2025.08.06 - Montréal, Québec (Night Two)

[GlassCastles]

Alright! Nico's first pre-show post after finally getting home! Let's start off strong with the band's final "night 2" of the this leg (and first ever in Canada) in Montréal, Québec!

 

 

Linkin Park's second night at the Centre Bell will be their ninth Québec and their seventh in the city of Montréal itself. The latter half of those shows has already been so kindly covered by my fellow writer Rogue Soul, so be sure to check out night 1's post for the whole story. I figure let's meet him in the middle and start from the beginning with the band's first show in Montréal (and by extension Québec) on the 2003 Summer Sanitarium tour. You may recognize that tour since it was the tour where the iconic Live in Texas DVD was recorded. Obviously that wasn't filmed in Montréal, but the setlist is the same. The iconic Meteora trio of "Don't Stay" (featuring the haunting Devil's Worship intro), "Somewhere I Belong", and "Lying From You" starts off the show, with deep cuts like Reanimation's "P5hng Me Awy", "Figure.09", and "By Myself" rounding out the set. Fan favorites like "Papercut" and "Faint" held strong here too, making for a memorable first show in the province. They managed to one up this debut with their follow-up show in January of 2004. Rarities like "Nobody's Listening" and "It's Goin' Down" had entered the set at this point, and the opening of the show shifted focus over to Hybrid Theory, with the classic duos of "With You"/"Runaway" and "Papercut"/"Points Of Authority" kicking things off. The ending is where things get crazy, with an encore of "My December", "P5hng Me Awy", "A Place For My Head", and "One Step Closer". One of the best encores this band has EVER done. As was tradition on this tour, Sonny Sandoval from P.O.D. came out for "One Step Closer", but special for this show was long-time fan Sal getting the chance to go up on stage and sing "Faint" with Chester!

 

 

Check out the band's first performance in Montréal back on the 2003 Summer Sanitarium Tour!

 

The band returned as part of their 2008 Winter Tour, kicking things off with a bang with "What I've Done" and its always welcome "AMBO intro". Montréal was of course treated with some deeper cuts from the at-the-time new album like "Valentine's Day" and a full "Hands Held High", and staples like "Bleed It Out" and "Given Up" continued to earn their new roles. Speaking of "Given Up", this was one of the rare shows where Chester managed to pull off the full 17 second scream! As a little treat, Mike also busted out the elusive "Just Like Heaven" cover. The band returned to the province, though not the city, later that year for a rainy performance at Festival d'été de Québec. The weather was so bad, that Brad actually came out wearing a yellow poncho! This also could have potentially played a role in "A Place For My Head" being dropped from the encore. Despite those setbacks, it was still a great show. Fans still got to see tracks like "In Pieces", a full band "Pushing Me Away", and the still relatively-new "Wake 2.0"/"Given Up" combo. By this point in the cycle, "Points Of Authority" had slowly started setting the stage for what is now Mike's solo medley, with Mike rapping a random verse over the extended intro and rotating between a couple verses for the outro. For this festival, Mike decided bust out the first verses of "Petrified" and "There They Go", both of which have been common sights in the current set for the "Mike verse" slots.

 

 

"Wake" and "Given Up" live from Montréal 2008, featuring a rare full, 17 second scream from Chester!

 

Since this is the band's final second night at the same venue for this leg of the tour, let's take a look back at the previous "night 2"s to get a feel for what we might see here tonight. Sao Paulo in 2024 (the first night of which was filmed for a theatrical release this year) saw the introduction of two new rotation slots: "Lying From You" and "My December" were swapped out for "Points Of Authority" and "Friendly Fire", respectively. This is of course on top of the usual rotation slot in the set, where "Lost In The Echo" traded out with "A Place For My Head". The band's next two night stand happened in Saitama, Japan the following year, where "Crawling" (which seems to be creeping back into staple status on this tour) got dropped for "Points Of Authority". Japanese fans also got the rare "Keys To The Kingdom" and "Lying From You" in the encore. Frankfurt's second night changed the game for the tour. The rotation wasn't too surprising ("Castle Of Glass" switching out with "Over Each Other"), but the final stretch of songs completely flipped around. Instead of the usual closer of "Heavy Is The Crown" and "Bleed It Out", those two were moved up to close the main set, leaving room for "in The End" and "Faint" to close out the whole show! From what I've seen on those earlier US shows, the latter encore is universally beloved. Boston's second night certainly lived up to Frankfurt's with the era debut of "Lies Greed Misery" in the "Castle Of Glass" spot, with From Zero fan favorites like "IGYEIH" and "Stained" rounding out the usual rotation spots. As a bonus, Mike also rapped the first verse of "Reading My Eyes" over the bridge of "Bleed It Out". They've set a high standard for two night stands, so let's hope Montréal can live up!

 

Check out "Faint" live from night 2 in Frankfurt, Germany! This was the first time "Faint" closed a show since 2017!

 

To get an idea of what we might get tonight, we have to see what Montréal got last night. Eagle eyed fans might notice that Montréal night 1, which got Set B with rotations like “Good Things Go”, “A Place For My Head”, and “Given Up”, is actually the same set as we saw in Boston night 1, even down to the Set B intros. With Newark’s Set A mostly mirroring Brooklyn’s too (with only the “Castle Of Glass” and “Lies Greed Misery” trade setting them apart), could we be inching back towards a more standard Set A/B/C rotation? If so, Montréal is in for a good time for night 2, seeing as Boston night 2’s Set C had rarities like “IGYEIH”, “Points Of Authority”, and “Stained” rounding out its rotation slots. One way Montréal stood out from Boston, though, was Emily managing the full length scream on “Heavy Is The Crown”! If you’ll recall from a paragraph or two ago, this is the same spot where Chester managed a rare full “Given Up” scream! Must be something in the air. If the band really wants to make night 2 stand out, “Lies Greed Misery” was first mentioned as a song Emily wanted to play live in the same breath as “Blackout” by Mike on Discord. Could we see that make its era and Emily debut tonight? Further, “Keys To The Kingdom” is the only song the band has played this year that hasn’t appeared on this US run. It’d certainly be a welcome addition to the show. 
 

On the subject of welcome additions to the show, PVRIS' time on the tour is unfortunately coming to an end soon, but they're making the most of their limited time with Linkin Park. They seem to have taken some cues from LP regarding their setlist, since they've been constantly changing it from night-to-night! Hits like "Dead Weight" and "GODDESS", along with the Mike Shinoda produced "TAKE MY NIRVANA", hold down the fort every night while songs like "HYPE ZOMBIES" and "Hallucinations" swap in and out from night to night. Montréal night 1 saw the return of “Monster” in exchange for “Oil & Water”, so who knows what they might have in store for night 2! The band has been sounding incredible every night and their energy has been downright infectious. If you're going to the show, you'd be doing yourself a disservice by missing PVRIS, so make sure you get there early!

 

Who's going to the show? Should be another nice, sunny day, hovering around the mid-70s by the time the show starts. After tonight, the band rounds out their time in Canada for now with a show in Toronto before coming back down to the States for some midwestern shows in Chicago (this writer's home turf!) and Detroit. There's plenty more on the horizon after that, including some hints that Australian dates are soon to be added, so don't you worry! Neither the band (nor us) are slowing down anytime soon!

 

On a different note, we've made it easier than ever to keep up with all things Linkin Park related without having to worry about staying glued to your screens all the time. Introducing The Messenger! It's a newsletter that we'll be sending out every couple weeks or so with all the latest Linkin Park and Linkin Park-adjacent news, so sign up if that sounds at all up your alley! You can even check out previous updates here if you wanna see what you're getting into. 

 

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[LPLStaff]

Anytime Keys is played, it is a good day.

[KeysToTheLinkinPark]

48 minutes ago, LPLStaff said:

Anytime Keys is played, it is a good day.

She sounds amazing on KTTK, sadly they didn't play it in all 3 shows I went to.

[Ketilou78]

The show of m’y Life 

Emily was perfect 

thank you for The Montréal show on 06/08/2025

Fan of LP

Sandra Latour

[Fleur de Lys]

 

There is now a full show on YouTube. What a setlist… What a crowd! Whole room was buzzing