2019.03.03 - Bremen, Germany

[LPLStaff]

The Post Traumatic Tour's final leg is underway, and it's off to a big start! The second show of the tour takes Mike and company to their second of six stops in Germany - Bremen! 

 

This is Mike's second performance in Bremen ever. The only other time he's been there: with Linkin Park in 2014, during The Hunting Party European Tour. The band ran through Set B, featuring tracks like 'With You,' 'Somewhere I Belong,' and the 2014 Abridged Version of 'Dirt Off Your Shoulder/Lying From You' from Collision Course. Additionally, many fresh cuts from The Hunting Party made their way into the set: namely 'Rebellion,' 'Final Masquerade,' and 'Guilty All The Same.' What made this show special was that it was the only show of the tour to feature a verse of 'High Voltage' during Mike's Solo Medley. A pretty awesome show all around. The city's been waiting for more, so they better keep the history going!

 

The tour kickoff in Berlin was nothing short of spectacular. Though Mike didn't whip out any huge surprises as far as debuts or anything goes, he put together a great setlist to bring things back in. Opening with the classic 'Welcome,' the set started energetically -- and with a lot of hip-hop flair, as 'I.O.U.' and 'When They Come For Me' followed. That's a pretty filthy start. Mike whipped out plenty of classics throughout the set, including 'In Stereo' and 'Petrified' (which opened the encore). All the normal tracks are back, too: Post Traumatic tracks like 'Make It Up As I Go' and 'Ghosts' are still going strong, while 'Sorry For Now,' 'Castle Of Glass,' and 'Roads Untraveled' are all still sounding as great as ever.

 

That's not to say there weren't surprises, though. Mike's always got something under his sleeve, even when the fun hasn't even begun. The first surprise of the night: the friend of a fan who performed piano for 'In The End.' The guy - named Philip - did an awesome job, and started the song hilariously low before Mike jokingly had him pitch it up. It also gave Mike the rare chance to live in the old world of performing 'In The End' again - if you saw him, you know he was all over the stage and up and personal with the crowd, just like the old days. After that, another, albeit smaller surprise came: a full piano rendition of 'Heavy!' Mike most often just performs a shortened versions of the three piano songs he rotates around ('Heavy,' 'Burn It Down,' and 'Numb'), so a full version is a nice treat. The biggest surprise came at the end of the main set, though. Normally, the set ends after the destructive combo of 'About You,' 'Over Again,' and 'Papercut,' but not in Berlin. That shit ended with 'A Place For My Head.' Guest singer Jennifer Weist from the German rock band Jennifer Rostock came out and absolutely killed it onstage, roaring that bridge and outro like it was nothing. Overall, a great night for some great jams, old-school style.

 

What can we expect at this show? Who knows! There's no precedent yet for how setlists will go this tour (it's been a good 5 months since Mike's really had control over a full setlist), so this show may tell us a lot about what to expect going forward. One likely contender for a different track is 'Invisible,' which rotated with 'Sorry For Now' at the end of the Outbreak Tour last fall. Plenty of Post Traumatic tracks are in the running though, though some have become rarities: 'World's On Fire' (played often since it debuted in New York City), 'Place To Start' (which has only been played once since it was dropped at the end of the Asia Tour last summer), 'Watching As I Fall' (played randomly throughout the tour), 'Hold It Together' (played often), and 'Lift Off' (debuted at the very last full show of 2018 in Silver Springs, Maryland). Plus, plenty of other songs are always in the rotations: 'High Road,' 'It's Goin' Down,' 'Cigarettes,' 'Kenji,' 'Iridescent,' 'Until It Breaks,' 'Sharp Edges' are all possible, too. If any of the unplayed Post Traumatic tracks ('Nothing Makes Sense Anymore,' 'Brooding,' 'Promises I Can't Keep,' 'Can't Hear You Now,' 'Prove You Wrong,' and 'What The Words Meant') are gonna debut this tour, they'll probably need a few run throughs at soundchecks... if we get any info on those, we'll keep you posted. There's a lot of potential for setlist madness this tour, and let's just see where it takes us.

 

Don Broco will be opening the show (and the rest of the shows in Germany), and they hardly need any introduction at this point. If you're looking for a bunch of good lookin' English dudes to jam out and have fun with for half an hour before Mike Shinoda comes on, you're in the right place. Their set opened with 'Everybody' before continuing into more energetic tracks: 'Automatic' and 'Pretty.' The set also included their hits like 'Come Out To LA' and 'You Wanna Know,' ultimately closing with 'The T-Shirt Song' - the Don Broco fanbase's version of 'A Place For My Head.' Speaking of 'A Place For My Head,' Don Broco performed the song with Mike at the end of the Outbreak Tour to close the shows... since the song is already in the set, perhaps we'll see them back onstage to deliver the filth. We'll have to wait and see! But make sure you catch these guys live before Mike - you won't regret it.

 

Who's going to the show? Mike continues through Germany with shows in Hannover, Oberhausen, and Hamburg after this show, so we have plenty of German energy to keep the tour going with a great start. In other news, the music video for 'I.O.U.' is dropping tomorrow, so stay tuned for that! It's a live video featuring footage from the Outbreak Tour.

 

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! Follow our Instagram too for pictures and videos from the shows!

 

Check out the rest of Mike Shinoda's 2019 touring schedule here.

 

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