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2024.12.12 - Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - Soundstorm Music Festival

LPLStaff

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LPLStaff

LPLStaff

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Can you believe it's already time for Linkin Park's final show of 2024?

 

Coming back as a band in September, LP has already played eleven full shows amongst a group of other promotional performances (TV, League of Legends, etc). The band closes it out with a show that was not announced until November 14, 2024.

 

According to the festival website, Linkin Park will be performing on the Big Beast stage from 9:00-10:15 p.m., a set of just 75 minutes. The band's launch show on September 5, 2024 fell in at 63 minutes, meaning they could fit two or three more songs into the show. A safe bet for this is about 16 songs, of which LP will probably have a hard time picking because they have debuted so many new songs recently.

 

On the most recent leg of the 2024 shows, LP debuted 'Over Each Other' in Paris, 'Casualty' in Texas, and 'Two Faced' in Brazil. It is likely at least one or two of these songs show up in Saudi Arabia alongside new tracks 'The Emptiness Machine' and 'Heavy Is the Crown.'

 

The band's live debut of 'Two Faced' in Sao Paulo, Brazil on November 15, 2024 (Night 1)

 

Another recent highlight from the band has been the posting of the song 'My December', a true iconic song in the 2024 setlist, on YouTube recently, but it is unlikely that song makes it to Saudi Arabia unless LP decides to go with a really deep cut.

 

Looking back in the region, the most recent visit by a member of Linkin Park to the Middle East was Mike Shinoda's Post Traumatic Tour hitting Tel Aviv, Israel for two shows in March 2019, as some of the final shows he performed on the road solo. Mike's touring drummer Dan Mayo (who was also at the Brooklyn 2024 LP show) is from Israel and Mike credits Dan with the tour visiting Israel after Europe. Highlights from those shows include a verse of 'Dedicated' appearing over 'Lift Off', long-time production manager Jim Digby joining the band on 'High Road' (his favorite song), and Mike's security guard at the time Ed joining for 'Watching As I Fall' on guitar.

 

Unfortunately alongside the highlights from Israel, these shows are known in the LP community as when disaster struck for Mike - his footage that he recently shot on the Post Traumatic European Tour (including walking backwards off stage in Luxembourg) for the 'Hold It Together' music video was stolen by customs. Tour videographer Chady had his hard drive with the video footage stolen and it was never seen it again. Luckily, Mark Fiore came to the rescue years later in 2023 and was able to create a good music video for the song from tour footage and behind the scenes footage. Some of the footage was shot by Chady on tour as well as Lorenzo, so Mark did the best he could with what he had to work with!

 

Mike's 'Hold It Together' video from 2023; although the concept was different, some tour footage was saved to be able to use in the video

 

Linkin Park's first and only visit to the Middle East came on the A Thousand Suns World Tour, where they performed in Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv back-to-back shows in November 2010. These shows came directly after the band wrapped up the ATS European Tour at London's O2 Arena and were huge shows for LP. 

 

Abu Dhabi was treated with one of only two performances of a VERY unique Linkin Park set - one with 'Fallout' and 'The Catalyst' opening the show, which only happened one other time at the show prior, in London. This setlist has gone on to remain pretty notable for fans over the years.

 

An extremely rare 'Fallout' / 'The Catalyst' show opener by Linkin Park in Abu Dhabi 2010

 

In Tel Aviv, Chester sang a beautiful rendition of 'No Woman, No Cry' by Bob Marley before 'The Messenger' as a thank you to fans. Both shows were excellent performances by Linkin Park and luckily, both were released as Digital Souvenir Packages (DSPs) so you can listen to both shows in full (Abu Dhabi, Tel Aviv)!

 

LPTV Episode 49, chronically Linkin Park's last visit to the Middle East... over 14 years ago all the way back in 2010

 

As far as what Linkin Park has been up to lately, the band wrapped up their latest run of shows a few weeks ago concluding their main/quick 2024 around-the-globe touring run. With headline shows at stadiums in Paris and Arlington, TX, LP snuck down to Colombia and Brazil to celebrate the release of From Zero. Setlists were massive, with a heavy dose of the new material. Of note is that both shows in Sao Paulo, Brazil were filmed for an upcoming theatrical release in 2025.

 

They have had no shortage of professionally mixed material already for the comeback, with the From Zero Digital Expanded Edition featuring three new songs ('The Emptiness Machine', 'Heavy Is the Crown', and 'Over Each Other') professionally mixed by longtime sound engineer/partner of the band Ethan Mates, alongside the entire From Zero launch show being recently/quietly mixed and updated online. Adding to it, Ethan has mixed 'Two Faced' in Brazil and 'My December' in Hamburg.. giving the band quite a bit of new live release material already.

 

A full-on theatrical release likely followed by a new blu-ray will be welcoming for fans as it has been quite some time since the last full Linkin Park live release, not including the Hybrid Theory 20 and Meteora 20 box sets. One More Light Live was an audio-only release in 2017, Live in Monterrey was just part of the show in 2014 (from a 2012 show in Mexico), the Living Things+ release in early 2013 had four songs cut, so we'd have to go to A Thousand Suns+ Live in Madrid back in 2011 (for a 2010 show) for a full release. Yes, we know about 'Wisdom, Justice, and Love' - ha. But that's WELL over ten years ago... wow!

 

This will be the first show in Saudi Arabia for Linkin Park and while it may be a shortened set compared to what they are used to be playing, it has been a very long time coming for the fans of the band in that country. Known for their super restrictive laws on women that have started easing up over the past five or so years, Saudi Arabia has recently started heavily promoting tourism and trying to bring in a variety of western acts. Although, it is interesting Linkin Park has never acknowledged this show on social media as it just showed up on the website the day of the From Zero World Tour announcement for 2025. With all that said, Emily and the band should be totally fine at this show and fans in the region will finally get to see Linkin Park again.

According to the schedule, before Linkin Park on the Big Beast stage, popular Saudi singer and composer Abdul Majeed Abdullah will be performing. After LP finishes, the legendary Eminem will be playing right after them. This marks the first known time Linkin Park and Eminem have played the same show to our knowledge... ever. If that wasn't enough, Martin Garrix plays after Eminem, until 2:00 in the morning. And this brings up a really opportune time for Mike to join Martin for 'Waiting for Tomorrow' if he is up for it. Could we see the first joint live performance of the song? Created during the One More Light era in 2015 and 2016, this song has risen to massive popularity on streaming in Mike's catalog of music.

 

In Tampa in 2018 on the Post Traumatic Tour the day the song came out, Mike spoke about having a new track (with Martin Garrix) out that day. He said that he liked the song and would like to play it live, and may end up adding it to the set, but that it would not be in the show that night. Could we finally see him sing on it live?

 

'Waiting for Tomorrow', a collaboration with 54+ million streams on Mike's Spotify, one of his 5 most popular songs on streaming

 

Fans will have no shortage of great music at this show, with Armin Van Buuren and David Guetta performing even after Martin Garrix, on a different stage. Other acts through the three day event at Banban's Soundstorm festival site include Muse, 30 Seconds to Mars, Steve Aoki, The Roots, Jason Derulo, Calin Harris, Busta Rhemyes, and more. General admission for the three day event is coming in at 469.00 SAR, which converts to about $124 USD... a really reasonably priced festival. This show does not look like it will be webcasted or streamed at all, but fan videos should end up being really solid as the production of the stages in Riyadh looks incredible.

 

Interestingly, Linkin Park will not be performing at any holiday radio shows this year, but that likely has to do with the band keeping their comeback as secretive as possible and the radio shows booking lineups for the December shows much earlier than September. So, we could see LP on some of those in 2025. 

 

Linkin Park has a MASSIVE 2025 lined up, with the largest North American headlining tour in over 20 years alongside visits to Europe, Asia, and more. We don't have to wait long for more shows, as they head down to Mexico in January to start the 2025 slate and have shows following that in Japan and Indonesia. Additionally, Joe Hahn said they will be playing in China at some point (details still being worked out) and there is a noticeable gap of no Australia & New Zealand... meaning this world tour likely goes into 2026.

 

There are lots of shows to cover and we're looking forward to this last show of 2024 as well as a massive 2025. Let's see what Saudi Arabia has in store!

linkindan

linkindan

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Eminem, Martin Garrix, Steve Aoki and Busta Rhymes on the same festival as LP…

 

WFT is the outside favourite, odds on favourite ALTNC, long odds on WMI and let’s just say that an Eminem collab of any sort is scratched aha (but holy shit would the internet blow up if it happened)

 

PS - I see your Australia comment. I’m still pissed.

nomad

nomad

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Ahhhh I'm really jealous, and since fans in China usually don't post on LPLive, I think I should express this jealousy for them too😡 And I do feel for Austrilian friends, haha.

 

Tbh we have been anticipating a China tour eagerly ever since September, since the last lp tour was in 2015, and there were only five shows back then. A lot of people have expressed their regret of not getting tickets to these shows. But there seem to be some problems (as expected), and we've been left out, at least until now. AND we're not gonna be able to fly around the world just for a show. Some of us are able to go to South Korea, Japan or Indonesia, and others may be studying abroad in Europe or America so that they may consider going to local shows. But most of us are busy guys who can only consider shows near home.

 

So promise me you won't forget us, all right😂Please...

JZLP-Benningstrong

JZLP-Benningstrong

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44 minutes ago, ScottiePippo said:

Sorry but there's no chance in hell they play israel or russia next year

I wonder if some bands international bands have played there recently, seems very dangerous.

 

Its sad because I know that the Russian fucking love the band.

 

Underrated fans.

Qwerty18

Qwerty18

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11 hours ago, c3bebuilder said:

@LPLStaff A Place For My Head Verse 1 for the bridge on Bleed it Out
 

 

Ah, seems to have been ear monitor problem around 1:38 and 1:45. Either I'm hearing weird or she went quite off-key here.

 

Just an observation anyway. Emily is awesome, hic-ups happen.

Edited by Qwerty18
LPLStaff

LPLStaff

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She seemed sick at this show. It happens.

 

Love the Joe extra scratching on the SIB intro. He didn't do the main one before the song sample though. Adding those two elements together would be perfect. Also maybe the first time Alex is this audible on guitar on the intro and verses of the song. Don't think it really even needs that guitar part since we're so used to hearing it without that being audible in 2024.

 

 

LPLStaff

LPLStaff

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One Step Closer: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDhsY6RPxkE/

 

 


They need Brad Delson desperately. Not sure what else to say lol, the guitars are extremely different with Alex - in a bad way. Not enough of a guitar player to tell you what the problem is but the sound of the LP guitars has taken a drastic downturn.

AdamArtz

AdamArtz

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18 hours ago, ScottiePippo said:

Sorry but there's no chance in hell they play israel or russia next year

 

I don't understand or see the comparison between both countries. That is irrelevant to this conversation.

Before LP's first show in Tel Aviv, a lot of specific organizations with the help of Roger Waters tried to have them cancel their show, which failed.
Is that what you are referring to?

MMM

MMM

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23 minutes ago, LPLStaff said:

One Step Closer: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDhsY6RPxkE/

 

 


They need Brad Delson desperately. Not sure what else to say lol, the guitars are extremely different with Alex - in a bad way. Not enough of a guitar player to tell you what the problem is but the sound of the LP guitars has taken a drastic downturn.

Benjamin Chandler, LP guitar engineer from the past was great replacement for Brad during THP tour. They should bring him back 

c3bebuilder

c3bebuilder

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2 hours ago, LPLStaff said:

One Step Closer: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDhsY6RPxkE/

 

 


They need Brad Delson desperately. Not sure what else to say lol, the guitars are extremely different with Alex - in a bad way. Not enough of a guitar player to tell you what the problem is but the sound of the LP guitars has taken a drastic downturn.

I mean yeah the playing sounds a bit different since he plays differently compared to Brad but Given Up sounds mostly the exact same from when they played it back then. However, I did notice a lot of the amp effects they use sound a lot different (worse in some ways) which could be that.

 

Also the mixing for the shows recently has sucked compared to previous years (especially when Pooch was around was probably the best LP has sounded good live). On some songs the bass is super loud, guitars are mixed low, vocals are turned down or Colin's drums are louder than everything else. They also seem to always have IEM issues as Emily and Mike are constantly adjusting their in ears.

 

2 hours ago, MMM said:

Benjamin Chandler, LP guitar engineer from the past was great replacement for Brad during THP tour. They should bring him back 

Benjamin still works for LP, same goes for Mike's guitar tech. However, Dave's tech who's been with LP since the Meteora era I believe (Ted) isn't with the band anymore.

 

I don't think it would be good for Ben to play every single show as he would also have to tech for himself (go off stage to grab guitars etc) when Brad would miss shows. It's better to have someone like Alex to fill in.

Edited by c3bebuilder
LPLStaff

LPLStaff

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Did they rebuild all of the amp effects? What's really going on here? Is there a rhythm problem with Alex or is it the amps? @Astat

Not trying to be super critical but there is quite a noticeable difference here and it's not in a good way. It's across the entire show. Papercut, A Place for My Head, all of it.

c3bebuilder

c3bebuilder

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Posted (edited)
25 minutes ago, LPLStaff said:

Did they rebuild all of the amp effects? What's really going on here? Is there a rhythm problem with Alex or is it the amps? @Astat

Not trying to be super critical but there is quite a noticeable difference here and it's not in a good way. It's across the entire show. Papercut, A Place for My Head, all of it.

I think on these 2 songs it has to do with the way Alex palm mutes compared to Brad. On the live version of A Place For My Head, Brad would never palm mute the clean part like how he does on the studio recording. Alex is however

Edited by c3bebuilder
KeysToTheLinkinPark

KeysToTheLinkinPark

Posted
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In terms of OSC performance, I would say it's an amp problem. Mike plays the same part in the bridge as Alex. If it was a rhythm problem there, you would hear it. Unless they both play the part like shit lol.


We once talked about the Papercut performance here in the forum. I also see an amp problem here. There is a lack of distortion in the sound. And the lack of distortion has nothing to do with the way he plays the Palm Mutes, but how the amp and pedals are set up. I mean, I can get a more brutal sound with my cheap interface through my computer that sounds more aggressive. 
I took a look at a few Papercut performances from 2017. I think Brad plays the verse without Palm Mutes. That sounds different again, of course.


 

c3bebuilder

c3bebuilder

Posted
Posted
14 minutes ago, KeysToTheLinkinPark said:

In terms of OSC performance, I would say it's an amp problem. Mike plays the same part in the bridge as Alex. If it was a rhythm problem there, you would hear it. Unless they both play the part like shit lol.


We once talked about the Papercut performance here in the forum. I also see an amp problem here. There is a lack of distortion in the sound. And the lack of distortion has nothing to do with the way he plays the Palm Mutes, but how the amp and pedals are set up. I mean, I can get a more brutal sound with my cheap interface through my computer that sounds more aggressive. 
I took a look at a few Papercut performances from 2017. I think Brad plays the verse without Palm Mutes. That sounds different again, of course.

 

Yeah Brad wouldn’t really palm mute. Same thing for APFMH. I watched some of the 2017 shows and noticed the same thing

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