2025.08.14 - Detroit, Michigan

[GlassCastles]

The midwestern representation holds strong as Linkin Park brings the From Zero World Tour to Detroit, Michigan!

 

 

Our history lesson is gonna have to start slightly later than the band's first shows in Detroit, seeing as both shows in the city from the year 2000 are a total mystery to us! Worth noting, though, is that the second 2000 show in Detroit was actually the first confirmed Linkin Park show to feature Dave "Phoenix" Farrell! If you happen to know anything more about these shows, please reach out! We know more about the band's 2002 stop in the city, though there is still one big mystery looming over the show: D12 and Eminem are rumored to have joined the band on stage for "One Step Closer" (along with usual guests Cypress Hill and Adema's Mark Chavez), though nothing concrete has come out. Whether or not they came out, it was still a great show. On top of Linkin Park deep cuts like "And One", "Step Up", and "My December", the 2002 Projekt Revolution tour also had the band regularly playing their cover of "My Own Summer (Shove It)" by Deftones! Of course, most of Hybrid Theory rounded out the set, seeing as the band barely had enough songs to fill out a headlining set. They had a little more material to work with when they returned to Detroit the following year on the LP Underground Tour. This was one of the more iconic shows from the tour, seeing as most of the show wound up airing on MTV as part of the MTV 2$ Bill series, and no that's not a typo. Now, this airing cut several songs, including "Easier To Run" or "Hit The Floor", which are the two songs hardcore fans waited years to get more proshots of (or any at all in the case of "Hit The Floor"), but who can complain about a proshot recording of "Faint" or "Don't Stay" from 2003?

 

Check out Linkin Park playing Detroit in 2003 with video courtesy of MTV's 2$ Bill series!

 

Linkin Park returned to Detroit for the 2008 Winter US Tour, gracing the city with Set S. This included a "Wake"/"Given Up" intro, Minutes To Midnight deep cuts "In Pieces" and "In Between", and a rare lack of "Papercut". This was somewhat standard during this era, but I'm really fond of the double encore thing the band was trying out. It's a cool way to sneak in a couple slower songs before really going all out for the ending. As far as unique things for this show, "Points Of Authority" had a rare "Dolla" verse over the intro and "My December" was cut from its usual spot before "Breaking The Habit" for unknown reasons. The band returned to the city during the A Thousand Suns North American Tour, debuting Set B11 for the first time (after Atlanta's set was swapped at the last minute). Something to note here is that this set was actually the first time "Papercut" had ever been played in the encore, something that's now become a staple. While we're on the subject, this encore is probably one of the best in the band's career. "Blackout", "Papercut", "Crawling", "Faint", and "One Step Closer" is tough to top. The opening run is up there too, with "New Divide", "Lying From You", "Given Up", "What I've Done", "When They Come For Me", and "No More Sorrow" following the standard "The Requiem"/"The Radiance" intro. What was a little less standard, though, was the Savio speech scratch Joe usually did over "The Radiance" instrumental not working. Even with that hiccup, this was one for the books.

 

Going back to the present day, what's it looking like for Detroit in 2025? Well, with Chicago's show in the rear view, I feel pretty confident in saying we're back to a mostly standard A/B/C rotation. Given Chicago got Set B, it only follows that tonight would be Set C, which is arguably the best one in this writer's opinion. The standard rotations here seem to be "Points Of Authority", "New Divide", "IGYEIH", "Stained", and "Let You Fade", as we saw on Boston's 2nd night. Montreal night 2 got a little treat in "Keys To The Kingdom" in that heavy act 2 slot, but Mike's comments about it being a last minute switch tells me "IGYEIH" is what we'll usually be seeing there. One of the remaining wild cards, though, is the "Castle Of Glass"/"Lies Greed Misery" slot. If my guess is correct and they're alternating night-to-night, Detroit should be seeing "Castle Of Glass" in act 2. And, if Chicago is anything to go by, Mike's solo verse is still anyone's guess, seeing as "It's Goin' Down" (Chicago's verse) was a new verse for the tour, and the first debut over the medley since the end of the European tour. Oh, and while we're talking about Chicago, they actually got a special guest appearance: Tim McIlrath from Rise Against joined the band for "One Step Closer", the first time he's ever come out for "One Step Closer" and the first time since the ill-fated 2015 US Tour he's joined the band at all. Obviously we don't expect that to happen again (Rise Against hails from Chicago after all), but it'd be cool to see more city-based features! Failing that, with all the Notorious B.I.G. references in Brooklyn, maybe Mike will throw a bone to some other local rappers tonight. Maybe one with a name that kinda sounds like candy...

 

"One Step Closer" live from Chicago, Illinois featuring Tim McIlrath from Rise Against!

 

This show does come with some sad news, though: after tonight, PVRIS is officially off the tour. I'm not sure I've ever seen this level of praise for one of Linkin Park's openers, and it's been well deserved! Their energy has been next level and they've got the technical chops to match. They seem to have settled into a standard set as the tour winds down, with "Oil & Water" joining as a staple and "Monster" retaining its spot after being rotated around with the likes of "Hallucinations" and "HYPE ZOMBIES". If you're going tonight, make sure to get there early and give PVRIS a proper farewell! They've earned it!

 

PVRIS playing White Noise hit "My House" live from Chicago, Illinois

 

So who's gonna be at the show? Should be a sunny day in Detroit today, though keep an eye out for the humidity! After tonight, the band heads back out to the northeast for a couple shows in Pennsylvania. Then they've got a quick pitstop in Nashville before continuing their midwest run in St. Louis. 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. 

 

As always, we'll keep you posted on everything in the Linkin Park world, so be sure to sign up here on the forums and follow us on social media Twitter/X, Instagram, Facebook!

[LPLStaff]

That 2003 show is really epic - surprised they didn't release the full thing on the Meteora 20 box set. Would love another Easier to Run video and a Hit the Floor video. But the Nottingham show is really epic - glad they put that out.

[AccessibleProductions]

Great write-up!

I wish I could have gone, but alas, I did not. The only LP show I have ever seen was in 2007 at the then-named DTE Energy Music Theater in Clarkston, Michigan. It was Projekt Revolution during the Minutes to Midnight era...and oh GOD was it awesome. Styles of Beyond were playing the second stage in the parking lot, and I was lucky enough to meet Mike backstage before he performed with them, since I knew another band on that stage, Madina Lake. Mike was so cool, and my 19 year old self snapped a photo with him that I only have as a 79kb file now...but memories are good enough! 

I'm so happy that particular show was also a MySpace stream event! (I'm old.) Having my only LP experience being pro-shot is a huge win. It was such a fantastic performance, too.

Mike had asked me backstage if I was going to the LPU meet & greet to the rest of the band, and sadly, I had to say no cause I had left the LPU for a year due to funds. So I missed that chance, but man, Mike was so kind. He recognized me from the Fort Minor forums, as I told him my username at the time, HybridMeteora798 !

[KeysToTheLinkinPark]