Blink-182 celebrates all the small things on wild reunion tour in Phoenix

As the members of Blink-182 approached the end of a second sold-out metro Phoenix date on their first tour with Tom DeLonge since he rejoined the pop-punk trio after taking nine years off, Mark Hoppus took a moment to reflect on what this tour is all about.

“This is the One More Time Tour,” he told the crowd at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale on Tuesday, July 2. “It’s a tour of our new record. But it’s also a tour that celebrates the entire history of Blink-182 and everything we’ve ever….”

As the fans went wild enough to drown out part of what the bassist said — there was some mention of “falling apart” and “friendship” — Hoppus added, “This next song is about the three of us, and it goes like this.”

With that, the stage was set for “Anthem Part 3,” the track that opens “One More Time…” with an uplifting story of “starting up a new life” and a chorus that promises, “This time, I won't be complacent.”

The guys in Blink-182 are clearly feeling pretty stoked about this whole reunion situation, bringing Tuesday’s concert to a touching finish with the title track to that new album, a song that references the cancer scare that brought them back together.

DeLonge reportedly rejoined after learning that Hoppus had been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.

Blink-182 setlist 2024: Every song they played on the One More Time Tour in Phoenix

The new album's title track also makes lyrical reference to drummer Travis Barker’s own near-death experience — a plane crash in 2008 that left four people dead and led to Barker undergoing 16 surgeries and multiple blood transfusions, all while suffering through post-traumatic stress disorder.

“Older, but nothing's any different,” Hoppus sang at Tuesday's concert. “Right now feels the same/ I wonder why/ I wish they told us/ It shouldn't take a sickness or airplanes falling out the sky.”

An older, wiser, more reflective 'The Mark, Tom and Travis Show'

And yet, for all the growth the more reflective tracks on “One More Time…” suggest, it wouldn’t be a Blink-182 show if it didn’t also live up to the expectations they set with “The Mark, Tom and Travis Show,” a live recording that confirmed their rep as modern masters of the type of sex joke that can get a kid expelled from elementary school.

There were plenty of juvenile sex jokes to be had at Tuesday’s concert, some of which were funnier than they had any right to be.

But a lot of the funniest moments didn’t have a thing to do with sex — or body parts.

You’ve got to love a band that tells you, “It’s a lot of pressure being the best band that’s ever walked the face of the Earth.”

And then, after asking if anyone’s parents had divorced when they were kids, I believe it was Hoppus who deadpanned, “Sad to say, it’s my duty to inform you, it’s your fault.”

They also joked that the Coyotes were “too afraid to play the same arena that we play in, and I’m sorry about that,” promising, “I’m gonna have a word with the Coyotes.”

Blink-182 setlist ranged from 'All the Small Things' to 'Dammit'

There’s more to Blink-182’s appeal than goofy jokes, of course.

They became the most successful pop-punk artists of their generation on the strength of their material.

And Tuesday’s concert found them dusting off such early classics as their breakthrough single, the pre-Barker “Dammit,” “What’s My Age Again?,” “All The Small Things,” “Man Overboard,” “The Rock Show,” “First Date,” “Feeling This,” “I Miss You” and “Down.”

They also reached back to their debut album, “Cheshire Cat,” for “Carousel,” a song that hadn’t made a setlist since 2018.

And they really leaned into the new release, performing five songs.

The last time they were here, in June 2023 , that album hadn’t been released yet and we only got to hear one song, a lead single called “Edging” that heralded DeLonge's returns and took up residence for 13 weeks at No. 1 on alternative radio.

They even dusted off a new track, "Can't Go Back," and tossed in selections from two of their extra-curricular projects — +44's "When Your Heart Stops Beating" and Box Car Racer's "There Is."

Travis Barker was dazzling on drums

It was a fast-paced journey through their catalog, but it’s hard to imagine them slowing it down, especially with Barker on the drums.

He’s an amazing drummer who spent a portion of the night suspended from the ceiling on his drum riser. His snare fills were phenomenal, as dazzling as they were precise, especially on the breakneck pace of “Dammit.”

But if Barker is the driving force behind their most exhilarating moments, Hoppus and DeLonge remain the heart and soul of Blink-182.

The set went heavy on the pyrotechnics — lots of fireworks and massive walls of flame erupting from the stage. It definitely made it feel more like a big event.

But seeing Blink-182 in 2024 is more about the small things — witnessing three friends who conquered the world with ridiculous sex jokes and serious pop hooks find their way back to the life they took for granted while embracing the past and moving forward in the same breath.

As Hoppus sang in “Dammit,” “Well, I guess this is growing up.”

Blink-182 setlist 2024: Every song they played in Phoenix

Here’s every song Blink-182 played at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, AZ, on Tuesday, July 2:

• “Feeling This”
• “The Rock Show”
• “Man Overboard”
• “Aliens Exist”
• “Dance With Me”
• “Obvious”
• “Bored to Death”
• “Edging”
• “Up All Night”
• “More Than You Know”
• “Carousel”
• “Stay Together for the Kids”
• “Not Now”
• “Can't Go Back”
• “I Miss You”
• “Down”
• “When Your Heart Stops Beating” (+44 cover) (first verse and chorus only)
• “There Is” (Box Car Racer cover) (first verse and chorus only)
• “(Expletive) Face”
• “Anthem Part 3”
• “Always”
• “What's My Age Again?”
• “First Date” (preceded by a tease of Ramones' “Blitzkrieg Bop”)
• “All the Small Things”
• “Dammit” (with a snippet of the Spice Girls' "Wanna Be")
• “One More Time”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Blink-182 celebrates all the small things on wild reunion tour in Phoenix