2025.06.22 - Clisson, France - Hellfest

[RogueSoul]

We may have hit a little bump in the road, but it looks like we're back on track! Linkin Park will resume their From Zero European Tour with a headlining appearance at Hellfest in Clisson, France - their second appearance at the festival ever!

 

 

Linkin Park have played many a show in France, but only a handful of them have been at festivals. The most recent was coincidentally Hellfest 2017, an infamous show amongst the fanbase. The crowd at this show didn't take too kindly to the band's new, poppier material from One More Light - which, to be fair, was almost to be expected at a metal-focussed festival. The new songs received particularly bad reactions, with someone even throwing a bottle at Chester during 'Heavy.' Chester talked about the festival afterwards, looking positively on the matter: "Hell fest was fun. Had a blast watching people mosh to In the End and then flip me off when we played Heavy. I blew them kisses", "After I blew kisses to the guys flipping me off. They smiled and gave me heart hands back. I welcomed the huge crowd of condemned souls to HELLFEST in my metal voice then we played Invisible. The look of shock on people's faces. All kidding aside.... the crowd was great and handled our set pretty well. Our French fans are awesome. Does anyone else find it funny that the same people calling us sellouts are suggesting that we change our set to conform to HELLFEST?" The band included other tracks from the album including 'Invisible' and 'Talking To Myself' (preceded by the 'Fallout' and 'Roads Untraveled' show intro), but despite it all the band still found moments that the crowd loved, like 'One Step Closer,' 'Papercut,' and the tour debut of 'From The Inside!' The band performed at Download 2017 as well to kick off the One More Light European Tour, debuting a fresh new production that really emphasized the band's visual presence - a precedent that continues in 2025. Even more One More Light tracks were played at this show, including 'Battle Symphony' and 'One More Light.' 

 

The only other festival appearance the band made in France was all the way back on the A Thousand Suns World Tour, performing an epic headlining set at the Main Square Festival in July 2011. The band pulled out all the stops for this set, opening with an unrelenting combo of 'The Requiem,' 'The Radiance,' 'Faint,' 'Papercut,' 'Lying From You,' and 'Given Up.' The band brought out a number of A Thousand Suns tracks too, including 'The Catalyst' and 'When They Come For Me.' Though 'One Step Closer' was surprisingly omitted from the setlist, the band made sure to please the crowd with plenty of hits and treats to make up for its absence, such as 'No More Sorrow' and 'Numb' transitioning into 'Breaking The Habit.' At the time, this is the kind of setlist would've been taken for granted for being a pretty safe outing for the band (which, by the books it is). But looking back at it now, this setlist is nothing short of phenomenal and would kick our asses! Always let the band cook.

 

 

I've been watching the Main Square Festival show in Arras, France on July 1, 2011 while writing this, and wow this show kicks ass. Even though I spoiled a little bit of it, I recommend going into this without looking at the setlist, because you'll be blown away song after song!

 

To quickly recap on the current state of affairs on the From Zero World Tour, this'll be the first show since the band's largest headlining show ever in Berlin, Germany on June 18, 2025. It's been a few days because the band had to cancel their show in Bern, Switzerland due to an illness in the band. They didn't specify who was sick, but we're hoping they've rested up and are feeling good to go again to play! As much as we want to see the band play every night, their health and safety always comes first. Mike posted on Instagram that he can't wait to get back onstage again, so it's looking like he's raring and ready to go! This'll be the band's first festival show since Rock For People in Czechia at the start of the tour, and though the band's set was slightly shorter than the headlining shows, they still brought out some surprises: 'From The Inside' replaced 'Crawling' early in the set to commemorate the music video that was shot there in 2003, and 'Waiting For The End' returned with its 2024 Intro after being dropped for a few festival shows prior. There's always room for surprises, even in the shorter sets!

 

Given the band's attitude for not changing the set for Hellfest 2017, we're pretty sure they'll stick to the same festival structure they have been with slightly different acts and less rotations. That being said, there is plenty of room in the set for them to play with. Don't expect a metal-based setlist omitting the big hits and the poppier numbers like 'Burn It Down' (though it is possible at the end of the day), but there's always potential for 'From The Inside' or 'A Place For My Head' to come out of the woodworks - the latter appeared for Welcome To Rockville last month, a similarly heavy festival. A guy even got a haircut from Emily in Czechia, so before we discount anything, let's be reminded that anything is possible at a Linkin Park show in 2025. And let it be said, this show would be perfect for some redemption for The Hunting Party after its birthday celebration was missed last week!

 

 

Linkin Park performing 'A Place For My Head' at the Welcome To Rockville festival in Daytona Beach, Florida on May 17, 2025. This was a super unexpected move from the band, so who knows what's possible for the Hellfest setlist!

 

Who's going to the show? Lots of great bands on the lineup preceding Linkin Park - Cypress Hill, Refused, and Eagles Of Death Metal will be joining the band on the main stage before they take the stage at 11:00pm. Other stages boast the likes of Knocked Loose, HEALTH, Lorna Shore, Poppy, and Cattle Decapitation, all of which I would recommend checking out if you get the opportunity to! We're six for six on beautiful days for a Linkin Park show (even the cancelled show was on a beautiful day!), Weatherman Rogue Soul here to report temperatures at 27°C in the afternoon dropping to 16°C at night and a sunny day with some clouds in the sky.

 

Linkin Park continue their trek through Europe with another festival appearance at I-Days in Milan, Italy for the next show. The band then return to their own headlining shows with a show in Arnhem, Netherlands and an absolutely massive show at Wembley Stadium in London, England which could break the record set only four days ago in Berlin for the largest headlining Linkin Park show ever. From there, the band returns to Germany for a show in Düsseldorf before taking on Rock Werchter in Belgium. We're just about at the half-way point of the tour, and it's going fast!

 

We've been updating our Linkinpedia show pages over the last few weeks leading up to the tour with new features like more statistics, highlighting rotation songs, a banner at the top of the guide, and lots more, so be sure to head over there and explore what we've been up to! We've also recently launched an LPLive Newsletter for those looking for more of a TL;DR version of what's going on with the tour than my pre-show posts - we'll be sending it out every couple of weeks so as to not flood your inbox, but we'll be bringing you an overview of both tour and general news updates in these, so be sure to sign up if you haven't already!

 

We'll have you covered on everything the band does at this show and everything they whip out for the rest of the year, so be sure to sign up on the forums and follow us on social media (Twitter/X, Instagram, Facebook)!

[LPLStaff]

Great post. A shame they won't be streamed since some of the bands at this festival will be streamed.

 

"At the time, this is the kind of setlist would've been taken for granted for being a pretty safe outing for the band (which, by the books it is). But looking back at it now, this setlist is nothing short of phenomenal and would kick our asses!" I thought the exact same when this Arras 2011 video got posted and again now when rewatching it this evening. That is a really, really good show. And one of the only ones to not have One Step Closer! Wow.

 

Thinking they should stick with From the Inside, selfishly, instead of Crawling for the festivals. But Hellfest did get the 2017 debut of From the Inside last time, so not a big loss if not. But that is a great live track for this era of the band.

 

Looking forward to this next week with Milan, Arnhem, and London. Let's get the train back on the tracks with Hellfest.

[Yucker]

I've got someone on the festival right on the barricade. The stage (the led cubes) is set so tonight they'll play.

[LPLStaff]

Somewhere I Belong, Lying From You, From the Inside to open is really fucking great. Like, who would have ever thought 3 Meteora songs would open in 2025 this many years later? Like the album or not, many of their best live songs are on that record.

 

Love the set and how they are changing it up. They will drop New Divide to play Waiting for the End, etc. And A Place for My Head was in there.

 

Nice show.

 

https://linkinpedia.com/wiki/Live:20250622

[KeysToTheLinkinPark]

Festival set openers are way stronger than the first 3-4 songs in their headlining set

[YRQRM0]

13 hours ago, LPLStaff said:

Somewhere I Belong, Lying From You, From the Inside to open is really fucking great. Like, who would have ever thought 3 Meteora songs would open in 2025 this many years later? Like the album or not, many of their best live songs are on that record.

 

Love the set and how they are changing it up. They will drop New Divide to play Waiting for the End, etc. And A Place for My Head was in there.

 

Nice show.

 

https://linkinpedia.com/wiki/Live:20250622

 

3 Meteora songs in a row is really surprising. The band used to be obsessed with making sure every album got its fair share with stuff like the NMS/Catalyst/UIG/ALTNC mashup, Blackout/Papercut, Runaway/Wastelands etc. There's still lots of mixing albums together but I'm surprised something like 3 M songs in a row would happen bc of that, and that OML still has 0 representation

[Fleur de Lys]

Well I think what is playing out here is what I call the 20-year rule. It takes around two decades for nostalgia to really hit and for stuff to come around and become really cool again. The Y2K and nu-metal comeback in recent years speaks for itself. Meteora is right in that zone now, so an opener like Somewhere I Belong will just hit different at this moment. I've seen it with lots of artists. Metallica also really returned to their early thrash material around mid-00s, two decades after their classic albums and they wrote back-to-the-roots Death Magnetic. It was like the culture was just screaming for it. I think LP is in a similar spot right now.

[Qwerty18]

That 20-year old rule is really spot on actually 😀

 

I guess there need to be a generation in between, so that there is a disconnect with the past, so that it leaves space for the joy of rediscovering it. Nostalgia for the 2010's is not yet a big thing, while nostalgia for the 2000's, on the other end.... 

 

See you in 2032 for the next new wave of indie rock bands! ^^'

[LeonardoMF93]

13 hours ago, YRQRM0 said:

 

3 Meteora songs in a row is really surprising. The band used to be obsessed with making sure every album got its fair share with stuff like the NMS/Catalyst/UIG/ALTNC mashup, Blackout/Papercut, Runaway/Wastelands etc. There's still lots of mixing albums together but I'm surprised something like 3 M songs in a row would happen bc of that, and that OML still has 0 representation

 

Right now, I’d be really surprised if a song from OML gets played this year or anytime soon. It seems like the band doesn’t really care much for that album, maybe for commercial or emotional reasons. Anyone hoping to hear something from OML will probably have to settle for the occasional performance of Friendly Fire, even though it was originally released on Papercuts.

[Fleur de Lys]

2 hours ago, Qwerty18 said:

That 20-year old rule is really spot on actually 😀

 

I guess there need to be a generation in between, so that there is a disconnect with the past, so that it leaves space for the joy of rediscovering it. Nostalgia for the 2010's is not yet a big thing, while nostalgia for the 2000's, on the other end.... 

 

See you in 2032 for the next new wave of indie rock bands! ^^'

Yes, exactly. I think your explanation is probably spot on, there needs to be that disconnect first.  I'm sure the inde-wave will truly hit around the end of this decade, yes. But it's pretty wild, you can see that same thing happen with movie franchises, gaming etc. Why did the Oblivion remaster hit so hard right now? Released in 2006 of course.

[Qwerty18]

There is a somewhat strong likelihood no song from OML comes from the emotional context around it.

 

We all know how music often works as a time machine, transporting you back in time to a certain point where you last heard or played a song. For example hearing a song that used to be on your teenage playlist brings back memories from highschool.

 

The band last played OML songs during the 2017 tour. I bet that's a moment in time they'd prefer to avoid revisiting, for obvious reasons.

 

Now, for sure, the OML material doesn't exactly fit with the rest of their setlist either - in comparisons to some of the THP material like KTTK - so that goes against it too.

 

Friendly Fire wasn't played during the 2017 touring cycle, and only released in 2024, after some rework. It most likely wouldn't bring the band back to the summer of 2017, so it makes more sense it has been performed.

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 04:56 PM by Qwerty18

[silverwing]

Yep, the OML cycle was probably too emotional and disturbed to the band.
Seems like 2016 was an awful year for Chester right when the album was being produced. Probably too many memories attached to those songs.

[hybridcloudyfz]

7 hours ago, Fleur de Lys said:

Well I think what is playing out here is what I call the 20-year rule. It takes around two decades for nostalgia to really hit and for stuff to come around and become really cool again. The Y2K and nu-metal comeback in recent years speaks for itself. Meteora is right in that zone now, so an opener like Somewhere I Belong will just hit different at this moment. I've seen it with lots of artists. Metallica also really returned to their early thrash material around mid-00s, two decades after their classic albums and they wrote back-to-the-roots Death Magnetic. It was like the culture was just screaming for it. I think LP is in a similar spot right now.

duuuuude this is so true, love that you guys mentioned this