2025.08.31 - Kansas City, Missouri

[GlassCastles]

Linkin Park's midwest run continues with their second show in Missouri on this leg! This time the From Zero World Tour takes them to Kansas City!

 

Another show in a city with a pretty brief history, but luckily the state has seen a lot of love from the band, so I've got some more to work with today. The last time Linkin Park played in Missouri was, well, about a week ago. They got set A, which tends to mean "Casualty" and "Over Each Other" take up the "non-standard" From Zero spots, alongside heat like "From The Inside" and a "Faint" closing spot. Last week's show was a little special, though, seeing as they decided to drop "Crawling" from the show for the first time on this leg of the tour, opting instead for "Stained" in that middle act 1 slot. This marked the second time "Stained" had ever appeared outside act 3 (appearing in act 2 at the band's second Frankfurt show back in July) and the first time it had ever shown up in act 1. It's cool to see them start changing up the set after a month of a more standard set rotation. Really keeps us on our toes, and I wouldn't have it any other way!

 

"Stained" live from St. Louis. The song replaced "Crawling" for the first time.

 

While we're in the St. Louis area, let's talk about the band's last couple shows just outside the city in Maryland Heights. In 2008, the band stopped in as part of that year's Projekt Revolution tour. That one had some real gems, including "Crawling" with the "KRWLNG" intro and the first verse of "Hands Held High". There's also of course the powerhouse opening trio of "No More Sorrow", "Lying From You", and "Somewhere I Belong", while "Bleed It Out" closed things out with the drum solo intro before Mike rapped the first verse of "Reading My Eyes". They even broke out the Minutes To Midnight remix of "Cure For The Itch"! In the trademark "Points Of Authority" spot, fans got the "Petrified" and "There They Go" combo over the intro and outro, respectively, and on top of all that, Minutes To Midnight highlights like "Leave Out All The Rest" and "Shadow Of The Day" held things down. "Shadow Of The Day" even had a rare improv piano intro.

 

Linkin Park's full show at Maryland Heights from the Projekt Revolution 2008 tour.

 

Going back a few years, the Projekt Revolution 2004 stop in Maryland Heights was even crazier. The opening run was just stacked, kicking off with "Don't Stay" (featuring the iconic Gacela intro) and running straight through "With You" with no letup. The "Hip-Hop Medley", made up of some of the band's deepest cuts in "Step Up", "Nobody's Listening", and "It's Goin' Down", was also in full swing on this tour, "Figure.09" and "From The Inside" were played back-to-back with the universally beloved "Blood, Anger, Suffering" outro, and Bert McCracken from The Used joined the chaos on "Faint". Not to be outdone, though, Jonathan Davis from Korn jumped on "One Step Closer" for the Reanimation bridge. This came right on the heels of the band's cover of "Wish" by Nine Inch Nails, one of the few covers the band ever played regularly. To top it all off, "A Place For My Head" closed the main set, something this writer would love to see tried out again.

 

Alright, alright, enough stalling. Let's get to the city of the hour. The last time Linkin Park was in Kansas City proper was in 2011 on their North American Tour for A Thousand Suns. The show opened with the pairing of "The Requiem" and "Papercut" followed by a who's who of iconic Linkin Park songs like "Lying From You" and "What I've Done". The band also never missed a chance to flood the sets with tracks from the album of the hour, with fan favorites like "Burning In The Skies", "The Catalyst", and "Waiting For The End" all filling out the remainder of the set, the last two of which are still holding strong as live regulars to this day. "Bleed It Out" got the classic "A Place For My Head" verse over the bridge, "Numb" carried the Oppenheimer outro (this writer's favorite extension from the band) straight into "Breaking The Habit", and "Faint" shut the night down as the closer. A really solid example of the way the band captured the vibe of A Thousand Suns in the live show while still keeping space for their older sound. 

 

"Burning In The Skies" live from Kansas City in 2011.

 

Kansas City history goes even further back, though. The band actually played three shows in the city during the Hybrid Theory days, though we only have info on two. The November 2000 stop is a mystery (reach out if you can remedy that!), but the December stop later that year was at 98.9 The Rock’s Twisted Christmas festival. That set opened with "A Place For My Head" and featured several Hybrid Theory cuts like "Runaway" and "By Myself", the latter of which found its way onto the "Crawling" DVD. One of the best stories from that show comes from a ticket give away the radio station did: fans had to scream the bridge of "One Step Closer", and the best one won. What’s wild is the actual name of that festival wasn’t even confirmed until nearly 15 years later, when Papa Roach posted a photo showing Chester outside the venue with the marquee visible in the background.

 

And then the band returned a year later, starting the Countdown To Revolution tour in Kansas City. This show opened with the long running duo of "With You" and "Runaway" before diving into the most classic Hybrid Theory era set you could imagine: "By Myself", "High Voltage", "Pushing Me Away", "A Place For My Head". The gang's all here! The encore is certainly one of the band's most interesting, featuring "My December", a Joe solo, "Step Up", and "One Step Closer". That's certainly one for the hardcore fans!

 

The photo of Chester that finally revealed the name of the festival the December 2000 show took place at.

 

So what are we looking at for Kansas City? Well, Omaha saw "Stained" keeping its new spot in the "Crawling" slot in act 1. Tonight's a different set (set B), but keep in mind that "Stained" also rotated in to set B the last time they played it in Milwaukee, replacing "Cut The Bridge". Could "Stained" keep that slot in set B too, effectively becoming another staple across the 3 sets? Also worth noting that Omaha stole set B's "encore/act 4" rotation song, with "A Place For My Head" subbing in for "From The Inside". Will "From The Inside" be migrating over to set B? Mike's solo verse is also more up in the air than ever, seeing as "Step Up" made its return after nearly 4 months in Omaha. What I can say with certainty, though, is that "Castle Of Glass" will make its return tonight, considering Omaha got "Lies Greed Misery", and those seem to just be alternating shows at this point. And of course mainstays like "The Emptiness Machine" and "Two Faced" will get played. Those have become instant classics in the Linkin Park world, and I'd be shocked to see either of them go anytime soon. 

 

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[BartBart91]

It's pretty crazy that Up from the Bottom was played as the third song at this show, and Cut the Bridge was played further down as the eighth song, in the position of Up from the Bottom. It's also great that Good Things Go was played again, and this time, after having played it at five shows in a row, they finally didn't play Stained.

[ChaseChief]

2 minutes ago, BartBart91 said:

It's pretty crazy that Up from the Bottom was played as the third song at this show, and Cut the Bridge was played further down as the eighth song, in the position of Up from the Bottom. It's also great that Good Things Go was played again, and this time, after having played it at five shows in a row, they finally didn't play Stained.

I guess the song has finally gone up from the bottom.

[bloodbath]

That comment won't be ignored

[Stewe]

 

Mike rapped A Place For My Head verse1 during Bleed It Out bridge and Numb hasn't any variations 

Edited September 2 by Stewe