World Tour 2023/2024
The World Tour 2023/2024, also known as the Rock Hard Tour,[2][3] is an ongoing concert tour by American rock band Blink-182. The tour began on May 4, 2023, at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. The tour was announced on October 11, 2022, alongside the news of Blink-182 reuniting with vocalist/guitarist Tom DeLonge for the first time since 2014.[4][5][6] Initially launched and billed as a "reunion tour", the band's ninth studio album One More Time... was released shortly before the end of the first North American and European legs.
Location
- North America
- Europe
- Oceania
- Latin America
May 4, 2023[a]
August 30, 2024
4
- 41 in North America
- 24 in Europe
- 16 in Oceania
- 10 in Latin America
- 91 in total
Background[edit]
The tour marks the band's thirtieth anniversary,[7] and their first tour with original singer and guitarist Tom DeLonge since 2014.[8] It also marks their first-ever shows in Latin America.[9] The band has not played Mexico in any capacity since 2004.[10] Previous efforts to tour worldwide were complicated by drummer Travis Barker's flight anxiety following his 2008 plane crash. Barker flew for the first time since that incident in 2021,[11] enabling the band to set dates across the globe.[12] On March 1, 2023, DeLonge announced on his Instagram that the Latin American dates would be postponed until 2024 due to Barker sustaining a finger injury that required surgery and rest.[13]
Prior to the start of their tour, the band made a surprise appearance at Coachella on April 14, 2023, marking DeLonge's first appearance with the band in nine years.[14] The band then served as a replacement headliner of the festival's second weekend on April 23 after singer Frank Ocean was forced to back out at the last minute.[15] The tour is variously referred to as the Rock Hard Tour in some promotional materials.[2][3]
Reception[edit]
Boxscore[edit]
Preceding the tour, Billboard estimated that the tour will earn around $150 million across its four legs.[16] At the conclusion of its inaugural North American leg, the publication estimated that it had thus far generated $85.3 million and sold 564,000 tickets, making it the band's biggest outing yet.[17] It surpassed the trio's previous highest-grossing trek, the 2009 In Concert Tour ($22.5 million), by four and a half times. The tour also set slight highs in terms of attendance, with an average of 15,664 per show. Analysts for Billboard determined that higher ticket prices due to the cost of touring and inflation, as well as controversial policies like dynamic pricing, led to the dramatic increase in gross.[18]
Critical reviews[edit]
The tour has received positive responses from music and entertainment critics. Selena Fragassi at the Chicago Sun-Times praised the band's "innate chemistry" and the fury of Barker's antics,[19] and William Earl at Variety concurred: "The best fireworks were the interplay between the band members. They bounded around the stage, feeling — and acting — like kids again."[20] Chris Riemenschneider of the Star Tribune acclaimed the musicianship: "Blink really [has] its act together, nostalgia act or not."[21] Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reviewer Scott Mervis called their performance "triumphant" and praised their set design: "Throwing a middle finger to the typical arena rock setup, Blink arrived on a diamond-shaped stage that was about half the width of the floor. Of course, there's only three of them, and the togetherness, under the circumstances, is a good move."[22] The Seattle Times's Michael Rietmulder observed the band "powering through one pop-punk burner after another, a virtually sold-out Climate Pledge Arena crowd hanging on every cymbal crash and speedball harmony."[23]
Across the globe, reviews remained positive, though some took issue with the band's humor. After their shows in the U.K., the Guardian's Matt Mills opined: "the stage was set for this show to acknowledge the burdens the band have beaten and celebrate the men they've become – that they instead focus far more on trying to be the kids they once were robs the evening of so much emotional potential."[24] In Sydney, reviewer James Jennings of the Sydney Morning Herald complimented the jokes, and called Barker "surely one of the best rock drummers on the planet."[25]