The status quo has taken a bit of a beating lately. Just ask Hosni Mubarak or Moamar Khadafi. And after listening to the first 10 seconds of last week’s Linkin Park gig, it was clear that the frustration with the establishment had spread to the Grand Canyon State.
Lead vocalist Chester Bennington and the nu-rockers staged a musical revolution at US Airways Center, exhorting 10,000 rap(t) followers to never again settle for ordinary music. From the first thundering bass note from Phoenix Farrell, Bennington led the multi-platinum band in an all-out assault on mediocrity, opening with a little something old and a little something new.
LP kicked things off with a throbbing “The Requiem” (2010’s A Thousand Suns) and moved effortlessly into “Papercut” (2001’s Hybrid Theory). The group kept the pressure on with a booming “Wretches & Kings,” another cut from their most recent album, as Mike Shinoda rapped like a man with a huge chip on his shoulder – out to prove that he was more than just “the other vocalist.”
The long-time fans roared appreciatively as LP continued the musical onslaught with “Given Up” (2007’s Minutes to Midnight), “New Divide” (2009’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Soundtrack), and “Faint” (2003’s Meteora).
Native Phoenician Bennington declared to the appreciative crowd that “It’s good to be home.” And to prove it, he and Shinoda rewarded the fans with a game of dueling drums on another new cut, the thundering “When They Come For Me.” Coupled with Brad Delson’s jaw-dropping guitar licks and the “M.C. Escherish” video backdrop, the song was one of the night’s highlights.
The percussive pulse and ethereal vocals on “Waiting for the End” (Suns) evoked images of a lone survivor pondering the world’s finish – somehow appropriate given Linkin Park’s nuclear sound. The song’s somber feel set the stage for the fittingly named “Numb” (Meteora), showcasing Shinoda’s keyboards and Bennington’s mournful vocals.
Perhaps the night’s most sobering moment came at the end of the song, as a video outro of nuclear pioneer Robert Oppenheimer played behind the band. Often referred to as the “father of the atomic bomb,” Oppenheimer jarringly cited the Bhagavad Gita at the Trinity test in New Mexico, where the first atomic bomb was detonated: “If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one... Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
The band lifted the musical mood with a more upbeat “Breaking the Habit” (Meteora), closing out the song with fantastic acapella harmonies, transitioning smoothly into “Shadow of the Day” (Midnight) highlighted by a tremendous Delson guitar solo.
The band ended strong with a sextet of songs, closing out the show with a fan favorite troika of “In The End” (Hybrid Theory), and “What I’ve Done” and “Bleed It Out,” both from Minutes to Midnight.
With an extraordinary blend of the reflective and the prospective, Linkin Park made sure that Chester Bennington’s homecoming was worth the wait – shining like the light of a thousand suns.
Here’s the rest of the set list:
The Requiem
Papercut
Wretches and Kings
Given Up
New Divide
Faint
Empty Spaces
When They Come for Me
No More Sorrow
Jornada Del Muerto
Waiting for The End
Wisdom, Justice and Love
Iridescent
Numb
The Radiance
Breaking the Habit
Shadow of the Day
Crawling
One Step Closer
Encore:
Fallout
The Catalyst
The Messenger
In The End
What I've Done
Bleed It Out
Comments