Blink-182 joined by Descendents’ Stephen Egerton and reunite with Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba at Riot Fest 2025

Blink-182 were joined by the Descendents’ Stephen Egerton and reunited with Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba at Riot Fest 2025 – watch below.

The 20th anniversary of the punk festival took place this weekend in Chicago’s Douglass Park, with Green Day and Weezer topping the bill on the other two days.

During their Friday night headline show (September 19), Blink-182 were joined by longtime Descendents guitarist Egerton for a cover of the latter band’s classic 1982 track ‘Hope’, from their influential debut album ‘Milo Goes To College’. The song has been a regular presence on Blink setlists in 2025, although before this year they had not played it since 2003.

Watch fan-captured footage of the cover here:

Elsewhere in the set, Blink were joined by Alkaline Trio frontman Skiba, who was also a member of Blink-182 as a replacement for Tom DeLonge from 2015 to 2022. They played ‘Bored To Death’ – the first song the band released with Skiba as a co-vocalist, and a track that has appeared on Blink setlists sporadically in 2025. Watch here:

Blink-182 played: 

‘The Rock Show’ 
‘First Date’ 
‘Josie’ 
‘Anthem Part Two’ 
‘Online Songs’ 
‘M+M’s’ 
‘Fuck Face’ 
‘Dumpweed’ 
‘Feeling This’ 
‘Down’ 
‘Turpentine’ 
‘Bored To Death’ (with Matt Skiba) 
‘Wishing Well’ 
‘Stay Together For The Kids’ 
‘Roller Coaster’ 
‘Dance With Me’ 
‘I Miss You’ 
‘More Than You Know’ 
‘Hope’ (with Stephen Egerton) 
‘What’s My Age Again?’ 
‘All The Small Things’ 
‘Dammit’ 

Alkaline Trio have been the opening band on Blink-182’s current ‘Missionary Impossible’ tour, which kicked off in late August and has dates remaining across the country before its conclusion in Palm Desert, California on October 4. See all the dates and ticket information here.

When DeLonge left Blink in 2015, Skiba stepped in on guitar and vocals, recording two albums: 2016’s ‘California’ and 2019’s ‘Nine’. Upon DeLonge’s return to the band, Skiba departed, but he did join them again for ‘Bored To Death’ during their Los Angeles wildfire benefit concert earlier this year.

After DeLonge rejoined, he wrote an open letter to Skiba in which he said, “Hi Matt, Tom DeLonge here,” he wrote. “I wanted to take a minute and say thank you for all that you have done to keep the band thriving in my absence. I think you are enormously talented (I still love and listen to your band to this day).”

For his part, Skiba said he was “truly happy” for his former bandmates and DeLonge.

Speaking to NME about joining Blink-182, Skiba said he got a lot of hate for stepping into DeLonge’s shoes, but “it only lasted until we started playing shows.”

He added: “The overwhelming amount of support and graciousness the fans have shown me overpowers any hate or shit-talking. It feels like our band – Mark, Travis, me and the fans. It’s not the same band without Tom but it has the same name, and I think there’s a good reason for that.”

As for Descendents, they played a joint UK and European tour earlier this year with Circle Jerks.

The post Blink-182 joined by Descendents’ Stephen Egerton and reunite with Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba at Riot Fest 2025 appeared first on NME.