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If you watched the Multishow broadcast of the Belo Horizonte show in Brazil the other night, you might have noticed that Brad was not on stage. We first got the hint that he wasn't there when the band huddled backstage before the show (Multishow is good at showing a few preshow things like that) and Brad was visibly absent after missing the LPU Meet & Greet earlier in the night. When the band took the stage for Guilty All The Same, his tech Benjamin Chandler was in his place. After the show, we found out that Brad didn't make the trip to Brazil and that Benjamin would fill in for the second show as well.

 

This isn't the first time that Brad has missed a few shows. In 2012, Linkin Park flew to Japan for two short TV promo appearances for Living Things and when videos surfaced of those, we saw that a tech named Jeremy was in Brad's place. While they tried to "hide" it in Japan by having Jeremy wear a hoodie and sunglasses on the side of the stage, Benjamin actually came on stage in Brazil and rocked out during the show. In between the two shows, Mike addressed it by saying, "On a serious note, thank you to our tech Jeremy for filling in for Brad, who is sick and couldn't make it to Japan. CC @JP_LinkinPark". What's different this time around is that no one has addressed Benjamin on stage and/or the absence of Brad.

 

10/21/14 EDIT: A crew member has confirmed that Brad had an ear infection that did not allow him to travel to these shows.

 

Things like this are pretty rare, but here's a short rundown of the rare times something like this has happened before with a band member:

 

2007.10.16 Hindmarsh, Australia - Chester broke his wrist the night before during the show but managed to finish the show, but Shadow Of The Day, the newest single, was dropped from that setlist since Chester couldn't play guitar. To solve the problem at the this show, Mike's guitar tech Kurt came on stage to play Chester's guitar part on the song.

2008.06.14 Hultsfred, Sweden - Brad became sick on tour (rumored to be an ear infection with prevented him from tflying) and Linkin Park canceled their appearance at the festival a few hours before they were set to play. This was the second cancellation at this festival (after a 2003 one for Chester).

2008.06.15 Interlaken, Switzerland - Brad is ordered to not travel and a second show is also canceled due to his illness.

2011.01.20 Sunrise, Florida - Linkin Park usually rehearses at the venue that starts their North American Tour and at this show, they rehearsed for an hour and a half before the show by performing tracks off of A Thousand Suns and by making the three setlists for the tour that started later that night. Brad missed the soundcheck, soundcheck M&G, and LPU M&G due to being sick, but played the show that night. In his place, the band played prerecorded live guitar tracks over the PA to rehearse, with Mike telling the fans that this does NOT happen at a live show and is only being done for soundcheck purposes.

2011.09.23 Bangkok, Thailand - Phoenix comes down with severe food poisoning (see the show page for Mike's explanation of ALL the injuries/ailments the band suffered at that point on the Asian Tour) and his bass tech Ted fills in for him for the entire show. Only Blackout is dropped from the setlist and the show goes off flawlessly. This is the first time a tech filled in for a band member for an entire show.

2014.06.01 St. Petersburg, Russia - Brad seriously injures his back and Benjamin prepares to fill in and play the full show. Brad shows up at the last minute and plays the show leaning on the side of the stage, which he continues to do for the remainder of the tour. Ironically, this was Benjamin's third show with Linkin Park.

 

 

What's interesting is that Sean Paden served as Brad's guitar tech for over ten years and did not ever have to fill in for Brad (he was not at the 2012 shows in Japan), but Benjamin has been Brad's guitar tech since earlier this year and has had to fill in twice.

 

So the question remains of - what happened to Brad? Is this just a normal illness and he will be back for the Los Angeles and Scottsdale shows this weekend? Or will he be out for a while? Hopefully he will be good to go and only had to miss two shows. As usual, there are the silly rumors that say he has left the band, etc online...we all know that's not the case and we hope to see him back soon!

 

What do you think about Benjamin? He plays a few parts differently but it's pretty refreshing to hear a different sound on a few songs! And he noticeably seems really interested in the show too!

Edited by Hahninator
Confirmed that he has/had an ear infection.

Benjamin completely fucking jams. Watched him perform Faint with the crew at the Darien Summit and he shreds.
Here's a good photo of him at last night's show.

 

Sam said on his Facebook that Brad has an ear infection and couldn't fly.

 

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Edited by Hahninator

I think Brad getting tired of shows and concerts.I'm sorry to say that but he is like a zombie playing guitar.he doesn't care about shows or LPU or M&G.he is not the first person plying this much shows.he is not the first person plying the same shit for thousands time.he need to learn how to enjoy the shows, again.being in a famous band have responsibilities.if you can deal with it LEAVE THE BAND.

Benjamin was great in Brazil.I really like his solo during WID.

When the band took the stage for Guilty All The Same, his tech Benjamin Chandler was in his place. After the show, we found out that Brad didn't make the trip to Japan and that Benjamin would fill in for the second show in Brazil as well.

small mistake ;)

I think Brad getting tired of shows and concerts.I'm sorry to say that but he is like a zombie playing guitar.he doesn't care about shows or LPU or M&G.he is not the first person plying this much shows.he is not the first person plying the same shit for thousands time.he need to learn how to enjoy the shows, again.being in a famous band have responsibilities.if you can deal with it LEAVE THE BAND.

Benjamin was great in Brazil.I really like his solo during WID.

This. Thank you for posting this, i have exactly same thoughts.

I don't want to post the same thing twice... I briefly touched on this topic in another thread here. I do agree that Brad seems uninterested in the heavier stuff on stage just based SOLELY on his on stage appearance/antics. He doesn't jam on the heavier songs but he blows up on Castle Of Dance, Iridescent, etc. This even goes back to 2007-2011 when he LOVED that Shadow Of The Day solo (see Road To Revolution if you don't know what I am talking about). He likes the slower stuff apparently. When it comes to who outvoted Mike and Chester on APFMH, I am tending to think that it's Brad.

 

It was refreshing to see Benjamin up there rocking it on the bridge of Somewhere I Belong, etc. Bleed It Out sounded a lot better to me, probably because it's just different than what I have been used to since 2007. Benjamin did a great job. The songs don't sound the exact same without Brad, but a little difference is good sometimes to change it up.

 

I find it odd no one in the band mentioned it before, during, or after these shows about Brad. We'll see if he returns this weekend.

My thoughts

 

1.his back problem has progressed further during the time off

 

2. A family member has passed away and as all of linkin park keep their family lives seperate from the band that is maybe why it hasn't been brought up by the band.

 

3.hes left the band and management are trying to sort out how to announce it rather than mike just saying it and fans and press go into a frenzy.

Everytime that I have seen LP front row in the past few years, Brad has been rocking the fuck out to stuff like BURN IT DOWN, LOST IN THE ECHO, What I've Done, etc. I am assuming he just doesn't have as much fun with the heavy stuff. We know he doesn't like A Place For My Head. We also know that Mike had to tell him to stop being a pussy, courtesy of Revolver Magazine, while writing for The Hunting Party...

 

Anyways, I think Benjamin did a really good job. He actually sounded better than Brad normally does on a few songs, which is kind of crazy if you think about it. I wonder if Brad will make the Guitar Center show. He probably will because he lives in Los Angeles and he wouldn't really have to ''travel'' all that much. Not sure about the Scottsdale show. Maybe he will be better by the time the band plays.

Edited by Geki

I don't believe Brad didn't make the trip because he didn't feel like it. Maybe he doesn't go crazy when they're playing the heavy stuff, but it's only natural he wouldn't enjoy playing every single song. And keep in mind he has a serious back injury, so he can't really jump around like the rest of the band members. This doesn't mean he would just skip shows when he is a little tired. Also, the back injury is the perfect example for how commitment he has for playing shows. He literally couldn't MOVE the day of the St. Petersburg show, and he still played. I believe that if he didn't fly to Brasil, he is really sick or his back injury is getting worse. I Hope everything is okay with him, and that he will be back for the LA shows.

Hold on a fucking minute here. Brad misses the first two shows of a four show mini-tour. That's the first half. Brad, much like the tour has four shows, has four letters. The first two letters are B and R and, since he missed the first two shows, they will be eliminated from his name, leaving A and D. A is the first letter and D is the fourth. Four minus one is three. Three. A triangle has three sides. The Illuminati has triangles. Brad is a member of the Illuminati.

 

Also Half-Life 3 is confirmed.

Edited by CASTLEOFSASSEXPERIENCE

Hold on a fucking minute here. Brad misses the first two shows of a four show mini-tour. That's the first half. Brad, much like the tour has four shows, has four letters. The first two letters are B and R and, since he missed the first two shows, they will be eliminated from his name, leaving A and D. A is the first letter and D is the fourth. Four minus one is three. Three. A triangle has three sides. The Illuminati has triangles. Brad is a member of the Illuminati.

 

Also Half-Life 3 is confirmed.

 

I think you're on to something. No but seriously people thinking Brad is not at the show cos he has lost interest/can't be bothered turning up or something even more ridiculous such as he has left the band. Really? Just really?

 

I think you're on to something. No but seriously people thinking Brad is not at the show cos he has lost interest/can't be bothered turning up or something even more ridiculous such as he has left the band. Really? Just really?

Saying he's leaving the band is obviously jumping to conclusions on an epic scale, but Brad's general lack of interest on tour lately is well-documented, and the parallels between this incident and the Japan shows in 2012 are uncanny. Perfectly reasonable to speculate that he's not actually sick, IMO.

I was in the concert last night and I thought I would never say that but I missed Brad. Benjamin was ok... I don't know. It was not the same. One thing I can say for sure: he was much better than Saturday in Belo Horizonte.


I know that's not the correct place to say that I'm really disappointed with the festival. During the LP set, someone in the middle of the crowd used pepper spray for unknown reasons. A lot of people got out of the show and passed out. The band should have stop the show but they didn't.

Edited by LeonardoMF93

Poor bloke has an ear infection and everyone goes nuts.

Brad's a nice bloke. Pulled me aside back in 2010 after the show and said some very kind words which I'll keep between me and him. He's a part of Linkin Park, I wouldn't want to see him leave. There are 5 other blokes in the band too who would have their own views on sets and what should and shouldn't be in there.

 

Just saying. The poor bloke gets a lot of slack on this site as of late.

Don't you think he has some contract obligations playing these shows? I'm pretty sure to "not feeling like playing" works. It's exactly the same when you have a normal job and I don't think faking it would actually work for him.

 

Even if Brad seems uninterested at times or bored, I doubt that it's enough for him to actually leave the band. I'm sure he loves making music and his career would be pretty much over if he left. I can relate to that he is apparently annoyed by the M&G's these days but he still shows up and he still has funny at the shows. He's not the most emotional person anyway.

I think Brad getting tired of shows and concerts.I'm sorry to say that but he is like a zombie playing guitar.he doesn't care about shows or LPU or M&G.he is not the first person plying this much shows.he is not the first person plying the same shit for thousands time.he need to learn how to enjoy the shows, again.being in a famous band have responsibilities.if you can deal with it LEAVE THE BAND.

Benjamin was great in Brazil.I really like his solo during WID.

 

Its just Brad's style. He's a laid back guy and its not in him to be moving all over the place.

 

Phoenix has his style for example. Quite active. Compare Phoenix to the bass player for Foos as an example. Dude just stands there, crouched over bopping his head in a "traditional" bass player way.

 

Everybody's different. Brad does his own thing

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