Blink-182 in Concert (also known as The Summer Tour and the Greatest Hits Tour) was the tenth concert tour by American rock band Blink-182. It began in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, on July 20, 2009, and concluded in Fontana, California, on September 26, 2010. The tour encompassed 70 shows and visited 11 countries in total. The tour marked the band's return to live performance after a four-year hiatus. The tour featured a rotating roster of supporting acts including Fall Out Boy, Weezer, Panic! at the Disco, The All-American Rejects, Taking Back Sunday, and more.
The band approached the setlist as a retrospective, focusing primarily on established material rather than new songs as they reconnected with audiences. The tour was notable for its elaborate stage design, encompassing large-scale lighting systems, modular video displays, and dynamic moving structures. It also featured an accessible pricing strategy, alongside extensive corporate sponsorship. Musically, the band sought to refine and elevate their live performance, moving toward a more controlled and precise approach compared to their earlier, faster-paced touring style.
The tour was preceded by a surprise reunion performance in Los Angeles that first signaled the band's return. It ultimately began with a two-night kickoff in Las Vegas before moving through North America in dense runs of arena and amphitheatre dates. The trek concluded with West Coast shows in major California markets and was later extended into 2010 with select European festival appearances and additional international dates. In 2009, it was ranked on Pollstar "Top 50 Tours in North America", earning over $25 million.
Background The 2009 reunion tour of Blink-182 marked the band’s return to live performance following a four-year hiatus, with the announcement confirming their reformation and a full-scale summer amphitheatre run across North America. The tour was positioned as a major comeback, featuring a rotating lineup of supporting acts described as friends of the band, including Fall Out Boy, Weezer, Panic! at the Disco, The All-American Rejects, Taking Back Sunday, Chester French, and Asher Roth across selected dates. The tour was produced by Live Nation. Bassist/singer Mark Hoppus jokingly referred to the tour as One Way Ticket to Boneville, a name they got from a fan on a KROQ interview.
The tour was notable for its accessible pricing strategy, offering a standardized $20 lawn ticket with no fees for many venues, a move marketed as an attempt to lower barriers for attendance. In addition to the reunion itself, the band emphasized an expanded production scale, collaborating with high-profile stage designers to create a more ambitious visual presentation featuring elaborate multimedia elements. The stage was designed by Martin Phillips, who had recently worked with artists like Daft Punk and Kanye West. It featured massive lighting rigs, modular video screens, and constantly shifting structural elements.
The band approached the setlist as a way to re-establish their live identity before returning to the studio, prioritizing familiar material over anything new. The tour also included an extensive range of limited-edition merchandise, including city-specific T-shirts capped at 182 units per show, collectible posters, and "Blink bunny" rabbit toys tied to their long-running band mascot. Presenting sponsors of the tour included T-Mobile Sidekick LX, State Farm, and MySpace. The tour also marked a major shift in the band's live performance, as it was the first time they regularly played in sync with click tracks tied to lighting and production cues. In an interview, drummer Travis Barker acknowledged that earlier tours were often played significantly faster than studio recordings and without formal timing aids, whereas the reunion era embraced click tracks as a tool for cohesion between performance and large-scale production elements. Guitarist Tom DeLonge said the band were approaching rehearsing for the outing more seriously than in the past. Footage from across the tour was filmed by Los Angeles production company Handsome Randsome for use in a documentary about the band's reunion, The Blinkumentary, that was ultimately shelved.
The tour was first teased with an unannounced three-song concert at the T-Mobile Sidekick launch in Los Angeles, their first performance after the hiatus. The tour was first announced on May 13, 2009. In 2010, the tour was expanded into Europe, comprising 14 dates across August and September 2010, including headlining slots at Reading and Leeds. The tour formally concluded with the band's appearance at Epicenter 2010, in Fontana, California. The band joined the festival as their only Stateside show of that year due to its association with KROQ, and that it personally felt like a logical conclusion to their early reunion touring.
Reception
The tour featured ticket prices ranging from $20 to $70. The North American leg of the tour grossed $21.2 million, selling out 22 of the 41 dates. The success of the tour surpassed the band's expectations. It was the largest shows of the band's career to that point, with 8,000-seat venues selling out immediately and many dates expanding to arenas accommodating 20,000 to 30,000 fans. He attributed the demand to both nostalgia and the band's enduring appeal, remarking that audiences "just wanted to have fun" and reconnect with the group's music.
At the Las Vegas opener, Jason Bracelin of Spin called the gig a "prolonged rim shot," while observing "there has always been an almost child-like vulnerability and tender-skinned emotiveness at the core of the band." Evan C. Jones at Billboard reviewing the band's Madison Square Garden shows, called the set ferocious, praising the showmanship of Barker, "thrusting his signature, kinetic flourishes onto the drum kit." Ross Raihala of Pioneer Press, summing up the Minneapolis show, observed that "Blink-182 played like the past five years had passed in a mere blink of an eye."
In St. Louis, Matthew Fernandes of the Post-Dispatch called "Blink's playing was adequate if not spectacular." The Orange County Register Ben Wener considered Weezer the better of the pairing, and wrote in a scathing review that "Blink is still one of the most overrated and unnecessary bands of its generation. Were it not for Barker’s tremendous skill behind the drum kit, the San Diego trio would be no better than any number of Warped Tour has-beens."
Opening acts
The All-American Rejects (North America, select dates) Asher Roth (North America, select dates) Chester French (North America, select dates) Fall Out Boy (North America, select dates) Panic! at the Disco (North America, select dates) Taking Back Sunday (North America, select dates) Weezer (North America, select dates) Motion City Soundtrack (Las Vegas) Bobby Light (Las Vegas—July 23)
Valencia (Las Vegas—July 23, Charlotte, Atlanta) The Planet Smashers (Montreal) illScarlett (Toronto—August 8) The Academy Is... (Maryland Heights) The Aquabats (Los Angeles, Santa Barbara) Mickey Avalon (Los Angeles) Twin Atlantic (Aberdeen, Glasgow and Dublin) All Time Low (Hamburg) Thrice (Hamburg)
Set list The set list for the tour was designed as a career-spanning showcase that emphasized the band's most recognizable and commercially successful material, structured to function as a "greatest hits" reintroduction following their five-year hiatus. "Dumpweed" "Feeling This" "The Rock Show" "Easy Target" or "Go" "What's My Age Again?" "Obvious" or "Violence" "I Miss You" "Stay Together for the Kids" "Down" "Always" "Stockholm Syndrome" "First Date" "Man Overboard" "Going Away to College" or "Don't Leave Me" "Not Now" "All the Small Things" "Adam's Song" (July 23–August 27) "Reckless Abandon" "Josie" "Anthem Part Two" Encore "Untitled I" (Instrumental Interlude) "Carousel" "Dammit" Source:
Tour dates + List of 2009 concerts Date City Country VenueLas VegasUnited StatesThe JointVancouverCanadaGeneral Motors PlaceCalgaryPengrowth SaddledomeEdmontonRexall PlaceSaskatoonCredit Union CentreWinnipegMTS CentreMilwaukeeUnited StatesMarcus AmphitheaterMansfieldComcast CenterMontrealCanadaBell CentreTorontoMolson AmphitheatreWantaghUnited StatesNikon at Jones Beach TheaterHersheyHersheypark StadiumCincinnatiRiverbend Music CenterBurgettstownPost-Gazette PavilionAugust 15, 2009Tinley ParkFirst Midwest Bank AmphitheatreAugust 16, 2009Council BluffsWestfair AmphitheatreAugust 18, 2009Saint PaulXcel Energy CenterAugust 20, 2009NoblesvilleVerizon Wireless Music CenterAugust 21, 2009DarienDarien Lake Performing Arts CenterAugust 22, 2009ClarkstonDTE Energy Music TheatreAugust 23, 2009TorontoCanadaMolson AmphitheatreAugust 25, 2009WantaghUnited StatesNikon at Jones Beach TheaterAugust 26, 2009Holmdel TownshipPNC Bank Arts CenterAugust 27, 2009CamdenSusquehanna Bank CenterAugust 29, 2009HartfordComcast TheatreAugust 30, 2009ColumbiaMerriweather Post PavilionSeptember 4, 2009Bonner SpringsCapitol Federal Park at SandstoneSeptember 6, 2009Greenwood VillageFiddler's Green AmphitheatreSeptember 7, 2009OremMcKay Events CenterSeptember 9, 2009PortlandVeterans Memorial ColiseumSeptember 10, 2009AuburnWhite River AmphitheatreSeptember 12, 2009WheatlandSleep Train AmphitheatreSeptember 13, 2009Mountain ViewShoreline AmphitheatreSeptember 14, 2009BakersfieldRabobank ArenaSeptember 16, 2009Chula VistaCricket Wireless AmphitheatreSeptember 17, 2009IrvineVerizon Wireless AmphitheatreSeptember 18, 2009September 19, 2009TempeTempe Beach Park AmphitheatreSeptember 21, 2009AlbuquerqueJournal PavilionSeptember 23, 2009DallasSuperPages.com CenterSeptember 24, 2009The WoodlandsCynthia Woods Mitchell PavilionSeptember 26, 2009West Palm BeachCruzan AmphitheatreSeptember 27, 2009TampaFord AmphitheatreSeptember 28, 2009PelhamVerizon Wireless Music CenterSeptember 29, 2009Maryland HeightsVerizon Wireless AmphitheaterSeptember 30, 2009Cuyahoga FallsBlossom Music CenterOctober 2, 2009Virginia BeachVerizon Wireless AmphitheaterOctober 3, 2009Atlantic CityBorgata Event CenterOctober 4, 2009New York CityMadison Square GardenOctober 6, 2009CharlotteVerizon Wireless AmphitheatreOctober 7, 2009AtlantaAaron's Amphitheatre at LakewoodOctober 10, 2009Los AngelesHollywood PalladiumOctober 12, 2009Santa BarbaraSanta Barbara Bowl
+ List of 2010 concerts Date City Country VenueAugust 16, 2010AberdeenScotlandPress & Journal ArenaAugust 17, 2010GlasgowScottish Exhibition and Conference CentreAugust 19, 2010HasseltBelgiumKempische SteenwegAugust 20, 2010BiddinghuizenNetherlandsSpijk en BremerbergAugust 21, 2010LüdinghausenGermanyFlugplatz BorkenbergeAugust 22, 2010LeipzigStörmthaler SeeAugust 24, 2010HamburgTrabrennbahn BahrenfeldAugust 25, 2010ÜberseeAlmfischer FestivalgeländeAugust 27, 2010ParisFranceDomaine National de Saint-CloudAugust 28, 2010LeedsEnglandBramham ParkAugust 29, 2010ReadingLittle John's FarmAugust 31, 2010DublinIrelandThe O2September 3, 2010WiesenAustriaFestivalgelände WiesenSeptember 4, 2010BolognaItalyArena Parco NordSeptember 26, 2010FontanaUnited StatesAuto Club Speedway
Festivals and other miscellaneous performances
This concert was a part of the "Virgin Mobile FREEFEST" This concert was a part of "The Buzz Beach Ball" This concert was a part of "Pukkelpop" This concert was a part of "Lowlands" This concert was a part of the "Area4 Festival" This concert was a part of the "Highfield-Festival" This concert was a part of "Chiemsee Rocks"
This concert was a part of "Rock en Seine" This concert was a part of the "Leeds Festival" This concert was a part of the "Reading Festival" This concert was a part of "Two Days a Week" This concert was a part of "Independent Days Festival" This concert was a part of "Epicenter"
Cancellations and rescheduled shows