European football's governing body UC3 has announced that Linkin Park will be headline performers at the UEFA Champions League Final Kick Off Show (presented by Pepsi) taking place on May 31 at the Munich Football Arena. This highly-anricipated annual event in Germany is the culmination of the UEFA Champions League, and will be one of the biggest sports events Linkin Park has ever been involved in. The date falls neatly between the final date of the North American tour leg and the first date of the European festival run - May 17 and June 12, respectively - and confirms rumours about LP performing at the final that began circulating last year. The band's live set will directly precede the main event itself, promising a setlist that will cover both new and old favourites. Five members of Linkin Park have appeared in a short promotional video for this announcement, soundtracked with an "electrifying" reinterpretation of one of the band's signature hits, "Numb". The video features Linkin Park performing the remix while backed by large screens showing moments from UEFA Champions League games. The track as we hear it features punchy drums (incorporating football-kicking and ref whistle samples), guitar riffs, turntable scratches, and a loop of wordless vocal by Emily Armstrong helping to build tension. Fans keeping up with Linkin Park's live shows during this From Zero touring cycle will likely be reminded of the extended "New Divide" intro they perform, or the "Inception" intro that typically starts off the entire set. Speaking to Goal, a website that covers soccer news around the world, Linkin Park member Mike Shinoda explained the inspiration behind the "Numb" re-arrangement: UEFA's own announcement post hints that Linkin Park might perform this version of "Numb" live as part of their set at the event, though the wording is quite vague and may just be a reference to the promo video being debuted: The band additionally provided this statement for a press release: Eric Melis, Pepsi's VP of Global Brand Marketing, has also highlighted how Linkin Park apparently embodies Pepsi's "Thirsty For More" philosophy: The UEFA Champions League Kick Off Show, including Linkin Park's performance, will be broadcast live via the official UEFA YouTube channel. Source: PR Newswire / Goal
The sound of football kicking being triggered by furious MPC fingering really drives home what this band is all about
The sampling pieces reminded me so much to Mike’s Tools of the Trade heheheh this is gonna be awesome Wiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!
Damn that's huge. For any non-football (/soccer) fan, the UEFA champions league final is the biggest club-football event on the planet, being only beated in glory and audience by some country-football events like the World Cup. Crazy stuff here. At some level, this comeback has seen the band hit popularity peaks previously unseen or rarely matched. This one and the Wembley sold out show will definitely go down in history as some landmarks.
LP mentioned wanting to have a song become a football chant during one of their recent concerts after WTCFM ended and the crowd continued singing the chorus. 100% this is them trying harder to make it a thing.
As a side-note, if you guys have seen the interview video embedded in the Goal article, from which there's a quote in the news post, Phoenix hints at LP possibly performing "some of the newest bonus tracks" off the upcoming deluxe edition of From Zero for the upcoming shows. You won't be surprised to see that Phoenix actually does most of the talking throughout the video. EDIT: also, I heard people guess that the vocals heard are actually from "Heavy Is the Crown"