As you read this Blink-182 is probably in the middle of their final show of the European leg of their 2023-2024 World Tour.

The sold out excursion has yielded live debuts, sing-a-longs, blistering power punk, the guitarist telling British fans "[expletive] France," no-look drumming, and believe it or not some very touching moments.

As you may well be aware, fans are simply lucky to have this incarnation of Blink here, rocking, cursing, and making junior high school jokes at all.

Drummer Travis Barker nearly died in a plane crash that took his musical partner DJ AM's life. Guitarist Tom Delonge quit the trio in 2014 that had sold over 50 million records because "the machine running the band took over." And in 2021 bassist Mark Hoppus was diagnosed with a type of blood cancer but after chemotherapy is now cancer-free.

That near-death experience with Hoppus seemed to have not only brought the band back together physically, but grounded them in being present in the moment, and appreciating what they have which is being part of a group that has meant a lot to a ton of people around the world who are so happy to have them back on stage singing mostly-juvenile songs.

Over the last eight nights, though, the band has been coming out for one more encore after playing over two dozen songs. In that finale, since October 6 in Italy, where it was live-debuted, they perform the tender title track of One More Time.

First Tom sings:
Strangers, from strangers into brothers
From brothers into strangers once again
We saw the whole world, but I couldn't see the meaning
I couldn't even recognize my friends

Then Mark, who says chemo nearly wrecked his voice sings:
Older, but nothing's any different
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

Then Tom for the dagger:
Do I have to die to hear you miss me?
Do I have to die to hear you say goodbye?
I don't wanna act like there's tomorrow
I don't wanna wait to do this one more time

The next lyrics are "I miss you," which sure sounds like a callback to "I Miss You" from their 20 year old untitled fifth studio album.

Despite being so old, the song holds importance to the band because when they reunited at Coachella earlier this year, the first time audiences had seen the lineup they loved since 2014, and "I Miss You" was played, Delong's voice seemed to have gotten choked up.

So the audience supported him by singing the lines with him, "Where are you. I’m so sorry”

"It was so rad when we were at Coachella and everyone sang that one section," Hoppus said recently.

So if you think standing up and singing along to the band doesn't mean anything to them, think again. That launched their tour this year which then led to the forthcoming album, produced entirely by Barker.

Blink comes back to the States in time to co-headline the When We Were Young festival in Vegas alongside their pals Green Day.

Then they take a break until next year and then head down under for a journey around Australia and New Zealand. Tickets available on their website.