LPLStaff Posted Sunday at 01:55 AM Posted Sunday at 01:55 AM Linkin Park is back on stage in Sydney for night 2 and we are excited because it's a very special day - Joe Hahn's birthday! According to our new Happy Birthday page that chronicles live shows on band member birthdays and other important birthdays on stage, Linkin Park performed on Joe's birthday in 2001, 2003, and 2004. The only known celebration for Joe was at that 2004 show, in Inglewood - die hard fans know that was a rescheduled show on the Meteora World Tour because Chester was sick and they were cutting songs in Long Beach before it. Wait, does that sound similar to modern day? If you go to the start of the encore in this show, you'll see the band singing to Joe and Chester. You might as well watch the entire show while you're there because that arena tour setlist in 2004 was absolutely insane, in the best way possible. An encore of "My December", "P5hng Me A*wy", "A Place for My Head" and "One Step Closer"? Sign us up yesterday. This will be Joe's first birthday on stage with Linkin Park since 2004! And we're hoping the band celebrates it in a big way, because all credit from other band members goes to Joe for kickstarting the conversations that got Linkin Park to eventually decide to return as a band. Thank you, Joe! So, if you're following the tour right now, you've likely seen the chatter online about Emily being sick, you know the band sadly canceled the Adelaide show, and they performed a shortened set at Melbourne night 2. The same thing happened again for Sydney night 1, which was a smart move by the band considering 1) Emily is not 100% yet, and 2) there was no off day in Sydney between nights 1 and 2. With two shows back-to-back, and more travel coming up to New Zealand, it was a good move to take things easy and cater the set around Emily's voice. What surprised us was the amount of jams still in the set. Any Linkin Park fan on the planet would love a show with all of these songs - "Points of Authority", "Lying From You", "Castle of Glass", "From the Inside", and "A Place for My Head". That's not even including "Lost" and all the other bangers like "Papercut", "Faint", etc. Very nicely done. So it seems for Emily, some of these heavier songs are easier for her to sing but the higher From Zero songs are more difficult. LP had just 3 songs off of the new album in the set for night 1, and we are expecting about the same for night 2. Like when Chester had difficulty with "Given Up" when sick (who wouldn't have trouble with it, anyway? Ha), we're seeing that to be true with Emily with "Heavy Is the Crown". Both of the past two shows they have played have had 2 total songs cut and we've been down to 25 songs, but these are still PRETTY full shows and they are giving us a lot of curveballs in the show - in the best way possible. For example, the last time both the studio versions of "Castle of Glass" and "Lies Greed Misery" were in the same show was in 2013. Linkin Park has history of doing this before. Remember the 2008 North American Tour in arenas? Chester got sick halfway through and we had this series of events happen: a shortened show, two canceled shows in a row after that, four more shortened shows, and then a full set again on the last date of the tour. Including the canceled shows, seven shows were affected from this. We got some really interesting things in the sets, though, because harder songs for his voice had to be dropped. We saw "Wake" into "Lying From You" open shows, "Papercut" had the "Points of Authority" outro on it, and more. Check out this Oklahoma City set. Or this shortened one from Las Vegas: Needless to say, even with changes, there are still a lot of major highlights both in that time and this time, which are pretty similar situations. We aren't expecting anything too crazy for night 2 in Sydney and we are just glad the band is able to get shows in. It has resulted in some unique sets once again, similar to 2008, and we're enjoying the fun in it all. The show reviews from both Melbourne N2 and Sydney N1 are quite strong and fans are having a great time. After all, still playing around 2 hours and only cutting 2 songs is quite impressive - and she looked really under the weather in Sydney on the first night. Get well soon, Emily! And Happy Birthday to Joe! Here's the night 1 set - for night 2 we'll assume Set C with some more song changes, but nothing too crazy. The tour ends with one more show, after two off days, in Auckland, New Zealand. The last time in Auckland, Linkin Park hosted an amazing LPU Summit and brought along Stone Sour for the show. We're quite jealous of that. That will be the last show before the final leg of the From Zero World Tour in Europe. After that, it's studio time! We'll catch you back here for Auckland and on socials for Sydney night 2. Quote
LeonardoMF93 Posted Sunday at 06:45 AM Posted Sunday at 06:45 AM I have a friend at the show and something's going on. The Early Entry has been waiting a long time to get in because the band is doing soundcheck. Brad is on site. They're suspecting he might play something tonight. Looks like Brad is doing soundcheck with them. People in line are suspecting that either he's gonna play or they're gonna play an unreleased song. Quote
cjv1991 Posted Sunday at 08:04 AM Posted Sunday at 08:04 AM I was part of early entry today and I figure they might have been soundchecking to test out Emily’s voice. No one around me has heard anything about Brad being onsite - seems a bit doubtful. Quote
JZLP-Benningstrong Posted Sunday at 11:12 AM Posted Sunday at 11:12 AM 4 hours ago, LeonardoMF93 said: I have a friend at the show and something's going on. The Early Entry has been waiting a long time to get in because the band is doing soundcheck. Brad is on site. They're suspecting he might play something tonight. Looks like Brad is doing soundcheck with them. People in line are suspecting that either he's gonna play or they're gonna play an unreleased song. Hybrid conspiracy theory Quote
LeonardoMF93 Posted Sunday at 12:24 PM Posted Sunday at 12:24 PM 4 hours ago, cjv1991 said: I was part of early entry today and I figure they might have been soundchecking to test out Emily’s voice. No one around me has heard anything about Brad being onsite - seems a bit doubtful. I also thought it was unlikely, but that’s what many people were saying in the line. I think that if Brad didn’t play at LOL or at the Champions League, he probably won’t play anymore. People were definitely talking about it, though. Well-known fans who travel all over the world to attend the shows were speculating about it during the Early Entry. Quote
Cesar656 Posted Sunday at 04:33 PM Posted Sunday at 04:33 PM 4 hours ago, LeonardoMF93 said: I also thought it was unlikely, but that’s what many people were saying in the line. I think that if Brad didn’t play at LOL or at the Champions League, he probably won’t play anymore. People were definitely talking about it, though. Well-known fans who travel all over the world to attend the shows were speculating about it during the Early Entry. Seems like well known fans knew the same as not well known fans Quote
JerseyShore Posted yesterday at 03:58 AM Posted yesterday at 03:58 AM Just watched the video on Mike's FB page and I think I was smiling the whole time. Step Up in 2026. Still doesn't feel real. Quote
LPLStaff Posted 15 hours ago Author Posted 15 hours ago The vocals and drums are there... wouldn't take much to actually play Step Up in the show if they wanted to in Europe. Quote
KeysToTheLinkinPark Posted 14 hours ago Posted 14 hours ago Step Up is still my favourite of off the HTEP. Groove, guitars, scratches and electronics. Perfect. Quote
JZLP-Benningstrong Posted 12 hours ago Posted 12 hours ago 2 hours ago, LPLStaff said: The vocals and drums are there... wouldn't take much to actually play Step Up in the show if they wanted to in Europe. It's such an amazing nu metal song. This band must be ready to have more Shinoda lead vocals songs we already know that we need them and this band has Alex and Colin which i believe are capable of learning any song fast. We need more Shinoda songs cause we love them and also we need them just in case that Emily doesn't feel. Okay. Also Shinoda and Phx omg those guys are extremely healthy they have never missed any show?? Quote
bloodbath Posted 10 hours ago Posted 10 hours ago 2 hours ago, JZLP-Benningstrong said: Also Shinoda and Phx omg those guys are extremely healthy they have never missed any show?? Phoenix missed one at least https://linkinpedia.com/wiki/Live:20110923. But Mike none. Quote
JZLP-Benningstrong Posted 10 hours ago Posted 10 hours ago 6 minutes ago, bloodbath said: Phoenix missed one at least https://linkinpedia.com/wiki/Live:20110923. But Mike none. SECOND TO NONE! Quote
LPLStaff Posted 8 hours ago Author Posted 8 hours ago Mike and the singer are the only reason they'd cancel shows. Unless Yoshi the new drum tech can't fill in for Colin. We have never had a situation in which Rob cannot play. He injured himself and they dropped Rebellion, I think around the Mexico 2015 shows @JZLP-Benningstrong but Rob always played. Unsure on new bass tech for Dave, but he was with RHCP for eons so he probably knows music. Joe has a new tech. The new techs aren't as road tested with LP as the OG lineup ones, as some of those techs were around forever. Ben for sure can do anything though, he was lead for Fall Out Boy for over an entire tour, played 3 shows with LP (almost Russia 2014 too) and said to us he knows the entire setlist+all songs since 2024 LP has played live in case he needs to fill in. Ben is the best bet lol Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.