On Monday, Blink-182 and My Chemical Romance firmed up their summer plans when they both committed to the 2011 Honda Civic Tour, a 40-plus date trek that runs from early August until mid-October.
And the timing of the tour is key ... because it's during those dates that Blink will finally, totally, 100 percent-ly release their long-in-the-works new album. For real.
"We are very excited to kick off the tour. We're excited to have a new record be coming out while we're on this tour, and we're super excited to take it out on the road," Blink's Mark Hoppus told Monday night in Los Angeles, before a press conference to announce the tour dates. "We absolutely have to turn the record in by July 31 — that's the rule."
Of course, he tempered all that enthusiasm by joking, "At this point, we'll be ready to turn it in my mid-September." But in all seriousness, the Blink album is nearing completion (drummer Travis Barker estimated that it was "70 percent finished") and they plan on promoting it on the road this summer. And unlike their 2009 reunion tour, this time they'll even be playing new songs, with the help of — at long last — lasers.
"I just want lasers. That's what I said last time, though, so we'll see," Tom DeLonge laughed. "I'm excited [because] I think on this next tour we're going to be able to have a lot more options of what we can do, because the music is going to afford a little more latitude, just because we've been doing some really cool stuff and different stuff with the new record. So I'm really excited to bring that out.
"I know for a fact that there's a really good chance that whatever Travis does on drums, I'll be on that with him, maybe holding off of him, or I'll be inside him as he spins around," he added. "We're excited. The whole record, the tour and everything is going to be A-plus."
Are you excited to see Blink and MCR on tour? Tell us in the comments!