David Sinclair at the Astoria, from thetimes.com
Rating 3/5
You may be surprised to discover that Linkin Park are the bestselling group in the world this side of the millennium. According to their record company, the six-man band from Los Angeles have sold 46 million albums since 2000. And yet they are hardly household names. Can you hum one of their hits? Or name the group’s singer?
One reason why their mainstream profile has continued to lag so far behind their commercial stock, particularly in Britain, is that the media gatekeepers have never much cared for Linkin Park. Along with Limp Bizkit, they were, after all, prominent among the architects of “nu-metal”, a genre now so discredited that even the groups involved have been careful to distance themselves from it in recent times. But Linkin Park’s ability to reach out directly to their fans is apparently undiminished.
With a new album, Minutes to Midnight, due for release on May 15, they brought their thunderous brand of rock music with rap trimmings to a venue of incongruously modest proportions in London last week. The stage at the 2,000-capacity Astoria was barely big enough to accommodate the giant riser on which were set the drums and an escarpment of record decks and other electronic equipment. At the front were four individual platforms for the guitarists and singers, leaving precious little open floor space for anything much else to happen.
In a comparatively brief set, two songs from the new album emerged: No More Sorrow, a brawny, metallic epic set to a military marching drum beat, and What I’ve Done, the current radio-friendly single with a chorus like a jet plane soaring a long way overhead.
For the most part, however, the group contented themselves with a trawl through the tried and tested, producing tub-thumping versions of hits such as Papercut, Numb, Breaking the Habit and Crawling. Whether sung in a piercing yell by the group’s mainman, Chester Bennington, or delivered in rap-lite mode by Mike Shinoda, who also played guitar and keyboards, their anthems of introspective rage and adolescent alienation rarely seemed to hit any truly emotional spot.
Next month Linkin Park will be headlining at the Download Festival in Donington Park, an environment better suited to the mammoth scale of their sound and production. Here, they looked rather cramped, while the bludgeoning tone of their music seemed similarly misplaced.
Hitting the stage running with their breakthrough song 'One Step Closer', Linkin Park are their usual assured and confident selves as they close the main stage - aided by a quite stunning light display - by running through their staggering array of hits. Be it the rap-rock of 'Papercut' and 'Faint' or the mellower "Halloween" meets U2 bombast of 'What I've Done', Linkin Park are never anything less than totally engrossing.
Download Festival 2007
Donington Park, Leicestershire - 8 Jun 2007
by Laila Hassani
Hoping for something a little better on the Main Stage, the Linkin Park robot is working its way through a dirgy, dreary set. We hadn't expected a lot of spontaneity, but we’re still bowled over by the total lack of excitement and enthusiasm Linkin Park bring to such prestigious surroundings. Sounding like they are on autopilot, not even ‘One Step Closer’ or ‘In The End’ really ignites. Needless to say, it’s a wholly disappointing end to an entertaining, sunny day.
And unfortunately that’s where our Download journey ends. A vicious bout of hayfever – resulting in NN unable to breathe and looking like they’ve been punched in both eyes – means we call it quits a day early. As Fall Out Boy (almost) recently sang; Download, thanks for the memories. See you next year, armed with as much eye drops and antihistamines as we can carry.