2018.10.25 - New Orleans, Louisiana

[RogueSoul]

The Post Traumatic Tour is hitting some unfamiliar territory! For the first time since 2003, Mike will be performing in New Orleans, Louisiana tonight!

 

The last show took place in Raleigh, North Carolina, and it's clear that Mike isn't anywhere close to running out of surprises. The show opened with 'When They Come For Me,' making it the first time the song has ever opened a show. The song has been on the list of potential openers (the ever-expanding list now including 'When They Come For Me,' 'Remember The Name,' 'Welcome,' 'Petrified,' and 'Robot Boy') ever since it was listed as the intro song at Mike's performance earlier this year at the Leeds Festival (which ultimately didn't up happening, as the setlist was changed due to rain delays). The set continued, 'Robot Boy' being performed for the first time mid-set as a prelude to 'World's On Fire.' Not too many surprises came with the rest of the show; 'Ghosts' and the 'Good Goodbye' and 'Bleed It Out' mashup found their way back into the encore after a couple of shows, and Mike rapped a verse of 'Lift Off' over the extended bridge of 'Sorry For Now.'

 

Watch Mike perform 'World's On Fire' in Raleigh, North Carolina! There's only a few songs left from Post Traumatic left to be played - 'Nothing Makes Sense Anymore,' 'Brooding,' 'Promises I Can't Keep,' 'Lift Off' (in its entirety), and 'Can't Hear You Now.'

 

Though Linkin Park has a history with New Orleans, they've only played there once: in 2003, on the Meteora World Tour during that year's Projekt Revolution. Not much is known about this show - a clip of 'A Place For My Head' appears in a LPTV episode from 2007. What's important here is that this is the first time since the release of Minutes To Midnight that Mike has been here, which means it's the first time since 'The Little Things Give You Away' was released that he'll be playing a show there. The song was written FOR the city, inspired after the band went down there in 2005 to aid the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina with Music For Relief. Linkin Park only has three songs written about specific places: 'Little Things' for New Orleans, 'Not Alone' for Haiti, and 'Issho Ni' for Japan. It's been 8 years since 'The Little Things Give You Away' has been performed (where a partial acoustic version was played at an LPU Summit in 2010 in Homebush, Australia) and over ten years since it was last performed in its entirety (the last full performance of the song was in Dallas, Texas in 2008). Will we see the song performed today?

 

We've said it before, and we'll say it again: there is no longer any way to predict what songs Mike will play. There are a whole load of openers and encore openers now, all of which can and are usually performed mid-set at some point. We've seen pretty much everything the band has rehearsed at soundchecks, from 'Sharp Edges' to 'Cigarettes.' The only songs missing from soundcheck right now are 'High Road' (which was performed in Europe and Asia), 'Dedicated' (if Mike went back and learned the whole thing), and a whole slew of unknown songs they've been playing at soundcheck. We also know at some point they'll start playing 'Waiting For Tomorrow.' Perhaps we'll get some new information from soundcheck today, and hopefully we see 'The Little Things Give You Away' pop up in some form. Perhaps it could work like 'Iridescent' did - play a piano version of it first, and slowly learn the parts to it building up to a full band performance. No matter what, you can definitely expect to be surprised at this show and have lots of fun.

 

Let's get old-school with this episode of LPTV, showing clips from Projekt Revolution 2003. One of the clips is from New Orleans in 2003!

 

Who's going to the show? After this one, Mike and co. continue down through the south of the United States into Texas with shows in Dallas and Woodlands, the latter of which is a festival where Grandson will be performing - perhaps we can expect another onstage collaboration on 'Running From My Shadow,' since it was so awesome in Philadelphia. Staff member Randee will be at the show after that in Las Vegas! We'll soon be hitting the half-way point of the tour, but don't expect things to slow down at all.

 

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 (a couple members from the Discord will be at this show - be sure to say hi)! 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.

[Justin]

This show was so amazing. I'm obviously biased since this was my first time seeing Mike live, and it's pretty surreal that 17 years of being a hardcore LP fan just culminated in my first live show last night, but still....

 

The amount of energy, love, and support that I felt between Mike, Dan, Matt, and the crowd was palpable.

 

 

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Don Broco were a great opening act, and overall seemed extremely excited to be on tour with Mike. Their singer is awesome, their bassist, and DEFINITELY their guitarist, were both going insane, and their drummer just so happens to also be a great singer.

 

Dan Mayo is an amazing...AMAZING drummer. He looked like he was having the time of his life behind that drum kit.

 

Matt Harris was doing his thing behind the keyboard, playing guitar, singing harmonies. He's a jack of all trades and he nailed it the entire show.

 

Finally...Mike himself. He was SO full of energy and showed love for the crowd and the city of New Orleans. Mike is officially one of the few people who can say N'awlins without making me cringe. LOL.

 

This show was one of the best experiences of my life. Literally. Emotions were high for the entire show. The most somber moment of the night, for me, was definitely WFTE on piano. That being said, however, when the focus turned to Chester, it was definitely a celebration of his life rather than a sadness over his loss.

 

Mike doesn't seem like he has any intentions of slowing down, and I definitely am making it my mission to see Mike/LP live many more times in the future.

 

Here's a playlist of some videos I recorded from the show: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuPCBKdCL9107-4FWnKY2xQpUtkz-GSGX

 

These videos are filmed vertically. There are no complete songs. These are just moments in time that I captured for myself. I didn't want to spend so much time filming that I would miss out on just experiencing the show in real time.