02.02.2002 Madison, WI, Alliant Energy Center Memorial Coliseum

[felipeintheend]

2.02.2002 (Madison)

 

Last night was so awesome. Morgan and I drove to Madison to see Linkin Park at the Alliant Energy Center. We left my house about 2. We arrived in Madison around 4-4:30 and decided to visit the Westgate Mall, which is only about 10 minutes from the A.E.C. After walking around we realized how boring it was and left. We stopped at some other stores on the way to the Concert.

 

We arrived at the doors about 5:30 and waited in line outside until they opened the doors @ 6. We were amongst the first 20 people, until a security guard came and opened another door. I grabbed Morgan and we ran over there. We ended up being the third to go in, which is why we got inside so fast. The cute security guard had to frisk us. He made me throw my camera to the side before we could enter. That made me mad!! I still think that if I would have been smart and hid one, (you know where) I could have taken some awesome pictures! But hopefully I will get some from other fans on the Internet. We had to walk down the short stairs to get to the bottom level. At the bottom of the stairs was a merchandise booth. I guess the adrenaline rush made us go right past it. As you walk in the coliseum you can either go sit on the floor or pick a seat on either side. We joined everyone on the floor in front of the stage but decided we didn't want to be in the mosh pit/body surfing area. So we moved to the seats. We were on the right side of the stage right in front of the part they can come out on. I couldn't believe how close we were! While we were sitting there I decided I better go buy a T-shirt before all the good ones are gone. So I left and bought one for $25.00. While we were sitting there, Morgan was like isn’t that the DJ guy from LP? I looked at the guy who was walking from the backstage area to the DJ booth in the back. It looked like him but it didn’t actually hit me that it was until he was at the DJ booth. He walked right by and I didn’t pay any attention. I’m so dumb!

 

After 1 ½ of sitting listening to DJ-Ztrip, they announced the concert was about to start! All of a sudden the whole middle audience jumped to their feet and literally rushed the stage. It looked so cool. And when looking through the crowd you could see how jammed tight they were. The first opening act was Adema. The stage was set up with lots of lights that became very blinding at times. They were pretty good. I liked some of the songs but some were to hard core for me. (Marky, the lead, singer was cute!). They were drinking beer and smoking while singing. The lead singer took off his shirt and announced that the next song was about his little sister back home going through problems. We thought it was going to be a somewhat slow song with feeling but we were wrong! The drums started and the guitars came in. and it was so hard-core metal that you couldn’t hear the words. One of the guitar players threw guitar picks into the audience throughout the song. They were on for about an hour. After they came off the stage DJ-Ztrip came on and played some good songs and livened up the crowd. They were giving away shirts and stickers the craziest fans in the crowd.

 

About 5-10 Minutes later he announced that cypress hill was ready. The lights went out and the stage opened. The stage was set up pretty cool. There was a big skull covering the DJ stand. On the skulls forehead was green leaf (weed). They had mellow lights. They were pretty good. I knew and liked more of their songs. I liked the first few songs until they played some hard-core rap/rock. They played my favorite song “insane in the membrane”. Wow did that song get me hyper. After a few songs they went off and we thought Linkin Park was finally going to come on. I mean I was getting into the opening acts, but I wanted to see LINKIN PARK. I didn’t know how much longer I could wait. The lead singer walked out with a joint in his hand. Then he was like, “how many of you mother fuckers like to get high?” the whole room shook from all the stomping feet and cheering. He was just puffing away while he sang. In the middle of the song one of the guys brought out a bong. And of course the crowd rumbled again! The other lead guy lit it as one of the members puffed away on it. It was so weird seeing that. Morgan looked at me and was like, “where are the cops, Isn’t that illegal”? I nodded and we laughed. After a few minutes I sat down from boredom. It seemed like the night was going on forever. Finally about 9:30 they went off the stage and DJ-Ztrip came on again. Then he started living up the crowd by saying” who came here to see Linkin Park?” and playing some lines from their music. The whole crowd chanted LINKIN PARK, LINKIN PARK. It was driving me crazy, ‘cause being so close to the stage I could see people moving around behind the curtain.

 

Then it was finally show time. The whole place went black and the stage curtain raised up very slow, as the fans grew louder and louder. Aside from the two silver statues of the “Man-Fly” figure found on the Hybrid Theory CD cover; There was nothing else on the stage, leaving the guys enough room to move around freely. First Rob came out wearing a black shirt and pants with a backwards hat on. He walked over to the drums and started to get ready. Next Joe came out and took his throne by the turntables. Then out came Phoenix wearing all black and Brad wearing a red shirt with black pants. And Finally Mike and Chester came out. Mike was wearing a green shirt with green cargo pants. Chester was wearing navy and white pajama bottom pants with a navy shirt. They came out from opposite ends of the stage. There was a loud roar in the audience as they walked around waving to all the fans. Making sure to see the fans sitting way on top. Within’ seconds they went into their 1st song “With You”. That song gets me hyper every time. They had so much energy and had no trouble getting the fans to bounce up and down throughout the whole concert. It was so much fun. They rocked the house! Chester stated, “I see a lot of you fuckers crowd-surfing, and moshing out there. We love that shit. Just show each other some respect. And there are some strong women here tonight. When they crowd-surf, that is not an invitation to grab their titties”. You could hear all the girl scream and whistle. They said, “Ok lets make sure we got this right. If someone falls what do you do”. The crowd replied with..."pick 'em up". Chester replied with, “Good now are you fucking people ready to have some fucking fun”. The 2nd song was “Runaway”. Mike did really well with his part in the song. But we already know how he rocks the mic!! The 3rd song was “Papercut”. They sang this song so well I can’t even describe it. They looked so good and you couldn’t take your eyes off the stage. Chester climbed up on the drum set spun around as he leaped off to the stage floor. He hit the ground, at the same time rob hit the drum, to start their 4th song, “Points Of Authority”. This is one of my favorite songs and I couldn’t help myself I was head banging and singing along. Rob was just a giving it on the drums. For the 5th song mike announced that they were about to sing a song that we may or may not have heard. He told us that we could download it on the Internet. The song was called “Step Up”. He wanted us to help him sing the chorus. When he says “Who Can Rock Rhyme Like This?” we replied with “Like This”. It was fun. Once you got started you couldn’t stop! We blended right in. the 6th song was “pushing Me Away”. I couldn’t believe how much energy they had and how much they involved their fans. Then mike was like “I hope you know this next song. It’s our latest single.” The whole crowd rumbled. “Good. You guys can help me sing it”. And with that in mind they went right into “In The End” the 7th song. I love that song. Both Mike and Chester sang the whole song perched atop fan’s shoulders in the pit. It was so cool listening to all the fans singing along with him. Sometimes you could hear them singing louder than he was. I love how mike uses his arms to sing. They had the whole pit area jumping at the same time. It looked really awesome. The 8th song was “A Place For My Head”. That song was awesome! The 9th song was “Forgotten”. During that song, mike came out along the circular platform on our side and started singing. There was a gap in front of me from the people sitting down. He was like 2 feet in front of me, so close I could see him sweat. He was MCing the part “Now You Got Me Caught In The Act, You Bring The Thought” and the crowd replied with “BACK” as he holds the mic out and finishes with “Telling You That I See Right Through You”. I was just going with the music and watching him do his famous hand movements. While I was watching him, he turned and looked right into my eyes!!! He pointed right at me, smiled and winked. Then he turned around and walked back to center stage. My heart jumped in my throat for about 2 seconds. When mike put on a guitar and waited for Chester to take his mark, I knew what song was next. Rob started the drums and they went right into the 10th song “crawling”. Chester held his part extremely well and made it sound just like you were listening to the cd. One thing I noticed was how soft mikes voice was when he talked to the crowd. Whenever he would talk about the moshing or body surfing or the tour you could sense the sensitivity in his voice. During the songs they took turns going from one side to the other pointing up into the audience and waving to the fans. They announced that we were the loudest crowd so far on the Projekt:Revolution tour. We were even louder than Chicago the night before. Well of course Mike It was sold out! It was pretty funny cause every time the stagehands would bring out water bottles they would take them, take a few drinks, and throw the rest into the crowd. Chester said they were going to slow it down a little bit and got ready to play “My December” which was their 11th song. Mike played the piano part while Chester sat on the front speaker box. You could feel and sense all the feeling in the air. It was a sad song. It was so cool cause the whole coliseum went black and everyone swayed his or her lighters back and forth. Wow, I can’t even express what that was like. As Chester sang you could hear the feeling in his voice. It brought tears to my eyes. I guess you can say it was one of those speechless moments. (And you know I don’t get those to often J). During their 12th song “By Myself”, Chester kept jumping off the stage props. He was just plain crazy. And when he hit his screaming parts in the songs he would throw his body back and forth like a mad man. I remember one time he jumped off the speaker. He must have not gotten good lift off cause when he hit the stage he flew into the monitor where mike was. He made it look like he meant to do that and walked away with a grin on his face. Their 13th and last song of the night was “One Step Closer”. Even though that was the last song, it had the most energy. When the song started was the Que to get in line for the meet and greets. I found that out after the concert!!! After the concert Rob came down with a whole hand full of drumsticks and threw them one by one into the crowd. The last song they preformed was “One Step Closer”. Wow did that song get the crowd wild. You would see a shoe fly this way and a shirt fly that way. The whole concert kept you jumping and energized. And you were literally jumping up and down bouncing, with the guys, to the songs.

 

After the show I wanted to get in line for the meet and greets but was told by a staff member that they didn't have them. We walked around to different merchandise booths trying to find a program. We finally found one. I paid the guy $10.00 for a program and we were on our way to the packed parking lot. We had to inch into the traffic and go with the flow to get onto the road. We took a wrong line and ended up going left instead of right. We made a circle around the town and headed towards the interstate. We were both pretty hungry so we stopped at McDonalds. Upon getting to the interstate we messed up somewhere along the line and ended up having to stop for directions. We arrived at my house a little after 2. I wasn’t tired cause I still had a little adrenaline left so I sat down and started to type this. Then my meds took affect and I slept like a baby............THE END!

 

Source: http://www.geocities.com/MikeFan4Eva211/

[DecanoLP]

awesome review.

 

Wish I would have seen a concert back in 02, 03 or 04 =)

[LPPRJKT4]

Niceee, sounds like a great show! and at least this closes the controversy over whether Part Of Me was played at this show =).