What's their age again? Blink-182 turns back clock at sold-out Detroit show

Blink-182 was never supposed to grow up, so it's a good thing they didn't.

The boys were back in fine form — and just as gleefully juvenile as ever — at a sold-out Little Caesars Arena on Tuesday night, the band's first Detroit concert with its classic lineup in more than a decade.

That classic lineup is singer/ bassist Mark Hoppus, singer/ guitarist Tom DeLonge and drummer Travis Barker. Mark, Tom and Travis, who never missed a chance back then to make a crack about one another's anatomy, or their own, and certainly didn't miss any opportunities on Tuesday in front of 15,000-plus screaming fans, who were there for the nostalgic adrenaline shot of catchier-than-hell pop-punk anthems such as "All the Small Things," "Dammit," "First Date" and "What's My Age Again?"

Ah yes, "What's My Age Again," a good question in a room where the vibe felt like the 25th anniversary of the 1998 Vans Warped Tour. Except fans were no longer getting dropped off by their parents, they were parents themselves, and in some cases had their kids right there next to them.

They get older but Blink stayed the same age, and the songs that once accompanied rites of passage such as skipping school and first kisses have, over the years, soundtracked marriages, divorces and everything else life can throw at you. Blink's music has been there through it all, and Tuesday was a triumph of the band's unexpected resilience, and how, when deployed correctly, nostalgia can be a superpower.

The long journey to Tuesday's concert felt like it may have called on some otherworldly powers. After DeLonge parted ways with his bandmates in 2014, Blink continued on with Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba in his place, and DeLonge forged ahead with his band Angels & Airwaves and made a lot of seemingly off-the-wall statements about aliens, many of which turned out to be true.

In 2021, Hoppus was diagnosed with cancer, and the band members started to patch things up amongst themselves. A reunion tour was announced in October, a few months removed from Barker's wedding to Kourtney Kardashian, and after a wave of artists, including Olivia Rodrigo, leaned on Blink's pop-punk blueprint to put some sass back into pop music.

So between the aliens, the cancer, the comeback sound and the Kardashians of it all, it was a different Blink-182 that took the stage at LCA. But everything fell right into place, and the bathroom humor banter between DeLonge and Hoppus was as playful and as random as ever, which is just the way it should be with Blink.

The 25-song, 95-minute concert kicked off with "Take Off Your Pants and Jacket's" "Anthem Part Two," which sounded colossal, especially backed by Barker's pounding machine gun drumming. Bursts of pyro went off during the chorus, colorful production elements which jazzed up the show, which saw the threesome performing on a square stage, positioned in diamond formation at the back of the arena floor.

"Here's a song" was Hoppus' customary introduction throughout the night, which he used when rolling into "The Rock Show," another hit frontloaded at the top of the evening. And it rolled on: the riotously profane "Family Reunion" was met with a burst of confetti, "Man Overboard" was loud, fast and raucous, and "Feeling This" was introduced by Hoppus comparing DeLonge's, er, manhood to a, well, there's no need to get into specifics.

For all the looseness of the stage banter, the band played tight, and sounded more polished than it did at its recent Coachella reunion. (Tuesday was just the fourth show of the band's proper tour, which launched last week in Saint Paul, Minn.)

Barker played through an injury — he busted his finger earlier this year, causing the start of the band's tour to be postponed — but you wouldn't know it, as he relentlessly bashed away at his kit, twirling his drumsticks between his fingers all the while.

The night wasn't perfect, but it wasn't meant to be. It was live music played by three musicians, and DeLonge graded himself a C- on his miffed intro to "Dumpweed." "I was getting a drink of water when the song started," he explained, and redid the intro again at the end of the song, in mock triumph.

If it wasn't a genuine excitement to be playing together again, the band members at least made it look like it was, with DeLonge commenting, "we started in a garage!" at one point while marveling at the show's stage production, while pyrotechnics went off during "Down" as Barker played on a drumkit raised eight feet in the air and suspended from the ceiling. Hoppus had his moment of clarity and thanks as well, talking about his cancer battle during a late-show reading of "What's My Age Again," and how there was a point where he wasn't sure if he'd ever play another show again.

But he made it, the band made it, and the fans made it. "I Miss You" — and DeLonge's "where arre yeeeooouuuu" singalong moment — was a bonding ritual for all, as well as a sterling example of the band's success beyond its signature blasts of brat-pop. (The goth ballad is the band's second most-streamed song on Spotify, behind only "All the Small Things.") The show wrapped with a triple header of "First Date," "All the Small Things" and "Dammit," another burst of confetti going off at the end of the final song.

This story is developing...

agraham@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @grahamorama