Mark Hoppus revealed on After School Radio that he is back rehearsing with Blink-182 bandmates Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker after Barker’s finger injury ahead of their reunion tour, and it appears Travis is finally ready to tour despite his recovery from surgery.
“I’m broadcasting today from inside the Blink-182 rehearsal studios where Tom and I are rehearsing today, getting ready for the North American leg of the tour. Hopefully Travis’ finger’s back to all good. And so here I am in some carpeted room somewhere in Southern California waiting for Tom DeLonge to roll up.”
Hoppus later discussed the preparation needed for the summer reunion tour. Hoppus said, “Running through the set, setting up different guitars. Tom is changing over to a brand new guitar for this tour. He’s using a Fender Starcaster rather than the Gibson E 335s that he was playing, or the Strats that he was playing before that. And I am using all new amplifiers and I have new bases.”
Mark said he and Tom need to prepare their voices for the rigors of singing on tour, “We have to rehearse the songs, get our voices ready, get our voices strong, remember all the songs, make sure that we remember all the lyrics, run through the set. Our techs have to know when they’re changing guitars. It’s basically everything for the show except the people.”
He added about the stage presentation, “Pyro is expensive to shoot off and to have there, and you need a fire marshal and you need a whole host of things. So yes, we do rehearse those before the tour, but we do it sparingly just to make sure that people know when the timing is and safety procedures and things like that. Today is literally, do I remember how to play Anthem, Part two? And the answer is yes, I do.”
“This is the first time that we’ve been in the room together for almost six weeks, so it’s really just about getting comfortable playing the songs again, running through the set and being like, ‘Okay, we really need to work on this, whatever, the bridge of EDGING or we need to work on this section.’ Or things like that.”