2018.05.12 - Los Angeles, CA (KROQ Weenie Roast + Identity LA)

[RogueSoul]

OMG I just listened to Sorry For Now and it sounds horrible. Now I know why they never played it when Chester was alive. He is really struggling to sing the chorus and shit. And he sounded horrible on Chester's verse. Chester was much better. Maybe he really isn't as good of a singer as I thought. Sorry For Now is extremely easy to sing, it shouldn't be any struggle at all. But is clearly is.

 

I ripped Sorry For Now from the video for myself.

 

[Geki]

 

 

 

Ripped it for collection since it was never played in 2017. Still think it sounds bad live but who cares. At least it is better quality.

[KeysToTheLinkinPark]

 

 

Lol

[hahninator]

Identity wasn't webcasted professionally, just from some phones.

[KeysToTheLinkinPark]

Since a lot of guys were saying that they expected Mike to do better on Bleed It Out, I would like to know what excatly you were expecting? I mean, there is no way that you will get to hear Mike scream even a bit of BIO, right?

[leftshoe18]

I guess I just expected him to belt it out with a little more conviction. I wasn't expecting screaming or anything but maybe something closer to his delivery on Papercut or The Catalyst. Who knows, maybe he'll get more confident with it in time and it'll sound better. I still love the idea I just thought the execution was lacking in these performances.

[hahninator]

I mean we already know he can handle Papercut, we saw it at the Hollywood Bowl. Jon Green on the harmony vocals at the end... really good. Would love to see him just do the alternate lines that Mike needs on that song, then Papercut is handled. I don't think they will do a Bleed It Out mashup in the LP sets. They can do the verses, chorus with Mike letting crowd sing that stuff, bridge can be dropped for drum solo, guitar jam duel (look at WPB 2008 intro), Mike doing Reading My Eyes/APFMH, etc.

 

There are so many possibilities for the songs that it's pretty unbelievable. He will build his confidence on this world tour and be good to go, that's my bet. He has played just one days worth of shows and we already see Papercut, Castle of Glass, Sorry For Now, Roads Untraveled (shortened only because Brad's guitar part wasn't there, so no worry there), When They Come For Me, In The End. We haven't even gotten into the deep cuts like High Voltage or It's Goin' Down. Or the main album tracks like Burning In The Skies, Iridescent (he sang the whole thing at the Bowl) with maybe even a Messenger mashup, Invisible, Rebellion, etc. There are also other songs he can strip down like In The End into piano form... see Final Masquerade acoustic. One More Light. Plenty of mashups possible that we don't even know about.

 

The more time that goes on makes me even more confident he can tackle a full LP set after this world tour and when LP reconvenes. They only NEED 80 minutes (the length of the Meteora sets when they were headlining all over the globe). In this post I only mentioned 15 songs, LP was playing like 17.

[KeysToTheLinkinPark]

Somehow, Mike often seems to not have the same volume throughout a song. Sometimes his voice is lowered and seems less powerfull than he obviously is. Especially during the ITE performance at the Bowl. He is able to sing the chorus and we fans (sadly) have to get away from comparing him to Chester's voice. He can handle it but there, it seems like he didn't sing in full volume. The same goes for BIO. His style of screaming, or whatever you wanna call it, is not too bad. He's more screamsinging the BIO chorus and it's in a way you can get used to it and say "Why not all the time". Mike has to adjust and needs to get his volume up sometimes. He probably not comfortable doing it with full volume yet, maybe he is scared that we fans won't like it.

 

Hahninator mentioned Rebellion and he sang the bridge alongside Daron and no surprise that Daron overpowered him, but you could see a glimps of how he would perform the bridge and tbh. it would be fine for me.

 

Mike needs time to adjust and now be the one who is in the center of everything as the "frontman" of LP and to follow into Chester's footsteps isn't that easy.

Edited May 15, 2018 by LinkInThePark

[hahninator]

I agree with everything you said. It may be his lack of experience (understandably) as a true frontman when it comes to singing. I think what could help him is a vocal coach. Maybe this world tour will help him too. He sounds perfect on Roads Untraveled and Castle of Glass but I know exactly what you're referring to. It could be his confidence too, because he was shying away from the mic on Victimized on the 2012 Honda Civic Tour at first. Pooch even said he had to turn the mic volume up (a little spike) at the start because on the singing verse Mike was being too quiet. That seems like confidence to me. He's one of the best live rappers but maybe he doesn't think he's the best singer.

 

However, I think that can be fixed with practice, maybe a vocal coach, or something. Perhaps as this Post Traumatic Tour continues we will see improvements on that front. It's not enough for me to bitch about at an actual show by any means, but I still know exactly what you mean. If they were to hypothetically hop back onto world festivals and big arenas (which I think they will), that is something that needs to be addressed. And I think he'll eventually fix it.

[Geki]

Mike needs a vocal coach but with some work he can easily front the band. He can easily handle like 80% of each of the seven albums IMO, except for maybe THP, but he could do a handful from that album probably. There isnt much challenging on MTM, ATS, LT or OML, as Ive said before, and about half of THP. So thats a LOT of music right there and add in all the random songs like It Goes Through, Devils Drop, New Divide and more. He can suit them all to make them easier for himself like he did at the solo shows this past weekend. Also he can let fans sing some parts too, like the shut up part of OSC. He can handle the rest. Fuck bringing in a new person. I wont support that shit whatsoever in any way, shape or form. They dont need to anyways.

Edited May 15, 2018 by Geki

[Justin]

I feel like a vocal coach would definitely help. A vocal coach would help anyone regardless of situation, though.

 

Mike is already a great singer, but he may need to work on his stamina if LP is going to resume touring on a scale anything close to before with him as the only vocalist.

 

I can see how his confidence may also be an issue, especially knowing that he'll be up there singing songs that Chester used to sing. I just hope he realizes that he IS a good singer, and that he has the full support of the entire fan base behind him.

 

Personally I would rather him sing the songs he can, and have the crowd sing some of the parts he can't (the bridges of APFMH, Faint, and OSC for example) rather than bring in anyone else just so that they can sing those parts. I think a lot of LP fans would agree with that.

Edited May 16, 2018 by Justin

[Geki]

The problem is that a lot of people always end up comparing him with Chester, I'm even guilty of it. But he isn't Chester. Nobody in the world is Chester, that's why Chester sang with legendary artists and shit and was recognized all over music for his voice. Mike has even said numerous times that he thinks Chester is one of the best singers of all time (MTM DVD, many interviews, etc.). Mike is totally different vocally. His voice is much different. But that's normal obviously. If he gets some coaching, he can easily perform stuff, IMO. While I did think that he wasn't good on Sorry for Now live and a few others, it was his first show (s). With time and with some even minor coaching, he could become quite good. And if he tours for his solo stuff for 2018 and 2019, he will definitely be ready to front LP.

[Justin]

The problem is that a lot of people always end up comparing him with Chester, I'm even guilty of it. But he isn't Chester. Nobody in the world is Chester, that's why Chester sang with legendary artists and shit and was recognized all over music for his voice. Mike has even said numerous times that he thinks Chester is one of the best singers of all time (MTM DVD, many interviews, etc.). Mike is totally different vocally. His voice is much different. But that's normal obviously. If he gets some coaching, he can easily perform stuff, IMO. While I did think that he wasn't good on Sorry for Now live and a few others, it was his first show (s). With time and with some even minor coaching, he could become quite good. And if he tours for his solo stuff for 2018 and 2019, he will definitely be ready to front LP.

I agree with what you're saying.

 

I remember on the Making of MTM, Mike said that Chester was one of the best singers of our time and that nobody could ever sing his songs and make them sound anything like him. I 100% agree with him on that. That's another reason I would rather Mike carry on as the singer of LP. His voice is so different from Chester's that rather than trying to sound like Chester, Mike would bring an entirely different dynamic to all of their songs. That would be a way, for me at least, to avoid comparing his performances to Chester's. They both have their own distinct styles vocally. There would be no comparison to be made.

 

Plus...it's Mike. If anybody was going to carry on the legacy of Linkin Park's music, I would rather it be someone who was there with Chester in the band all along. Someone who wrote a lot of the lyrics and lived with the songs and has a strong personal connection to the material.

Edited May 16, 2018 by Justin

[hahninator]

m

Plus...it's Mike. If anybody was going to carry on the legacy of Linkin Park's music, I would rather it be someone who was there with Chester in the band all along. Someone who wrote a lot of the lyrics and lived with the songs and has a strong personal connection to the material.

Wow, extremely well said. Couldn't agree more.

[Sand0ry]

I can totally agree with you guys!

 

Mike just need to grew his voice up with his Post Traumatic tour. He can handle almost any song from the past LP. Those mash-ups were great and make new Songs out of the old ones. As example "Over again/Papercut" at the Weenie Roast was so fuck*** great!

 

He can literaly mash-up any song with another and make it diffrent (vocoder, electric, piano) or even to One step closer Keep the known riffs and try something different like new lyrics or add another style to it.

[loulax07]

He can literaly mash-up any song with another and make it diffrent (vocoder, electric, piano) or even to One step closer Keep the known riffs and try something different like new lyrics or add another style to it.

^^^ This. THIS is exactly what I noticed while hearing both performances on Sat. I realized more hope in the band touring as 5 members after hearing what Mike can do while mashing up songs, lyrics & vocals.

Edited May 16, 2018 by loulax07

[FromTheInside]

Why didn't I think of it? That's the solution. Mike just needs some vocal coach. I think he's able to get better with good vocal coach. Somebody like Ron Anderson would be great. He taught Matt Heafy, Matt Shadows or Myles Kennedy. I think screaming is not realistic for MIke, but to improve his singing voice is definitely possible.

[loulax07]

Why didn't I think of it? That's the solution. Mike just needs some vocal coach. I think he's able to get better with good vocal coach. Somebody like Ron Anderson would be great. He taught Matt Heafy, Matt Shadows or Myles Kennedy. I think screaming is not realistic for MIke, but to improve his singing voice is definitely possible.

 

personally i think he's fine as he is and shouldn't change. just continue with new ways to play specific songs

[FromTheInside]

 

personally i think he's fine as he is and shouldn't change. just continue with new ways to play specific songs

Playing 90 minutes show full of medleys is better in your opinion? He can do that in his solo set, but not at LP shows. I didn't like THP set from 2014. That set was full of medleys and shortened songs. I think what they did in 2015 was way better.

[loulax07]

Playing 90 minutes show full of medleys is better in your opinion? He can do that in his solo set, but not at LP shows. I didn't like THP set from 2014. That set was full of medleys and shortened songs. I think what they did in 2015 was way better.

90-mins of a mixed show is good in my opinion. songs where he raps, sings, and has other creative ways for vocals

I think that Mike is one of the most creative musical artists of all time and i cant wait to see what he comes up with for the fans.

Edited May 16, 2018 by loulax07

[RogueSoul]

 

personally i think he's fine as he is and shouldn't change. just continue with new ways to play specific songs

 

Having a vocal coach doesn't mean changing his voice, it means improving upon what he's already got. It's clear that Mike struggles with some parts, so learning how to really control his voice will definitely help him perform. A vocal coach would improve the show loads.

[loulax07]

 

Having a vocal coach doesn't mean changing his voice, it means improving upon what he's already got. It's clear that Mike struggles with some parts, so learning how to really control his voice will definitely help him perform. A vocal coach would improve the show loads.

makes sense. i know he's been singing since the late 90's but guess that's true about not for entire shows

[RogueSoul]

makes sense. i know he's been singing since the late 90's but guess that's true about not for entire shows

 

Even Chester has had a vocal coach over the years. No matter how long you've been doing it, vocal coaches can always help. Look at Chester from the THP era to the OML era. Big difference live.

[Geki]

 

Even Chester has had a vocal coach over the years. No matter how long you've been doing it, vocal coaches can always help. Look at Chester from the THP era to the OML era. Big difference live.

 

Good point. Chester sounded not so great in 2014 but he was pretty good in 2015. 2017 he was better. And like you said he worked with a vocal coach during the OML recording era (2015-2017).

 

Mike can sing pretty good. He has before. His solo shows weren't THAT bad. I just think Sorry For Now wasn't too good. But with even a little bit of training, he could nail it.

 

When you look at how he did Papercut and In The End, he can definitely re-create Linkin Park songs easily and make them suit him. And I have no problem with Linkin Park doing that. I just don't think Mike Shinoda solo shows should have a lot of Linkin Park, that was my issue. But Linkin Park is Linkin Park. If Mike wants to continue Linkin Park with him fronting and it's just the five of them, I'll support that shit all day. Nobody is expecting Linkin Park to sound exactly the same as they did before Chester died, I don't know how anyone could. It's not the same. But this is a new era for the band. Mike can easily whip up an hour long set, maybe even longer. There is TONS of material to choose from. And you have the other 5 guys backing him so it will sound much more huge than just Mike himself.

Edited May 16, 2018 by Geki

[loulax07]

 

Good point. Chester sounded not so great in 2014 but he was pretty good in 2015. 2017 he was better. And like you said he worked with a vocal coach during the OML recording era (2015-2017).

 

Mike can sing pretty good. He has before. His solo shows weren't THAT bad. I just think Sorry For Now wasn't too good. But with even a little bit of training, he could nail it.

 

When you look at how he did Papercut and In The End, he can definitely re-create Linkin Park songs easily and make them suit him. And I have no problem with Linkin Park doing that. I just don't think Mike Shinoda solo shows should have a lot of Linkin Park, that was my issue. But Linkin Park is Linkin Park. If Mike wants to continue Linkin Park with him fronting and it's just the five of them, I'll support that shit all day. Nobody is expecting Linkin Park to sound exactly the same as they did before Chester died, I don't know how anyone could. It's not the same. But this is a new era for the band. Mike can easily whip up an hour long set, maybe even longer. There is TONS of material to choose from. And you have the other 5 guys backing him so it will sound much more huge than just Mike himself.

 

IDK about everyone else but I love your optimism yet I know very soon you'll be extremely pessimistic lol

it's all good!