2018.08.18 - Osaka, Japan - Summer Sonic

[RogueSoul]

Back to where it all began. Mike's bringing the Post Traumatic Tour to Japan for two shows at the Summer Sonic festival this weekend, the first being in Osaka.

 

 

These Summer Sonic shows have been a long time coming - back when they were announced in January, they were the very first shows Mike announced on this tour. Before Identity LA and the KROQ Weenie Roast, we were all anxiously waiting for August to come, as we were all under the impression the tour would be starting here. Luckily, we've been treated to a great tour so far and things are only set to continue.

 

This show follows the completion of Mike's run of Asian shows, and they proved to all be special. The first show in Beijing saw the introduction of the censored songs, with the live version of 'Good Goodbye' being performed for the first time on this tour in place of the mashup with 'Bleed It Out.' 'Crossing A Line' and 'Hands Held High' were both dropped from the set due to political and censorship laws. Mike continued to Shanghai, which is now the biggest show page in the Mike Shinoda section now, with an insane amount of cool stuff happening. Mike rapped the third verse of 'Until It Breaks' over the extended intro of 'Kenji' to replace the 'Hands Held High' verse, and led the crowd in a 'Faint' sing-a-long during the encore in response to the Beijing crowd's singing. In addition, Mike gave LPLive a shoutout during 'Ghosts!' He talked about how he was telling Dan and Matt about us, and when they found out we document all the little mistakes they make, they both said a resounding "Oh no." Don't worry boys, we don't bite. And you clearly haven't messed up as much as Joe messed up the 'Numb' intro. Or the 'Crawling' intro. Or the 'In The End' intro. Or any intro, for that matter. Anyway... Mike continued, saying how it shows how much we care about them and the live show, and even said it's one of the reasons he has fun playing shows and changing little things! We're glad to have made an impact on the live shows. Now don't mess up any intros. The tour ended in Chengdu, and, because there are pretty much ZERO videos from the show, we're not quite sure if anything particularly special happened. What we DO know is that 'Kenji' was dropped and 'Crossing A Line' was added back in. If you find any videos from Chengdu, let us know!

 

While we have virtually zero videos from both Beijing and Chengdu, two full sources from Shanghai were uploaded to Youku. We've ripped one of them and uploaded it to our new YouTube channel - we'll upload the second one later tonight. More info on our new YouTube channel later in the post, but check out the full Shanghai show above.

This isn't Mike's first time at Summer Sonic. Linkin Park has performed at the Summer Sonic a total of three times over the years. The first was the iconic 2006 Tour, the only true shows the band played in that two year period between the end of the Meteora cycle in 2004 and the release of Minutes To Midnight. These shows are well known for a number of reasons, particularly the world premieres of 'QWERTY' and 'Reading My Eyes.' Additionally, these were the first shows to not close with 'One Step Closer,' instead closing with 'Breaking The Habit.' The piano versions of 'My December' and 'Pushing Me Away' also debuted there. Mike performed with Fort Minor at these shows, as well, with Chester filling in for Skylar Grey who couldn't make it during 'Where'd You Go.' The band returned in 2009 while touring for 'New Divide,' where Dead By Sunrise performed for the first encore. The last time they were there was in 2013, performing before Metallica. These shows were shorter but still action packed - keeping up with the special moments at this festival, Mike and Chester joined Steve Aoki for the world premiere of 'A Light That Never Comes' during his set. The Summer Sonic Festivals have always been an awesome festival for the band, and we're sure the tradition will continue here. These shows are already known as the first shows Mike announced he would be playing, so they already hold an important part of LP history.

 

Because Mike isn't headlining, we can probably expect a shorter show. Mike's only played one other festival show so far: the Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival in South Korea. Despite being a shorter show, the setlist was full of energy; and we know this because we have both an awesome audio recording courtesy of NINLive and a full video recording that popped up a few days ago. While missing some big moments like 'Sorry For Now' and 'When They Come For Me,' tracks like 'Roads Untraveled' and the run of 'About You,' 'Over Again,' and 'Papercut' all made sure there were plenty of highlights. One interesting thing we'll have to watch out for is whether or not Mike plays 'Kenji' at these shows. The song has never been performed in Japan, and given it's ties to Mike's Japanese heritage, it seems like too perfect of an opportunity to pass up. Plus, it'd keep Mike's track record of playing a different set at every stop of this tour - and we're not kidding. Every show has been different in some respect. Will the streak continue?

 

Watch Linkin Park perform 'QWERTY' at the Summer Sonic festival in 2006. Definitely some of the most iconic shows in Linkin Park history.

 

Is anyone going to this show? It's definitely going to be a special one. Mike plays the second night of Summer Sonic the night after in Chiba and will then wrap up the Asian leg of this tour in Singapore on the 22nd. Mike then heads straight to Europe for another three festivals in France and England before going back into headline mode for the rest of the continent. After a month's break, Mike will be touring through North America.

 

We'll be keeping you updated on everything that happens at this show, so be be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for the latest updates, and join the LPLive Discord for discussion with fans around the world! We just launched the new LPLive Archive YouTube Channel that is loaded with hours of rare content from the Linkin Park world, and we'll also be uploading videos from the Post Traumatic Tour there, too. Be sure to subscribe!

 

Check out the rest of Mike Shinoda's touring schedule here.

[hahninator]

Nice festival set. I still think Watching As I Fall is a better festival song than Roads Untraveled but that's cool. It was great in Camden and is the only festival to have it so far I believe.

 

IOU dropped due to time. I bet Mike went all "VH1 Storytellers" on ITE again and used up too much time lol