The World Tour 2023/2024, also known as the Rock Hard Tour, was a concert tour by American rock band Blink-182. The tour began on May 4, 2023, at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota and ended on November 9, 2024 in Mexico City, Mexico. The tour marked Blink-182's 30th anniversary and their first run with original member Tom DeLonge in nearly a decade, as well as their first-ever performances in Latin America, including a long-awaited return to Mexico after nearly two decades. The band also made surprise appearances at Coachella in 2023, including a last-minute headline set. The tour was first announced on October 11, 2022.
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. Commercially, the tour was a major success, becoming the band’s highest-grossing outing to date, with hundreds of thousands of tickets sold and strong attendance driven by nostalgia-fueled demand from an older fanbase. Critics were largely positive, praising the band's chemistry, energetic performances, and strong musicianship, while noting their effective stage production and renewed sense of cohesion.
Background The tour marks the band's thirtieth anniversary, and their first tour with original singer and guitarist Tom DeLonge since 2014. It also marks their first-ever shows in Latin America. The band has not played Mexico in any capacity since 2004. 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, enabling the band to set dates across the globe. 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.
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. 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. The tour is variously referred to as the Rock Hard Tour in some promotional materials.
As part of the setlist, DeLonge performed two songs recorded during vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba's time in the band: "Bored to Death" and "Cynical" from California (2016).
Reception Boxscore Preceding the tour, Billboard estimated that the tour will earn around $150 million across its four legs. 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. 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. The highest-grossing individual show was two nights at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles, where the trio grossed $8.8 million and sold 43,600 tickets. Later, the magazine ranked it among the Top 10 Highest-Grossing Rock Tours of 2023, reporting that each show from its first two legs were fully sold-out.
Analysts suggested that the momentum generated by the tour was due to its primary demographic being older and having more disposable income, as well general nostalgia, particularly during an early 2020s mall-punk revival. "Not only is its target demo older (and hopefully wiser and richer), but the band is returning in a more welcoming environment," wrote Eric Frankenberg from Billboard. Bloomberg Ashley Carman suggested that "the mantle of rock arena stardom is finally being passed on to them from the prior generation of aging rockers."
Critical reviews 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, 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." Chris Riemenschneider of the Star Tribune acclaimed the musicianship: "Blink really [has] its act together, nostalgia act or not." 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." The Seattle Times 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."
Across the globe, reviews remained positive, though some took issue with the band's humor. After their shows in the U.K., the Guardian 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." 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."
Set list This set list is from the concert on May 4, 2023 in St. Paul, Minnesota. It is not intended to represent all shows from the tour.
"Anthem Part Two" "The Rock Show" "Family Reunion" "Man Overboard" "Feeling This" "Reckless Abandon" "Dysentery Gary" "Up All Night" "Dumpweed" "Edging" "Aliens Exist" "Cynical" "Don't Leave Me" / "Not Now" / "Violence" "Happy Holidays, You Bastard" "Stay Together for the Kids" "Always" "Down" "Bored to Death" "I Miss You" "Adam's Song" "Ghost on the Dance Floor" "What's My Age Again?" "First Date" "All the Small Things" "Dammit"
Tour dates + List of 2023 concertsDateCityCountryVenueOpening acts April 14, 2023Indio United States Empire Polo Club rowspan="2" April 23, 2023 May 4, 2023 Saint Paul Xcel Energy Center TurnstileBeauty School Dropout May 6, 2023 Chicago United Center May 7, 2023 May 9, 2023 Detroit Little Caesars Arena May 11, 2023 Toronto Canada Scotiabank Arena May 12, 2023 Montreal Bell Centre May 15, 2023 Toronto Scotiabank ArenaBeauty School DropoutNobro May 16, 2023 Cleveland United States Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse TurnstileBeauty School Dropout May 17, 2023 Pittsburgh PPG Paints Arena May 19, 2023 New York City Madison Square Garden May 20, 2023 Elmont UBS Arena May 21, 2023 Boston TD Garden TurnstileWhite Reaper May 23, 2023 Washington, D.C. Capital One Arena May 24, 2023 Brooklyn Barclays Center May 26, 2023 Baltimore CFG Bank Arena May 27, 2023 Hershey Hersheypark Stadium May 28, 2023 Atlantic City Atlantic City Beach June 14, 2023 Phoenix Footprint Center TurnstileLandon Barker June 16, 2023 Los Angeles BMO Stadium TurnstileDestroy Boys June 17, 2023 TurnstileLandon Barker June 19, 2023 San Diego Pechanga Arena TurnstileDestroy Boys June 20, 2023 TurnstileLandon Barker June 22, 2023 San Jose SAP Center TurnstileDestroy Boys June 23, 2023 Sacramento Golden 1 Center June 25, 2023 Seattle Climate Pledge Arena June 27, 2023 Vancouver Canada Rogers Arena June 29, 2023 Edmonton Rogers Place June 30, 2023 Calgary Scotiabank Saddledome July 3, 2023 Denver United States Ball Arena July 5, 2023 Dallas American Airlines Center July 7, 2023 Austin Moody Center July 8, 2023 Houston Toyota Center TurnstileKennyHoopla July 10, 2023 Tampa Amalie Arena July 11, 2023 Sunrise FLA Live Arena July 13, 2023 Atlanta State Farm Arena July 14, 2023 Charlotte Spectrum Center TurnstileLandon Barker July 16, 2023 Nashville Bridgestone Arena TurnstileKennyHoopla September 8, 2023 Antwerp Belgium Sportpaleis The Story So Far September 9, 2023 Cologne Germany Lanxess Arena September 12, 2023 Copenhagen Denmark Royal Arena September 13, 2023 Stockholm Sweden Avicii Arena September 14, 2023 Oslo Norway Oslo Spektrum September 16, 2023 Berlin Germany Mercedes-Benz Arena September 17, 2023 Hamburg Barclays Arena September 19, 2023 Prague Czech Republic O2 Arena September 20, 2023 Vienna Austria Wiener Stadthalle October 2, 2023 Lisbon Portugal Altice Arena October 3, 2023 Madrid Spain WiZink Center October 4, 2023 Barcelona Palau Sant Jordi October 6, 2023 Bologna Italy Unipol Arena October 8, 2023 Amsterdam Netherlands Ziggo Dome October 9, 2023 Paris France Accor Arena October 11, 2023 London England The O2 Arena October 12, 2023 October 14, 2023 Birmingham Utilita Arena October 15, 2023 Manchester AO Arena October 16, 2023 October 21, 2023 Winchester United States Las Vegas Fairgrounds rowspan="2" October 22, 2023
+ List of 2024 concertsDateCityCountryVenueOpening acts February 8, 2024 Perth Australia RAC Arena Rise Against February 9, 2024 February 11, 2024 Adelaide Adelaide Entertainment Centre February 13, 2024 Melbourne Rod Laver Arena February 14, 2024 February 16, 2024 Sydney Qudos Bank Arena February 17, 2024 February 19, 2024 Brisbane Brisbane Entertainment Centre February 20, 2024 February 21, 2024 February 23, 2024 Sydney Qudos Bank Arena February 24, 2024 February 26, 2024 Melbourne Rod Laver Arena February 27, 2024 February 29, 2024 March 2, 2024 Auckland New Zealand Spark Arena March 12, 2024 Lima Peru Estadio Universidad San Marcos The Offspring6 Voltios March 15, 2024 Buenos Aires Argentina Hipódromo de San Isidro rowspan="6" March 16, 2024 Santiago Chile Parque Cerrillos March 19, 2024 Luque Paraguay Parque Olímpico March 22, 2024 São Paulo Brazil Interlagos Circuit March 24, 2024 Bogotá Colombia Simón Bolívar Park March 30, 2024 MonterreyMexico Fundidora Park April 2, 2024 Mexico City Palacio de los Deportes PeteyAugust 23, 2024 ReadingEngland Little John's Farm rowspan="2" August 24, 2024 Leeds Bramham Park August 26, 2024 Belfast Northern Ireland SSE Arena The Story So Far August 27, 2024 Dublin Ireland Royal Hospital Kilmainham August 29, 2024 Glasgow Scotland OVO Hydro August 30, 2024 November 9, 2024 Mexico City Mexico Estadio GNP Seguros Pierce The VeilPeteyAllison
Cancelled dates + List of cancelled concerts Date City Country Venue Reason March 11, 2023 Tijuana Mexico Morelos Park Originally postponed; festival was later canceled March 4, 2024ChristchurchNew ZealandChristchurch ArenaUnexpected logistical issues April 3, 2024 Mexico City Mexico Palacio de los Deportes Mark Hoppus illness April 5, 2024 April 6, 2024
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