going. And now we have, I don’t know if they’re just going to get scrapped, but there’s eight or nine brand-new songs that are done. We basically finished those, and then Mark was diagnosed, if I’m getting the timeline correct."
"I hadn’t even thought about those recordings. But I have them. They’re good songs. I’ll keep them a secret. I’ll keep them safe forever. But we’ll see. I don’t know, maybe they’re something that we could open up and look at differently, or it’s something that’ll come out later, I have no idea."
Instead of that material, it looks like we'll be getting a whole new Blink-182 album with Delonge, with the guitarist promising the "best album we've ever made" in a post on Instagram.
Blink-182's reunion with Delonge hit a slight roadbump earlier this year as the band were forced to postpone a South American tour due to Travis Barker injuring his finger in rehearsals. Following surgery, Travis seems to have healed up, and the rest of the band's dates for this year are believed to be going ahead as planned.
Blink-182 Coachella 2023 setlist
Family Reunion
Anthem Part Two
The Rock Show
Man Overboard
Feeling This
Reckless Abandon
Dysentery Gary
What's My Age Again?
EDGING (live debut)
Dumpweed
Aliens Exist (First time with Tom since 2001)
First Date (inc. Ramones Blitzkrieg Bop intro)
Don't Leave Me
Down
Happy Holidays, You Bastard
I Miss You
All the Small Things
Dammit (inc. TLC No Scrubs tease)
