Travis Barker Shows Support For Aussie Hardcore Band SPEED

20 February 2024 | 11:23 am | Mary Varvaris

Travis Barker showed his support for the Sydney hardcore punk band after meeting them just a few days prior.

Travis Barker, SPEED

Travis Barker, SPEED (Source: Supplied, Credit: Johnathan Tumbel)

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If you follow Complex Australia on Instagram, you might have seen a post starring blink-182 drummer Travis Barker walking along Bondi Beach with his wife, Kourtney Kardashian, yesterday. But did you notice what he was wearing?

Keen fans zoomed in on his oversized t-shirt and discovered that Barker was repping Sydney-based hardcore punk band SPEED.

His support for the band follows a meet-up last week. On Friday (16 February), SPEED guitarist Dennis D-ColdVichidvongsa shared an image of SPEED with Barker backstage at a blink-182 show. He captioned the pic, “GANG CALLED BLINK182 @travisbarker”. The photo was met with an outpouring of happiness and maybe some jealousy.

Polaris drummer Daniel Furnari replied, “Fucking iconic (I am jealous forever)”, and Hellions drummer Anthony Caruso added, “So sick, I would have spewed”. Check out images of Travis Barker rocking – and meeting – SPEED below.

This June, SPEED will perform at the UK’s beloved rock and metal music festival, Download Festival. Their appearance arrives following last year’s Australian headline dates after selling out their first-ever US headline tour.

Vocalist Jem Siow formed SPEED in 2019 following the quiet breakup of Endless Heights. The band released their successful EP, Gang Called Speed, in June 2022. 

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The EP saw the band embrace their mission statement of putting Australian hardcore on the map and tracked journeys through the bandmates taking ownership of their identities. The band rallies against intolerance and calls out racism, xenophobia and toxic masculinity in the hardcore scene.

Blink-182 are currently on a 15-date tour of Australia.

The first of 15 shows was a raging success, with The Music reviewer Michael Hollick declaring of the concert at Perth’s RAC Arena, “blink-182’s performance was a time capsule, providing both longtime and newer fans a chance to relive the days when baggy jeans, chains, and dyed spikes were the epitome of cool. The band may have grown older, but their music remains forever young.”

You can read the review here.

The band have been playing massive 27-song setlists, which include seven tracks from their latest LP, One More Time…, with Australian fans being treated to the live debuts of Fuck Face, Turpentine and Anthem Pt 3 (the latter played in full for the first time).

The remainder of their set was a balance of their hit albums, with the pop-punk trio playing five tracks each from their self-titled album, Enema Of The State and Take Off Your Pants And Jacket. Only one song from the records Dude Ranch, California and Neighborhoods were performed, and two from The Mark, Tom, And Travis Show (The Enema Strikes Back!).