Nottingham Rock City
03/03/2003
In the rock world "awesome" is a pretty overused word. But in this instance it perfectly sums up a class concert.
Nigel Bell
Maybe it was the BBC being ultra health and safety cautious (this was an exclusive Radio 1 gig) but there seemed to be more room in Rock City than normal.Good news for the assembled fans - more room to jump and better vision all round - bad news for the many fans who wished they could have been there.And boy did they miss a classic. There might be a perception Nu Metal is on the wane but it's in healthy hands with Linkin Park. It might not be very trendy but this was a seriously polished performance with great sound made all the better by the fact it was in the cosy surroundings of Rock City and not some big arena. Of course Linkin Park are different from most other combos. For a start they have a duel vocal attack - tattooed Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda.Then there's DJ Joseph Hahn offering samples and scratches to delight.But ultimately they have energy and once they realised the crowd was hero-worshipping them the grins appeared and everyone enjoyed themselves."The energy we've felt from you people has been burnt in our minds for eternity," was just one of a host of class quotes from Chester.This was the kind of gig people will claim to have been at although they were probably listening at home to the Beeb.From Hahn's first scratch a sea of devil's horns was held aloft. By the end of the first track the first body surfer had been pulled free (by the encore we were talking relay surfing). "We might have to take you all on tour with us," came Chester's response to the singalong crowd.There were occasions (albeit briefly) when you thought East 17 were on stage (well, there are vague rap similarities). It made you wonder what Brian Harvey could have achieved with a bit of heavy guitar but let's not dwell on that. Given this was a showcase for the forthcoming album, Meteora, the band must have been pleased with the way the audience responded.And the crowd will be counting down the days until its release at the end of March. "You guys gave me goosebumps tonight. You're making me all emotional." Aw bless. So much so that by the encore Chester was throwing himself into the crowd and revealing a bit more of his backside than was truly necessary. They were gone in just over an hour but they'd left a lasting impression. The radio recording was good but you really had to be there.
5/5
Linkin Park Live
Date: 05/03/2003
Venue: London Brixton Academy
by Chris Nettleton
I have discovered the Oasis of metal.
With a stage set that resembled Kiss circa 'Destroyer' gone all rusty, with an industrial looking drum riser , DJ tower and four little industrial looking boxes for the bass player, guitarist and twin vocalists to stand upon, presumably because they have some height complex, tonight Linkin Park really didn't look like they were ever breaking out into a sweat. When Chester Bennington jumped off his box it looked perfectly planned and perfectly professional... When Mike Shinoda was on the mic rapping or getting audience feedback he was having a great time, for sure, but don't you want a sense of tension from a metal band? In a recording studio, it's best to play bass or guitar powerchords fairly gently and let the distorted sound you've worked so hard to find do its work, since digging and wanging the guitar like billy-O often pulls the strings sharp and sounds messy. Of course, when it comes to live.... When it came to live, where I expected digging, wanging and thrashing, I saw the 'Park stroking chords like Swiss Tony strokes his Jag....
...and so far this all sounds like a really bad show, right?.... but the thing is... Linkin Park sounded incredible, and when you're faced with the whole of a totally packed-out Brixton Academy loudly singing every word of every song from 'Hybrid Theory', the mass euphoria of it all is more infectious than flu... and as the smile floods my face, about ten feet away, in one of those alcoves they have down in the stalls in the 'Academy, I spy an off-duty Gary Numan sitting against a wall, melancholically crooning those words to the ceiling....because even the famous and successful are not immune to those songs sounding that good.... and there lies my comparison with Oasis, another relatively dull live act whose huge wall of sound and wall of singalong bowled over many an unsuspecting cynic.
The new Linkin Park songs? .... well they're not really any different from the old, no real progression, just more tunes, and with the undoubted airplay, give it a year and I guess everyone will know all the words to all of those chorus's too. I wonder.... will they too get progressively bigger until they start infighting and become more famous for the celebrity girlfriends they've made pregnant and the tabloid headlines than the actual music they play??
Footnote: I was curious to see that, where I'd expected a teeny audience, befitting the age of the band members, I actually saw that most people were predominantly 20-30... more parallels with Oasis???
The Apollo
15/03/2003
By Carol Hodgef
Almost two years ago to the day, 15-year-old Charles Williams opened fire on his classmates. The aftermath saw the death of two teenage boys and almost 20 gunshot injuries. As is the fashion in the US, a band had to blamed for this child's actions. In this particular case, Marilyn Manson and Nirvana were bypassed, and the finger of blame pointed to Linkin Park. In their defence at the time, singer Chester Bennington said: "We're definitely dealing with really dark themes. But I think that's what's positive. When I was growing up, I'd sit in my room and listen to music and I'd feel like, 'Hey, I'm not alone, I can relate to these groups that are feeling this way, and they'd make me feel OK.' Or feel like I want to get daddy's gun and blast my classmates brains out of their skulls, it would seem. Hence, I expected the Apollo to be crammed with greasy haired, po-faced, drowned-in-black-and-oversized-denim 14 year olds, raging against their wicked parents who won't let them stay at the rock club til 3 in the morning.
Refreshingly, I was greeted by a hugely varied crowd, ranging from said 14 year olds, up to middle aged punk types, to mumsy mums nipping to the bar to reveal a troupe of primary school kids, staring miserably at the legs of the people in front.
Standing near the back of the crowd (I was asked to move by several mums, so their miniscule children could see the legs of the people in front of me), I realised what a surreal night this was going to be.
Linkin Park appeared in an explosion of green searchlights, and I was numbed with boredom instantly. They didn't even acknowledge the crowd until about 20 minutes into the set, at which point Chester Bennington asked us: "Who f***ing came to f***ing see us when we f***ing played here with the f***ing Deftones?" to the giggling delight of the primary school contingent. Yawn.
It has to be said, Linkin Park are the most uninspiring, nu-metal-by-numbers 'band' I have ever seen. Perhaps this was partly due to the sound system, which gave the effect of a CD playing, about half a mile away. But, largely, I think it was the band.
Churning out one new song after another, they seemed to lose most of the crowd, but the 'hits' (especially 'Crawling' and 'One Step Closer') re-animated the general mood, and provided a rather pleasant sing-along atmosphere.
Mostly,however, Linkin Park oozed boredom and stilted routine, rather than the raw passion their videos and recordings suggest. Their attitude was so laissez-fair, I could almost hear them mutter "Let's just get it over with, and save our energy for the next gig".
Guitarist Brad Delson said, in relation to the Williams shooting of March 2001: "There's a misconception that angry music is going to make someone angry. I think it's cathartic, and I think that a lot of kids who do have problems, they can relate to the lyrics." I must be getting old.
Linkin Park : London Brixton Academy
Ooof
Mar 26, 2003
Those against Linkin Park say they're more brand than band. Wicked whispers that they were engineered by a svengali looking to corner the pop-metal market dogged their early career. Detractors say they've cynically co-opted the angst of middle-America's teenagers and sold it back to them as a basis for the megalomanical aspirations of 14 million selling Linkin Park Inc.. Even the name of their frontman raises sinister eyebrows - would you trust someone called Chester Bennington?
On the eve of Linkin Park's return with new LP 'Meteora', pop music and pop metal has moved on. Today, Christina and Justin rule the charts. '4-real' pop-rockers like Avril Lavigne and Busted clog up the top 10. Comebacks from Papa Roach and Korn last year totally underwhelmed, while Limp Bizkit's new single sounds more like some bitter Chris Morris pastiche than the record that'll re-invigorate the genre.
Linkin Park are better placed than most of their peers, mind, mainly because they've solved their biggest problem - how do you follow up a multi-million selling debut LP? - in typically sensible Linkin style. By making a new one that's virtually indistinguishable.
Apart from 'Faint' (which sounds like something by '80s synth overlords Depeche Mode) the rap-rock furniture of new tracks like 'Don't Stay', and flyer single 'Somewhere I Belong' have the same unobtrusive turntablism, enormodome sensibilities and Jerry Bruckheimer aesthetics as 'Hybrid Theory' standards like 'Crawlin' and 'One Step Closer'. Only frontman Bennington's intensity (his face looks like a man at war with his colon) betrays the band's super sleek veneer. But even he's prone to saying things like "I just wanna give every one of
you out there a hug". Ooof.
Tonight Linkin Park give few indications that they'll save nu-metal or that they even want to. But there's enough here to suggest that having barely tinkered with the formula that made them such a globally successful brand first time around, the Linkin corporation can expect a few more mighty pay days yet.
Michael Lane
Carling Weekend : Reading, Main Stage Friday
Linkin Park, Blink-182, The Darkness and more...
Linkin Park's Chester Bennington says he is so excited he wants to shit. Considering the problems he has had with his innards of late, this sounds more like a threat than a call to arms. With Linkin Park, it's all or nothing. And 50,000 fans, lighting fires and singing along to every word, welcome every single note. The stage looks great - an accident of light and graffiti spray; they run and they shout and as the dust settles it makes perfect sense. It's formulaic, of course, but it's a fine nu-metal formula that has not dated.
Paul/McNameeImran Ahmed
Linkin Park at the MEN Arena
21.11.2003
by Alex Davies
Rating:10/10
Rock crowds these days are very similar to the pop crowd, except with spikier hair and baggier pants. As I looked around the MEN Arena, packed, quite literally, to the rafters, it amazed me the number of families that had made the journey. Waist high children running around screaming, a mother putting in her three year old son's ear plugs directly in front of me. I half expected her to get out a cooler bag and serve out sandwiches to her siblings.What has rock music come to?!
Linkin Park SECC, Glasgow
by Paul Connolly
THE first thing that strikes you as Linkin Park take the stage at the aircraft hangar that is the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre is the exceptionally wide demographic of the crowd. It ranges from 5 to 55. Toddlers are held aloft by older brothers as their dads make the ubiquitous horned metal gesture. It’s not just testosterone either. There are gaggles of adolescent girls making lots of noise too. And not just pierced, black-garbed, black-haired rebels either, though they do account for a percentage of the 6,000 crowd gathered to see one of the world’s biggest bands. Many of the female contingent would look more at home at a Blue concert, with their white halter neck tops, neat coiffures and tight jeans. Linkin Park shouldn’t work; they don’t sound as though they could appeal to such a broad church. On record their rap-verse-anthemic-chorus schtick sounds a little weary, having spent too many years in the service of Rage Against the Machine, Korn, Limp Bizkit et al. The albums — the 14-million-selling Hybrid Theory 2001) and the recently released Meteora — are so energetically buffed that they possess as much edge as a snooker ball and the songs really do sound all the same.
Once this Californian six-piece launch into their 90-minute, 19-song set their appeal becomes a little more apparent, although you still can’t help but feel that this is a band prepared in the Laboratory of Rock. Take the two lead singers, Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington. Shinoda, prowling the stage in his baseball cap and throwing faux hip-hop shapes, is the aggressive rapper, coming across like Fred Durst’s slightly anaemic younger brother who has, you know, issues. He is there for the angsty males who would love to tell someone in authority to “f*** off” but are worried they might get detention.
Bennington, meanwhile, with his softer look and Justin Timberlakesque croon, most certainly accounts for the female element. In essence, then, Linkin Park are nu-metal’s boy band and, as such, should stink. That they don’t is down to some seriously good tunes that really take flight when live. Lying for You may be awash with fake anger, but it’s also packed with hooks and possesses a mighty lung-bursting chorus, while Breaking the Habit dodges metal entirely and opts for a wander into Boys of Summer-era Don Henley territory. So — New Kids on the Rock or mighty metal contenders? Linkin Park are neither, really, but they are a jolly night out.