Linkin Park's tour, Projekt Revolution came to town last night and RuthAnn and I both attended the show. Being a die hard fan of Linkin Park I decided to go into this show with an open mind and write a review based on performance, sound quality, lighting, video, and show structure. I slept on it last night and here is my final review on the show starring Less Than Jake, The Used, Snoop Dogg, Korn, and Linkin Park. The 15,500+ fans crowded into the new Tampa Bay Amphitheatre for the show. The weather was sunny and hot at first, around 91 degrees Fahrenheit. An onstage tour DJ was spinning his own personal mix of classic and new rock together. I don't normally go for most DJs, but this guy was incredibly talented and also served as the man who kept the crowd going between sets. Even when the very powerful storm moved in that knocked out power he quickly stuck to his job and kept the crowd entertained by playing such classic hits as Rock You Like A Hurricane and Should I Stay Or Should I Go? The first band to take stage was pop/punk band Less Than Jake. I'm not a huge fan of them, but being they are a local Florida band I decided to hang around and listen to their music. They made me think of an all male, punk, No Doubt. They did have an incredibly energetic horn section which added a pretty cool feel to their music, but it seems they spent more time on stage begging fans to stand up and jump then play music. They did a fast show of about four songs and left the stage. The next band to take the stage was the screamo/emo/punk band The Used. Again, when this band first arrived in the music scene, I wasn't fond of them, but I had found a few well written songs so I stayed to see if they performed them. The band kicked out their incredible song, A Taste of Ink, with power and emotion. Everyone in the crowd sang along. Then lead singer Bert asked how many fans came with their best friend and told the fans to hug their best friend, kiss their cheek, and tell them how much they mean to you. He then took his band into my favorite song by The Used, Blue and Yellow, which was the best performance of the song I had ever heard. After a few other new songs and some old songs Bert thanked Linkin Park for inviting them on the Projekt Revolution tour and exited the stage. Here's where things began to get interesting. Sure, Nu-Metal is the fusion of rock, hip-hop, electronic, and all other sounds, but the next artist was hip-hop legend, Snoop Dogg. Snoop came onstage to a huge crowd. He was the first artist of the day to get all 15,500 people in the crowd on their feet and singing along. As a tribute to all the rock fans at the show he replaced his electronic beats with a live band with distorted electric guitar. He also performed a few rock classics, but making sure to add his name to them. Before he exited the stage he performed a tribute to the late Tupac and asked everyone to wave a peace sign in the air in memory of him. As he exited he got the crowd to sing the words "Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, Snoop Dogg." It was all in all one of the best performances so far and I was not a fan at all. Now, after a 30 minute wait because the huge set change and light setup the first big name act came, Korn. Just as Korn took stage the sunset and a light breeze began to blow. Everyone was pumped as they performed their classics such as Freak On a Leash, Yall Want a Single, Falling Away From Me, and Got the Life. Then the stage went dark and the crowd was so pumped. I knew what was coming due to fans posting it on the web at the Linkin Park Underground. The Amphitheatre filled with bright white lights and Korn performed the powerful Pink Floyd song, The Wall. Being very critical they changed nothing in the song. They kept it standard adding only a few extra screams and guitar effects. Half way through the song they put the lyrics up on three huge video screens in bright white lyrics on a black background and had the fans sing along with them. As the stage went dark the lead singer thanked everyone for supporting the tour, the band, and asked everyone to get ready for the event of the night, Linkin Park. Being that it is their tour and Linkin Park is known for incredible sets and shows it took another 15 to 20 minutes to get ready for this show. The DJ kept spinning and the lights dimmed as he announced Linkin Park. A few backlights lit up a huge black banner that said "Projekt Revolution" across it. You could hear the band performing an incredible new intro that fans had never heard as smoke and lights got brighter behind the banner. The first guitar chord of their song Don't Stay sounded and the banner dropped to the ground revealing a beautiful set based on their album artwork and anime. Plus, unusual to see at a Linkin Park show a full size, black grand piano. The band proceeded to go through the set of songs including Lying From You, Papercut, Points of Authority, With You, and Runaway. Now before I get into this let me explain that Linkin Park has a huge fan club called the Linkin Park Underground started by fans who were there before they we famous, such as myself. We have a very distinctive shirt we get from the band every year and a membership card that we are asked to take and wear to the show. Mike then calmed the music and asked the crowd, "Do we have any hard-core Linkin Park fans out there?" where all of us LPUers including RuthAnn and myself put out hands in the air screamed. Mike then went on to say, "Well, were gonna see if you know this song. It's about seven years old and not on any album, so if you know this you're a huge fan." The band then went on to perform their classic Nu-Metal song Step Up which all the LPUers got weird looks for knowing every word to. The song was placed in the incredible hip-hop medley of Step Up/Nobody's Listening/It's Going Down. The band continued on and performed Somewhere I Belong, Figure.09 (with a new extended introduction), and From The Inside. This is where the show got to it's peak. In the most incredible performance of this song I have ever seen, Mike sat on a dark, dimmed stage at the grand piano and played a beautiful solo which then blended into the introduction of their new hit single, Breaking The Habit. With only piano, Chester came to center stage singing the words, "Memories consume like opening the wound, I'm picking me apart again. You all assume I'm safe here in my room, unless I try to start again. I don't want to be the one the battles always choose, cause inside I realize I'm the one confused. I don't know what's worth fighting for or why I have to scream. I don't know why I instigate and say what I don't mean. I don't know how I got this way, I know it's not all right. So I'm breaking the habit, breaking the habit," and the stage and crowd went silent for the first time all night. The lights grew and the whole band played the most incredible version of the song ever, leaving the crowd in tears. During this whole production Linkin Park had self-drawn anime going on one of the three screens. This song led into their hit, Numb. The crowd sang along with the whole song and Mike and Chester kept asking us all to sing as they fed off our energy. The band seemed to get more powerful as the show went on. Then Mike turned to the crowd and asked everyone to turn their attention to the band's drummer for his awesome intro to the smash hit, Faint. The band was so powerful on this song and the crowd was jumping and screaming along. Half way through The Used's lead singer joined Linkin Park on stage to finish singing Faint with them adding a powerful vocal line never before heard. Then the band went into the smash hit, In The End. Mike and Chester asked everyone to help them out and sing along with Chester and when it was over thanked everyone for coming and singing along and the stage went dark. The moron who had never seen the band live in person or screen began to get up and leave not knowing the band always does an encore. about five minutes of darkness went on until the band appeared back on stage. Slow darkness lit up the purple lights as everyone heard the reanimated introduction of Crawling start up. The band came out and performed the reanimation album version of Crawling. Then the band suprised everyone with their first and only cover of the night. The band played an incredible and powerful version of Wish by Nine Inch Nails. As it all ended the band began playing the song that made them big, their first single, One Step Closer. The band got all the way to bridge where Korn's lead singer, J. Davis came on stage to singer the bridge of the reanimation version of the song. Which made the feeling even stronger. As the song ended Mike announced that Linkin Park had decided to donate five dollars from every ticket sold to the survivors of Hurricane Charley here in Florida. Overall, the sound all day was incredible. You could hear the vocals and every instrument clearly and to perfection in every part of the amphitheatre. It was flawless. You could also see the band clearly no matter where you were. I think every band put on a great performance and the side entertainment tents were also great. The only thing the band's and audience complained about was the price of food and drink. Out of all the Linkin Park concerts I have ever been to, this is the only one they ever did perfect or near perfect at. 9.5 out of 10 stars.
it must be like a routine, cause they did almost exactly the same thing in west palm when i went. they said taht they don't normally sing the wish song (by NIN) but obviously they do....(mike even asked us how many hardcore linkin park fans there were out there, but i guess it would make sense that he would ask like everyone that) the only difference was that mike's mic broke and chester had to run and get him a new one it was pretty funny it was even exact down to the morons who started to leave before the show was over.
cant believe that linkin park took a place for my head out of their set. this is the most energetic song in the whole list. :chemist: but cool review. I nearly can imagine the whole night as well as you did. I'm really really interested of how they cover 'wish' and how chesters voice sounds.
Almost the same set they performed in San Antonio. Gotta admit i wasnt the biggest fan before the concert nor, have i purchsed a cd since Hybrid Theory. but damn, their stage prescense is amazing. I gotta find the cover of Wish somewhere... i need that.
if you should find that cover thing of "wish", please tell me. I really wanna know how chester sings that song.
^^ same with East Troy..they aslo did Figure.09, they not play alot of songs at yours or do you just not remember?
They played a place for my head at New York. When LP Played Step Up Snoop Dogg came out but his mike wasn't working. But Mike did sing Gin And Juice.
they should cover 'seven words' of the deftones or 'head like a hole' of nine inch nails. or 'sic' of slipknot. yeah, that would be awesome