LIVING THINGS World Tour Wrapup

[hahninator]

Years ago, we used to write a tour wrapup for every tour that Linkin Park did. For instance, we'd cover a European Tour right afterwards, etc, but with the shortened cycle for LIVING THINGS, we will be shifting to a new format that will allow us to do a collective touring cycle wrapup when the band is done touring for an album. So with that in mind, here's what we have for you for LIVING THINGS:

 

THINGS YOU MIGHT KNOW:

- Lasting just sixteen months, the LIVING THINGS World Tour clocks in as the second shortest tour for an album by Linkin Park. While most touring cycles for an LP album last on average 2-3 years, only the A Thousand Suns World Tour, which lasted for just one calendar year (12 months), clocks in as a shorter touring cycle for the band.

- There was no full European Tour for this album, which is the first time the band has not done a headlining tour as well as a festival tour in Europe on an album tour. This means this is the first touring cycle that didn't have at least one show in England, a popular place for Linkin Park.

- The band had reliably played every song on their major albums (Hybrid Theory, Meteora, and Minutes To Midnight) until the A Thousand Suns World Tour (2010-2011). 'Robot Boy' was the sole song not performed on that album. With LIVING THINGS, the band did not perform 'I'LL BE GONE', 'ROADS UNTRAVELED', 'SKIN TO BONE', a full version of 'UNTIL IT BREAKS', or 'POWERLESS' at all on the touring cycle.

 

THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW:

- Linkin Park performed their first two shows in South Africa ever, playing Cape Town (with the 7th LPU Summit) and Johannesburg in November 2012. Over 63,500 fans were in attendance at the Johannesburg show. Also, the band performed in Romania and Ukraine for the first time in June 2012.

- The band returned to a few places in the world for the first time in quite a while. Their two shows in Mexico (Mexico City and Monterrey) were their first shows since a one-off (and their only other) show in Mexico in 2002. The Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia show was their first there since 2003 and their Manila, Philippines show was their first since 2004. Additionally, New Zealand was given LPU Summit #8 in February 2013, their first show in the country since October 2007 (after two "rumored" shows didn't end up happening in 2010).

- A European Tour was scheduled for fall 2012, with a *rumored* EIGHT shows in Germany alone. This likely would have included a stop in England as well. It is unknown why the band did not play the tour or reschedule it for another time.

 

THINGS THAT WEREN'T SURPRISING:

- Mike brought back verse one of 'Reading My Eyes' over the bridge of 'Bleed It Out' at the Sunset Strip Music Festival show for the first time since the summer of 2011. While this was not a surprise to anyone, it was one of the only disappointments of the touring cycle as many fans were hoping the band would play the full song. This verse was the only "throwback" part of the setlist for the show.

- Singles dominated the setlists once again, which of course is no surprise to anyone, with some shows having 14 singles in a row to close the show. However, the band appeased hardcore fans by adding a few fan favorite non-singles to the setlists (mentioned below).

- The new songs sounded good live. For the songs that they performed, it is pretty much agreed that they all came off very well live (with perhaps the only exception being 'LIES GREED MISERY').

- The band's energy was much stronger on stage than the previous world tour (A Thousand Suns). Likely because some heavier songs returned to the setlist and some of the newer songs are heavier, the band was visibly much more energetic in 2012 and 2013 than previous years.

 

THINGS THAT SURPRISED US:

- The beginning of this touring cycle was the longest touring cycle in Linkin Park history for more than two (2) new songs (or three (3) including instrumentals like 'TINFOIL', 'Cure For The Itch', or 'Session') to be performed live. Performing just one full warmup show before their European Tour in 2012 (at the House of Blues in Los Angeles), the band performed 'BURN IT DOWN' at that show and added only 'LIES GREED MISERY' to the setlist for Europe. It wasn't until the Honda Civic Tour, 13 full shows after the start of the touring cycle, that more songs were performed.

- Not being performed since August 15, 2006 in Japan, 'With You' was resurrected on May 18, 2012 in Los Angeles. This currently stands as the biggest "liberation" in Linkin Park history (meaning it is now the song with the longest time between performances....almost six years). EDIT: Astat adds, "Disregarding the Reanimation and piano versions, the original version of Pushing Me Away was actually longer." 'Pushing Me Away' was not played from 2002 until 2008, but the remix P5hng Me A*wy was played from 2003-2004 and the piano version of it was played from 2006 to 2008. This makes the studio version of 'Pushing Me Away' the biggest "liberation" and 'With You' follows it as a close second.

- There were no collaborations between Linkin Park and Incubus until almost the end of the Honda Civic Tour. While Mike Einziger laid down a few great guitar solos on 'Bleed It Out' near the end of the tour, we were surprised that Chester did not join Incubus for a song and Brandon did not join Linkin Park for a song, like Linkin Park and Chris Cornell did on Projekt Revolution 2008.

- One of the setlists on the touring cycle completely disappeared after three months. Set C, which debuted on the Honda Civic Tour, and featured 'With You' opening, went away after being played in Brazil in October 2012. With this set going away, 'When They Come For Me' and 'IN MY REMAINS' also disappeared from the setlists, making 'IN MY REMAINS' a song that lasted just two months live before being retired for the rest of the tour.

 

SONG HIGHLIGHTS:

- The fan favorite (and Chester favorite) 'A Place For My Head' returned to the stage again, after sitting out 2008-2012 with the exception of the Hybrid Theory 10th Anniversary show in Paris in 2010. At the first show in Europe in 2012 (Rock in Rio in Lisbon), the song opened a show for the first time since June 2001, making one hell of a comeback! It was featured in both the European "festival" setlist as well as in "Set B" throughout the rest of the touring cycle. It is the first time the song has ONLY been played as the first song of a set as well.

- In a tribute to the Beastie Boys, the band performed part of 'Sabotage' over the bridge of 'Bleed It Out' from May 2012 until November 2012. This bridge goes down to the growing list of what has been featured on the song. Mike Einziger from Incubus joined the band for a few shows at the end of the Honda Civic Tour to play a guitar solo on the bridge as well. Nice!

- 'QWERTY', a song only played a handful of times in 2006 and 2007, made an appearance for the first time since 2007 with a portion of it being added to the bridge of 'VICTIMIZED'.

- Another fan favorite, 'Blackout', returned to the main headlining setlist in May 2012, but was retired before the Honda Civic Tour (likely because of 'VICTIMIZED (w/ QWERTY)' being added to the setlist. 'Runaway' (last performed at Bamboozle 2007) was played in Europe along with 'From The Inside', 'Somewhere I Belong' and 'Points Of Authority' (the latter two being played for the first time since 2009) coming in May 2012, just before Europe. Lastly, 'When They Come For Me' made a return on the Honda Civic Tour and lasted until October. While 'From The Inside', 'Blackout', and 'Runaway' didn't last past June, it is still significant to note that they were played several times on the touring cycle.

 

WHAT TO LOOK FORWARD TO:

- Mike's tweets on August 18th are something to keep an eye on. While rumors spread that 'SKIN TO BONE' was an impossible song to play, Mike said, "Actually, not "impossible" to play, just not ideal with the current setup. Not going to happen on this tour though." He added, "Our setlist is a complicated matter. Let's just say that I'm personally willing to play any song, and play a longer set." Be on the lookout in 2014 as the band very well might play more songs off of LIVING THINGS.

- More countries, more cities and more fans. The band continued to play in familiar areas, brand new areas, and make comebacks in other areas, so be on the lookout for where the band heads next year. The LPU Summits are expanding more and more, with the Hong Kong Summit being added to the growing list that includes London, Sydney, Chicago, Hamburg, Tokyo, Camden, Cape Town, and Auckland.

- While Linkin Park takes a break to record their new album, Stone Temple Pilots (with Chester) will start touring in early September, so we will be covering those shows as length as well.

 

What did you think of the touring cycle? What are some of your highlights? What did not like or not like about the tours? Are you excited for the next tour?

[maik_gianino]

Damn you LPL!

 

I was doing something similar to my Site but our server is down. If i post my wrapup everyone will say "he copy everything from LPL" xD

 

Great work as always Mark

[hahninator]

Damn you LPL!

 

I was doing something similar to my Site but our server is down. If i post my wrapup everyone will say "he copy everything from LPL" xD

 

Great work as always Mark

Haha no we wouldn't say that. Post it and send us a link because I'd love to see it. I missed some stuff so I'm sure you'd make some points I missed. Or take this one and improve on it

[Qwerty95k]

Pro + Cam Edited August 21, 2013 by Qwerty95k

[FearOfTheDuck]

Obviously I'm disappointed that there was no England show on this tour, but it's been a fun cycle to follow nonetheless, particularly because of the reintroduction of songs like With You and APFMH. I think it's unlikely we'll get long touring cycles like for the first three albums again, and around a year of more broken-up touring will now become the norm as the band get older and want to spend more time with their families, understandably.

[Skipees]

Great article, I really enjoyed to read everything in one post. Great work Mark.

 

- Another fan favorite, 'Blackout', returned to the main headlining setlist in May 2012, but was retired before the Honda Civic Tour (likely because of 'VICTIMIZED (w/ QWERTY)' being added to the setlist. 'Runaway' (last performed at Bamboozle 2007) was played in Europe along with 'From The Inside', 'Somewhere I Belong' and 'Points Of Authority' (the latter two being played for the first time since 2009).

Except FTH all of them returened in the LPU show.

[Geki]

- The very first thing I remember for the LIVING THINGS cycle was the news that the first single would be called ''Burn It Down'' and that they were currently shooting a music video for it. It took me by surprise because it came out of nowhere, I didn't think we would get a new album that soon after ATS came out. I remember some of the video stills (like Chester discussing the song in that black tanktop) and stuff.

 

- I remember the very first clips of Burn It Down surfacing and the fans were going crazy. Then of coarse, the infamous ''potato rip'' came about. I must have played that like 100 times, despite the shitty quality. Then LP actually leaked the song before the official release date on their YouTube page and I remember just replaying that over and over again, I loved it.

 

- I remember when the HCT was first announced and I freaked out about making sure I could get pit tickets. I got pit tickets for Uncasville and Mansfield. I wasn't originally going to go to Camden, but then the Summit got announced and I got a lawn ticket for Camden. I was super excited.

 

- I remember all the awesome promo shows the band played before the album came out. I watched all the webcasts live almost religiously, I specifically remember Rock in Rio and the X-Games show in particular, those were amazing days and nights for me. Also, Jimmy Kimmel was pretty awesome, watching that on TV.

 

- Then of coarse, the infamous scavenger hunt, and Lies Greed Misery premiering on Zane Lowe... I remember listening live on the internet and I was like ''wtf?'' immediately after I heard it, then I downloaded some low quality rip of the song and played it in my car and it grew on me. The screaming is what I missed from ATS, I loved it.

 

- Next up, the album leak. I guess someone leaked the album on iTunes stream, right? Was it the band themselves? Anyways, it was a EPIC first listening. I was sitting in my room just going crazy. I remember head banging to Lost In the Echo at first. I loved all the songs. All the teaser videos and stuff from weeks before got me pumped up. I was most excited for Victimized because of that one critic who said it was LP's heavier song yet, even heavier than Qwerty. I remember hearing the drums at the intro and just went nuts. I loved that song. Short, but awesome. I thought it would be a bit heavier but still awesome. Powerless really hit me by surprise, it was definitely my favorite song at the time. The lyrics definitely hit me, I connected so well with what I was going through at the time it was almost scary. No song has ever been able to connect with me like that before. That situation and those lyrics just fit extremely well.

- Once the HCT came, that was amazing. Uncasville wasn't the greatest because of the situation with my girlfriend at the time, but the show was actually pretty awesome and I was front row. With You with Game Of Thrones intro was epic. Then came Mansfield, which was my favorite. Front row again, and I also had a meet and greet and got my LPU6 newsletter signed by the band. The band was on fire that night, I still haven't found a better performance of Victimized. Then was the Summit and Camden. I remember driving like 6 hours in the middle of the night to get there early to wait in line. The Summit was epic. I met tons of LP fans in the community, and the whole thing was fun. The lunch was an awesome addition, and riding in the trolley across Camden was both funny and entertaining at times, especially when our driver got lost somewhat. Lol. Adam was like wtf. Then was the meet and greet, I got to show Chester my Bucket Of Weenies shirt that I made and I got to give him a letter I had written for him. The band also played The Messenger and In My Remains, both acoustic, earlier in the day for us which was epic. Then next up was the group pic, I was right up front with Chester in the pic. So awesome.. The show was great, too. Great set. It was interesting because I had never seen LP in the lawn before. It was pouring rain and everyone started singing along and going crazy, I felt a connection that I never felt before at a concert. It's like we all bonded, singing LP, with LP, in the rain and just not caring. One of the best concert experiences I've ever had actually.

 

- Next up was the South America and South Africa shows, all great and awesome shows. I really enjoyed them. The whole MOH thing was during this time too, that was cool. After those shows, LP played the VGA's and performed Castle Of Glass for the first time, really epic. The AAC show was also really cool, I loved how Chester wore that santa hat.

 

- Next up was Soundwave... all EPIC shows. The Las Vegas show was before this as well, that was a really cool show. Soundwave was sick though. I wish I could have went. I loved a lot of the bands that played. Really fun times. Remember when Chester stopped POA for the fan that fell? Reminded me of Docklands 2001, so epic.

 

- Next up was the announcement for SSMF. I couldn't believe I was able to go. The excitement killed me for a few months, because LP news was so slow, too. Finally, it was July 31st and I was in the airport getting ready to head to LA. I was so excited. When we got there, I got to do tons of awesome stuff. I got to see the Laurel Canyon house where LP made MTM, we pulled in and I took a bunch of pics and stuff and got to see the entire yard before some guy asked what we were doing there. I wish we could have got to go inside... would have been a dream come true for me. Anyways, we then went to Santa Monica Beach, Hollywood Blvd, House of Blues LA, tons of really cool places in LA over the coarse of our trip. The day of the show was HECTIC. Had to wait SUPER early (8am to 11:30am) just to get our tickets at will call. Then I went to line up in line, we had to wait there until 2PM before getting let into ANOTHER line, where we waited ANOTHER hour. 3PM we finally got let in and everyone ran to the stage. I couldn't run as fast, I wasn't able to get the barricade at the LPU section, but directly behind the person at the barricade. I have really bad back problems so I really struggled all day not being able to lean and stand all day. Street Drum Corps opened up and was crazy. Next was Finch who were alright. Next was Black Rebel Motorcycle Club who wasn't really my cup of tea, but played a few good songs. Next up was AWOLNATION who actually were really good. The crowd loved them. Chester was watching them and people were going CRAZY because he was standing next to us. Haha. Finally, it was time for LP. The first thing we heard was the APFMH intro and people were going crazy. The band brought it, all the performances were spot on. The screams, raps, etc. They talked about their past as a band and stuff. COG was really good. Once LP was over, I couldn't walk and fell over. Like I said, my back has severe problems. I got up and barely made it to the car. Needless to say, we got some drive thru (in and out burger) and I drank a shit ton of water and gatorade, and we went back to the hotel and I crashed. Haha.

 

- After we got back from LA, I was surprised by the Steve Aoki collaboration in Japan, I never expected that. Not much else to say about the Asia tour except that the shows seemed good and the band obviously had fun.

 

Overall, this was a good album cycle. I feel bad for the people in Europe who didn't get a proper tour, that sucks... I still love the album, but my favorite song is definitely I'LL BE GONE, which I didn't even like that much back when the album came out. Haha. A lot of good times.. I'm ready for album 6.

[RogueSoul]

Still missing the rest of LT live >_>

[Astat]

- Not being performed since August 15, 2006 in Japan, 'With You' was resurrected on May 18, 2012 in Los Angeles. This currently stands as the biggest "liberation" in Linkin Park history (meaning it is now the song with the longest time between performances....almost six years).

Disregarding the Reanimation and piano versions, the original version of Pushing Me Away was actually longer.

[Skipees]

What did you think of the touring cycle?

These are not complaints, just my thoughts:

I think they could made a better setlists instead of the singles sets (A¹, A² and C). They have a lot of options to choose from (over 60 songs).

I didn't understand why they released only three singles, and I think Lost In The Echo was supposed to be the lead single, not Burn It Down.

 

Basically it was average touring cycle, not especially bad, and not especially good, somewhere in the middle.

[[AndOne]]

Marketing wise Burn It Down was the best choice for a lead single, it was a huge success compared to the other LT singles.

[Catalyst619]

I've been to 3 shows this touring cycle. Calgary, Vancouver and SSMF in LA.

 

I've got barricade all 3 shows, but the one in Calgary was where I was right in the center against the barricade. It was a very energetic show, and was by far my most memorable LP show I've ever been to.

 

Some highlights:

 

 

The crowd was absolutely fucking insane. I'm personally not from Calgary, but for those guys it was the first time LP ever visited their city. I specifically remember going extra apeshit during Victimized and OSC.

 

 

BIO bridge w/ Mike Einziger solo. One of the best performances of BIO I've ever seen. So glad I was there to experience it.

[JozM]

It was good to see LP bring back some of the older songs. Hope to see some more in their next touring cycle.

It was a shame In My Remains did not get played more in the set lists as that was one of my favs on the album. Slightly disappointed we didn't get to hear the remaining songs off the album live.

[L13413P]

- The new songs sounded good live. For the songs that they performed, it is pretty much agreed that they all came off very well live (with perhaps the only exception being 'LIES GREED MISERY').

I rather enjoyed that live, myself.

 

 

WHAT TO LOOK FORWARD TO:

The Mall and the soundtrack.

 

An honorable mention for this cycle: The use of pyrotechnics on a full tour for the first time since Projekt Revolution 2004

Edited August 22, 2013 by L13413P

[zerothree]

LINKIN PARK CAME TO NZ.

Honestly, I could not have been happier with the tour coming to New Zealand. Through it, I have met some amazing people and had some wicked experiences, including the Auckland Summit.

Although the promotional cycle hasn't been the greatest, I loved the excitement around the New Zealand show.

 

 

 

Oh, and being immortalized on both LPTV & LPUTV (:

[RogueSoul]

I rather enjoyed that live, myself.

I think your legitimately the only person lol

[hahninator]

Thanks for the info. I fixed the main post. The From The Inside video is sick. Wish I was able to see that one more often this year. The 2007, 2008 and 2009 performances I saw of it were soooo good. Session, Given Up, From The Inside was an awesome start in 2009.

[Astat]

This touring cycle started off with SO much potential with the resurrection of a bunch of songs that hadn't been played in recent years, but it just kind of...fizzled out afterwards. We only got one new song debut post-HCT (Castle of Glass), and of the 5 songs from early in the cycle that wound up being dropped (In My Remains, WTCFM, Blackout, FTI, Runaway), at least 4 of them are almost universally considered fantastic live songs. Instead, we got to hear more played-out singles. Yay. The Game of Thrones intro to With You being ditched was also a bummer.

 

For the next cycle, I'd like to see the following songs dropped, at least temporarily:

-Points of Authority

-Breaking the Habit

-Given Up

-Lies Greed Misery

-Ballad Medley

-Victimized (okay, I don't WANT this one dropped, but we all know it's gonna happen).

 

In exchange for those 6 songs, here's 6 that could be added to spice things up a bit:

-Crawling (I'm normally not one to suggest singles being added, but this one is MUCH higher on my list of must-plays than half of their other singles. Drop Given Up, and maybe Chester will actually be able to sing this one decently for the first time in 5 years)

-Don't Stay (if this cycle was one where they "gave love" to Hybrid Theory by resurrecting some songs from that album, let the next one be one for Meteora)

-From the Inside (see above - also, play Lying From You regularly!)

-No More Sorrow (this would be a VAST improvement over Given Up in terms of MTM material)

-Iridescent (full version - more ATS material should be in the set, and this song is vastly superior to both LOATR and SOTD anyway)

-Either In My Remains (in exchange for Lies Greed Misery), or another Living Things song that hasn't been played yet. I don't expect them to debut all of the untouched material from this album on a touring cycle for another album, but at least give ONE of those songs a shot. There's no reason I'll Be Gone can't be played live, at the very least.

-

[hahninator]

From LT, I'd like to see POWERLESS.

 

You'd take Iridescent over WTCFM? And Don't Stay over Figure.09?

[linkin_boss]

From LT, I'd like to see POWERLESS.

 

You'd take Iridescent over WTCFM? And Don't Stay over Figure.09?

I think he's talking about possible songs, I don't think neither of those songs would come back soon, even if we would love it.

[FearOfTheDuck]

-Crawling (I'm normally not one to suggest singles being added, but this one is MUCH higher on my list of must-plays than half of their other singles. Drop Given Up, and maybe Chester will actually be able to sing this one decently for the first time in 5 years)

Why they don't just play it in a lower key is beyond me.

 

-Don't Stay (if this cycle was one where they "gave love" to Hybrid Theory by resurrecting some songs from that album, let the next one be one for Meteora)

I second this motion.

[Mesck547]

In my opinion this touring cycle was great, and it was also the first one I followed (starting from the Honda Civic Tour).

These are my highlights from the LIVING THINGS world tour:

-The return of With You, Points Of Authority, A Place For My Head and Runaway to the setlists.

- The debut of the LOATR/SOTD/Iridescent ballad medley.

- With You opening a set for the first time since 2004, featuring a special "Game Of Thrones" intro.

- Victimized and Qwerty, two of Linkin Park's heaviest songs, preformed together.

- A Place For My Head appearing in the encore in Melbourne.

- A Light That Never Comes Summer Sonic performance.

- Lying From You appearing in the encore for the first time ever.

[Skipees]

...

Agree with everything except Ballad Medley, I prefer rotation between the full songs instead of the medley.

[JozM]

I would actually like to see the Lying From You intro LP used At Milton Keynes to make a comeback.

[hahninator]

I would actually like to see the Lying From You intro LP used At Milton Keynes to make a comeback.

Hell yeah. This one is my favorite: