Mark Hoppus shared exciting news from the stage of the Sydney Opera House on Saturday night (March 21) — announcing to fans that the Australian rock band Violent Soho is reuniting.
Discover
See latest videos, charts and news
The blink-182 bassist was performing in Australia as part of his Fahrenheit-182 spoken-word storytelling tour when he made the announcement, before inviting Violent Soho frontman Luke Boerdam and guitarist James Tidswell for an acoustic performance of blink-182’s “Dammit.”
“I wasn’t joking by the way, they really are getting back together,” Hoppus told the crowd, as reported by Blunt Mag.
The performance marked the first time Boerdam and Tidswell had shared a stage since Violent Soho’s final show on September 10, 2022, at Fortitude Music Hall in Brisbane — nearly four years ago. Neither band member addressed the crowd following the performance, and Violent Soho has not yet issued a public statement confirming their reunion.
The timing is significant as this month marks the tenth anniversary of WACO, Violent Soho’s landmark fourth album. Released in March 2016, the record debuted at No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart and dominated triple j’s Hottest 100, with all six singles making the countdown.
Songs like “Viceroy,” “Like Soda,” and “Blanket” helped define Violent Soho as one of the most important Australian rock bands of the decade. A limited edition vinyl pressing of the album was also announced this week.
“When we made WACO, we weren’t thinking about anniversaries or legacy; we were just trying to capture where the band was after years of touring and gaining momentum from the release of Hungry Ghost,” the band stated regarding the reissue. “We created some amazing memories in the studio and really tried to push our sound further.”
Hoppus’ connection to Violent Soho goes back over a decade. He publicly expressed his fandom in 2014, tweeting his admiration for the band’s single “Covered in Chrome” before both acts formally met at Good Things Festival in 2019 when Hoppus was touring with his side project Simple Creatures.
Hoppus’ Australian tour also included a Melbourne show earlier in the week, where he invited my Shark to perform “Dammit” alongside a snippet of their collaboration “Psycho” from 2018. The tour concludes in Auckland next week.
