02.08.2008 - Tampa, FL, Ford Amphitheatre

[hahninator]

We woke up the next morning in Tampa...well pretty late, haha. My neck was really sore from destroying it the previous night in West Palm. Anyway so we hit the beach again, which was great, then packed everything up at the hotel and began the drive that afternoon to Tampa. After some gas and some Subway from a gas station (lol), we continued the drive in the rain across mid-Florida to good ole Tampa.

 

We arrived during Atreyu, and we had this monster walk from the car to the venue that was a little odd. It was a fairgrounds area so what do you expect. We walked by quite a few tour buses (I wish I knew which ones), and by the backstage of the venue. It was interesting to see Pooch's mixing trailers back there too. I'm sure Linkin Park was in that area somewhere since it had security guards blocking every possible entrance. I almost went to say hi to Pooch but I decided against it. Well, I have to say, the Ford Amphitheatre looks pretty cool. One thing I didn't like was how it was all set up. From what I was looking at, they had opened only one side of the venue at first as well as the Rev Stage. Well, the Rev Stage was completely soaked from the rain so I decided to bail on the end of Atreyu. I introduced myself to Missy, head of MFR, and said I was Mark from LPLive, etc. She seemed absolutely clueless, so I said to myself well so much for trying to meet new people LOL.

 

Anyway so then I decided to go talk to a girl named Natalie during this clusterfuck. I mean they had packed thousands of people into this little space. It was VERY crowded...they needed to open the other side of the venue. Plus they had this absolutely fucking UGLY ass concrete wall behind the concourse. I was like WTF is that bullshit for, and they told me it was so the people at the Hard Rock Cafe couldn't film the shows LOL. Hilarious. What people will do to stop others from having fun.

 

Well yeah so Natalie was with another LPU'er, it was cool talking to them for a while in the shade. I went and tore down some Stone Temple Pilots poster and made an LPLive little poster that I was going to hold up for LP, lol. When they finally opened the main stage, Natalie and I went to our seats. Let me tell you the deal with Natalie. She scored FRONT ROW seats to this thing. When I thought of front row, I thought maybe like, the first row of seats in the place. No, not really, lmao. Front row as in, there's a front row of seats in the place and there's a walkway in front of that and our seats are portable chairs IN FRONT OF THAT. Now how fucking cool is that? Oh man I was excited. She was super nice, so we sat through Street Drum Corps and ASHES dIVIDE and talked. Preston and Mary Ann had pit for this show, so we didn't see much of them. I actually stood up since I was front row and didn't give a flying FUCK about anyone behind me and had a blast during The Bravery's set. I think I was only 1 of 2 people in the entire place standing for them LOL. Some hardcore Bravery fan was a few sections over but that was it, ahaha.

 

Afterwards, they threw a drumstick in the crowd and they caught it So they brought it to us to hold. The funny thing is that when Mary Ann came looking for me, I was over actually talking to Pooch at FOH, and I heard someone screaming "MARK! MARK!", rofl. When I turned around it's her and I'm like "what the hell are you doing here, I thought you had pit, lol". Well it turns out she wanted me to hold her drumstick. That's fine, I thought. I went back to Natalie and she had a great idea to put it inside the huge round cardboard holder they gave her for her Projekt Rev poster. Nice!!!

 

Oh yes, I forgot to mention a big thing. Huge. Epic. A big thing, lol. You see, after Charlotte, Preston told me he had this massive-ass expensive as hell epic camera. Yeah and it had some crazy zoom and stuff on it. Well, I made sure he took it to the West Palm show. He took some video on it of The Bravery and LP, and took some pictures. Well, for this show since he had pit, he wasn't going to take it. I asked him if I could use it and he said "Can I trust you with the mother of all cameras?" lol. I said yeah, but I knew he was a little wary because actually in West Palm, his camera got stolen!!! Yea I know, it's crazy. I'm sure when he puts his review up he'll mention it because he can tell the story 10 times better than me...but it was wack. Anyway, yeah he let me use the camera with some AWESOME zoom. I sat there with Natalie and got pics of ASHES dIVIDE and The Bravery, etc. After The Bravery ended, I had to go get $80 from an ATM since she was nice enough to give me the front seat for face value. What a cool gal. We had a pretty good time talking about life and stuff...music...LP...everything. Great seats...so I mean it was interesting to chill there so close to the stage.

 

So then Chris Cornell came on and man I rocked out to him....I really had a good time. Cochise started it off, and the place got rowdy. I mean Chris even had his own pit going below us. By the way, the Tampa pit is MASSIVE as hell so at the back right in front of us they had it going for like 3/4 of the Cornell set. Badass. Well Chris did Be Yourself, Like A Stone (Acoustic) and a lot of my other favorite songs. Rusty Cage rocked that place. On Black Hole Sun he fell into the crowd and crowdsurfed for a while. I was actually waiting on that with the camera, so I had it zoomed in on him the entire song and I hit record when he started to fall into the pit. I got it on video, and coincidentally, Mary Ann told me after the show that he held his hand! She was pretty pumped I got it on video. I mean that's really damn cool to be able to hold up Chris Cornell and grab his hand during Black Hole Sun, so I was definitely jealous, haha.

 

After Chris tore it down very nicely, I went and said hey to Pooch again during the usual time. Then I went back and waited with Natalie as I observed all the "SCREAM FOR NO ROADS LEFT TO BE PLAYED!!!!" texts going up on the Verizon screens as well as the crew setting up the stage for LP. Too bad none of the LPLive texts ever got up there.....bastards, lol! Well anyway it was time for LP to do their thing! I was front row and I was expecting to fully lose it this show.

 

The lights cut down, we went fucking crazy, and here came SDC. I bounced and rocked during their sweet drum intro, and then here came the NMS intro to start us off. I prefer it in the middle of the set since they actually cut all the lights for it then, and when it opens the real show, there's actually more white lights and stuff going on, etc. Anyway I noticed the sound wasn't that loud, and damn if I was right...I mean the sound at Ford was cranked really low. I found out later that it's a huge noise restriction thing that's on the venue, so they have to keep it low. That's ok, it didn't stop us.

 

I clapped and threw the hands up for the intro and faked the air guitar shit as some of the hardcore fools do that see them live (me included, lol). That little machine gun kinda sample that kicks in when Rob starts the bass drum is sick...I love that. Then came LP slowly walking out...Brad doing the ebow parts and everything. The hands in the pit were in sync to the NMS drum pattern, and I knew the place was about to get crazy. We jumped and went ballistic when the song kicked in and Chester came out going fucking NUTS on that micstand. Mike and Phoenix were all over the place, and I held my LPLive sign up for Mike. He came over and actually looked that way and smiled...I dunno if it was me, but I mean it was cool to think it was anyway hah.

 

I moved the folding chair back a lot and we just proceeded to have a damn good time. The pit was jumping and the place was loving it. We sang the bridge with Chester and just rocked out. Lying From You was next. Mike didn't ask for the hands up this time, but that was alright. The crowd was pretty good so far in my opinion - the place was packed and everyone I saw was loving LP so far. Somewhere I Belong's ending was great, like I said the drums at the end are cool.

 

Then came Wake 2.0, which I already said I liked a lot. Great lights and watching Mike and Brad on the guitar is interesting. Hands up on Given Up and everything. Sick as hell bridge and ending...we were losing it. It was again hot as fuck but we were giving it everything we had.

 

And then for my favorite! Papercut! They didn't do it in West Palm in Set Y so I had already gotten sad at the fact I hadn't heard Papercut at a show, lol. I love hearing Mike talk on the intro, and this would be the first time in 08 that I could yell and shit to the stuff he said. He had a good speech and people responded really well. What got me was at the end he said what I had been wanting to hear forever. "You know who else this shit is for? Everybody who's been down with Linkin Park since day one." Great. Then he did it. Hell yeah, Mike Shinoda did it. While I was at the show. "It goes three...two...one...GET THE FUCK UP." I had been wanting to hear it and I finally did, and man they kicked it on Papercut. Singing the whole song and everything, I was really fucking into Papercut. Even after the great verses and choruses, the bridge still rocks it really nicely. After bashing my skull to the end, I was waiting to see what verse Mike would do over Points this time.

 

Petrified verse 2! Awesome! I like it better than part 1, mainly because of the "Machine Shop" reference. "Hands up like this yall!" Again I threw the hand up and waved it side to side with the pit. That's such a great part of the show, turning around and seeing THOUSANDS with their hands up to Mike. He surprised me at the end when Mike asked him to speed the outro up. I think Mike realized the pit at this show was QUITE bigger than the other shows (the floor space they give the pit in Tampa is huge) and he wanted to do it special for them. There They Go tore through us as I was the only one I saw that knew the verse, lol. That's usually the case for the POA intro and outro, but that's fine with me. Even Natalie wondered after it was over how I knew that Mike repeated "Don't mistake it everybody" three times at the end. Funny.

 

After it was over I guess the crowd liked it because they started hammering the seats. I hadn't seen this at LP before at any other point during the show except the encore so I thought it was a bit odd. Plus I felt left out since I only had that metal bar that starts the pit in front of me, and no seat! Anyway so Chester again talked about Mike LOL, and this time he was like "Make some noise for Mike Shinoda...etc" but Mike said "AH FUCK OFF" hahaha! Really funny. Mike said he could play a Rock Band drumset, and we all laughed.

 

I saw them wheel the keyboard out as POA is usually the ending point for the main set before they head into the slower stuff. Well even as I am on LPLive staff, I forget the setlists at the shows because I'm going so crazy to the songs and stuff. The In Pieces intro started and I was like "Aha, sweet". Even though Chester hangs at the micstand, that's fine in my opinion for this song since he makes some nice hand gestures. Watching Rob was cool on this song for me. Then came the sick as hell guitar solo by Brad again and I was again headbanging for the end of the song. A last repeat of the chorus followed by the awesome line..."Don't lie....to me" and In Pieces was done - the last time I'd get to see it on this cycle (and possibly for a very long time).

 

Numb was next, so I decided to whip the camera out and take some video. Oh man I was bummed because it barely had any space left! We didn't clear it out after West Palm and after my pics/video of the earlier bands in the day, I didn't have much room. I decided to get the end of Numb with Chester singing the bridge as that's my favorite part of the song. What AWESOME zoom, I said to myself. I always wonder when I use that camera if the people behind me are freaked out/amazed at how close you can zoom in on the band (especially from the front row in Tampa).

 

Mike did the piano outro and I was wondering about Show Me for a minute, but I knew it wouldn't be in this setlist. Then I thought about the Camden 7/19 show and if Mike would get up from the piano quick enough for Pushing Me Away. The intro started and he was still sitting there, so as the fool of a fan I am, I panicked. I thought he was going to screw up the intro again. However, a roadie walked out with Mike's guitar right on time and Mike got it on just as the song kicked in. I made sure to take video of this song. The cool thing was seeing the studio version being played for the first time for me...I liked Mike rocking out on guitar. The bad part? Chester was at the micstand! What on earth? I mean c'mon it's PMA studio! That almost actually ruined the song for me, I was upset at the fact he just stood there for a great portion of the song. I put the camera away after the first chorus and sang with Chester and Mike as I enjoyed the studio version for the first time. Great song! Singing with them on the bridge and last chorus was very nice. I nailed the end with Chester and definitely yelled quite loudly in my support of the song.

 

Mike IMMEDIATELY hit the keyboard again even before the very end of the song was over so that he could get ready for Breaking The Habit. I mean damn, he was there before Brad even finished the end of the PMA. I was surprised. Anyway, I didn't mention the fact that I only had a tiny portion of video space left. I had to cut PMA short (I planned on getting the whole song honestly) so I had room for BTH. This time I was CERTAINLY going to get Mike on the bridge. I was fucking set. Chester nailed the verse, chorus and next verse very nicely and I sang along with him as loud as I could since I think BTH live is amazing. By the time the 2nd chorus came around, I had the camera ready and I zoomed in on Mike.

 

Here's what got me next. I mean right when Chester started singing the chorus, it looked like Mike was looking RIGHT at me. I was like "Holy shit!" and was very surprised. I had 14 seconds of video space left and I really wanted to get him on the bridge, so near the end of the chorus, I hit record right as Mike was looking in my direction (perfect for my video!!). And you know what? I fucking GOT THAT SHIT. Right as the chorus ended Mike did exactly what I was expecting, as he grabbed the micstand that was attached to his keyboard and pushed it forward to the side out of his way. And god damnit he proceeded to slam his entire body down and headbang to the bridge just as I was expecting. Awesome! I was so happy that even with 14 seconds of video space left, I got the moment I was wanting to capture on film since I had seen them in Charlotte 3 days earlier. Damn I was happy. I couldn't wait to show Preston and Mary Ann, even though it was such a short clip. However, I had bragged about it so much after seeing Mike do it in Charlotte (aka holy shit Mike on the bridge of BTH was EPIC AS HELL), I had wanted to get it on video to show everyone quite badly. I did. And that rocks.

 

 

Watching Chester end the regular part of the song was great. I watched through the zoom on the camera and I love how he just screams "TONIGHT" with everything he has and slowly moves the microphone away. The ending was sweet...everyone around me started singing with him. As soon as he finished it, the crowd ERUPTED and started killing the seats again in support of the song. Very nice. Shadow was next and everyone threw their hands up to clap along.

 

Unfortunately, I mean I won't go into detail but Preston doesn't really like Shadow Of The Day, LOL. Oh if you only knew the conversations we've had on long car rides (to Nashville and the PR showS) about his distaste for it. Anyway, after the "YES IT WILL" near the end, I zoomed in on Chester playing guitar and I thought it was pretty cool. I put the camera away ASAP because I was afraid Crawling would be next.

 

And it was! Mike started that epic Hands Held High intro and it was just as good as the previous 2 times. He did it a little fast, well the beginning was a bit fast that night, but he got enthusiastic as he usually does as it progressed, and chills went down my spine again. That is such an awesome intro...it was definitely a major highlight of the set for me (as well as Points in West Palm). Joe nailed the intro and I just let it loose singing along. It was very nice seeing the pit in front of me jump and throw their hands up for it. I jumped up on the lower ring of the rail in front of me and pointed to the side of the stage and out came Chris Cornell as if it was cued, haha. Everyone went nuts. The end is very nice with Chris in my opinion. Chris is really funny because as soon as Chester complimented him with "CHRIS CORNELL!" he just immediately screamed "LINKIN PARK!" right at him. Kinda funny to me being there seeing it. Chester had us give it up for Chris again, and then the seats were hammered on again.

 

He asked if we were ready to sing with them, so I was expecting In The End. Little did I know that this was the set where LOATR was thrown in after Crawling, so that is what we got. In Charlotte and West Palm I focused mainly on Mike and Chester but this time I was watching the sides of the stage when Brad/Phoenix came out. This song just doesn't do it for me with that micstand. There's no energy...only 4 members are on stage...etc.

 

"Senor Hahn" laughed Mike, and here came In The End. I was excited to see it this time. Even though it's in every setlist, you do have to admit that In The End is a fucking good song. Mike walking across the stage is very cool to watch. The crowd this time was SO into it and I think on the live audio you can even hear them start it off with Chester. I had a really good feeling about this performance since I mean everyone I saw was totally into it. The energy wasn't quite what Atlanta 07 was (that place was fucking CRAZY), but it was different and pretty cool. I had a thought that they MIGHT cut the guitar in the chorus, and damn they really did when the crowd just screamed "I PUT MY TRUST" as loud as they could. You have to understand that with how low the volume was that night (much lower than a regular LP show...you could hear yourself singing over the music...seriously), it was badass hearing everyone sing that chorus. That place was LOUD. Joe started to extend the intro, and I thought he'd pull an Atlanta 07 but no, he quickly ended it. The highlight of ITE for me was Brad doing the Pushing Me Away guitar part on it. I had been wanting to hear that since I had first known about it in 2004, and I got my wish! Thanks BBB.

 

I had forgotten what they'd do next, whether it was an encore break or Bleed It Out or something, but as the guitar faded in, I knew it was One Step Closer. Hell yes! The song I had completely LOST my mind to the previous night was being played again. Mike wanted us to get up, and here we went again. I fucking lost it as always for OSC. Jumping, singing, everything. That song has more energy live than any song I've ever seen from any band live. Even more than Everlong by Foo Fighters. The place just fucking ERUPTS. "JUST LIKE BEFORE" the crowd sang even without a cue from the band! I was impressed. Mike knew it the second time and he let us sing that part just by ourselves. The bridge came and I mean the pit was one massive ass trampoline it seemed with everyone jumping. I was jumping. Everyone behind me was jumping. Everyone in front of me was jumping. Linkin Park was jumping. The entire fucking city of Tampa seemed like it was jumping. I really love One Step Closer live man. "and I'm about tooooo" dundundundun *pause* BREAK, and off I fucking went again with the insane headbanging and everything. What an amazing outro. Chester rocked the outro and we lost it. The crowd roared in massive appreciation for the song, and the band thanked them and left. OSC is awesome. It is best when closing, but hell you could play that song in between Pushing Me Away (Piano Version) and My December (Piano Version) and the crowd would lose it. Oh yeah.

 

Encore break time. I had no idea what was in the encore as the band had changed up Set Z while I was on vacation. I didn't know what we would be getting. I grabbed the chair and banged it on the ground and then yelled "LIN-KIN PARK" with the crowd. That was actually the first time in an encore I had heard the crowd do that. I had started it unsuccessfully in Atlanta in 2007 but it got going pretty well in Tampa.

 

I heard the familiar fade-in and it was Cure For The Itch! The crowd yelled and I yelled, haha. Joe stepped up there and did his thing as we bounced from side to side. The remixed version is really cool live...I hope they keep playing it in the future. Even when the song was done the crowd screamed really loudly as the rest of the band walked back out. Mike came and sat at the keyboard, and I actually didn't know what was next.

 

What I've Done! I recognized the buildup sample and then Mike took it away. The pit started jumping and everything was going great once again as LP was playing the encore. Chester's vocals couldn't compare to the Atlanta 07 version, but one thing I like about WID live now is that on the bridge Chester goes "Whaaat I'vvveee Doooone...YEAH". I don't think he did it in West Palm but I noticed it in Tampa. Anyway they brought it back into the ending of the song and we all jumped and sang again.

 

The second it ended, here came Faint! Rob took it away as Brad ran out, did his awesome dance on the triangle-step at the front of the stage, and got EVERYONE jumping. Everyone in the seats, everyone in the pit, and myself included let it loose. The regular song kicked ass and we were going crazy. Then here came the outro that I love and I mean I was just rocking it. I had my Club Tattoo shirt tied around my head again since it was hot and I was killing it with everyone near me. Chester screamed nicely at the end and let us know that "you guys have been the best fucking crowd on this tour, thank you very much!". I knew it, really. I mean Tampa was not joking around...the place was PACKED...like 20,000 people man. I didn't see how it was a sell-out. Especially on Faint, I bet it was a real sight to see from the stage with everyone going insane.

 

As I think I mentioned before, Preston said to watch the crowd after Faint because a ton of people leave, thinking it's the end of the show. They certainly did and it was funny again to watch them bolt back on Rob's BIO drum intro. Well anyway after Faint something special happened. Some guy came by me and jumped into the pit and was promptly taken away by security. I turned and the people next to me had left, but I noticed some other guy and what appeared to be his girlfriend come up. He said to me "Is it ok if we stay here for the last song?" I was like sure man! Then I told him it was Bleed It Out, but he said he knew since he saw the setlists online. I was like "hmm, that's cool, I actually have a site that I have all the setlists on" and I held up my LPLive poster that I made earlier. Funny enough he said "OH MY GOD DUDE IS THAT YOU???" lmao! I replied yes and he said "What's up Mark!?", haha. I was very surprised. And then something even funnier happened! He said "Hey man I'm Sanjay!". Well I immediately recognized that name and I was FLOORED because Sanjay was the one that called me after the Virginia show giving me the setlist! Holy shit, that's awesome! I was like "What the HELL are you doing here in Tampa!?" and h told me, etc. Wow, now that was awesome.

 

Anyway so we saw them carry Rob's small drumset out and I was excited. Sanjay must have thought I was crazy because I was air drumming the first part of the drum solo since I had heard it so much already, lol. Rob went into the main part and I rocked my head forward, etc. He did that nice pause in the intro which let us voice our thoughts (aka scream as loud as possible) on the solo so far. He ended it nicely as always as Brad took it away for the regular song. Sanjay, Natalie and I sang every word with Mike and Chester and were having a blast. Street Drum Corps came out and I was ready again for them to tear it up. They took it away as Rob got back up to his regular drumset. Rob when he comes back in with SDC shreds some major ass in my opinion. I mean the drumming isn't anything special or anything but when you hear it live it adds so much depth to the drums. It sounds like there's really like 10 people out there drumming when it's only like 4 or 5. That's my favorite part of BIO though, when Rob comes back in with them.

 

Thankfully Chester didn't do like he did on the Winter Tour and try and sing the BIO chorus right off the last note of the drum solo because I honestly think it sounds terrible that way. He did, however, do something that really made me happy. All of a sudden he said "Say OHH OHHH". FUCK YES! And I mean as happy as I was, I thought the crowd must have been happy too because that was the loudest I had heard a crowd yet sing with Chester on the bridge of Bleed It Out. They killed it! I sang OHH OHH with everything I had, especially since it was the first time on the whole tour he had done that singalong. Chester probably thought our crowd rocked, haha. We sang the chorus again and then I put the Club Tattoo shirt back around my head (yeah the one from Atlanta 07). I guess it's becoming the staple icon of wiping the sweat off my face at the show, and that's fine. SDC started up, Mike and Brad jammed, Chester started going "ohh waaa ohhh" all over the ending, etc. They just jammed out at the end and I loved it. Massive headbanging ensued and ka-blam LP was finished.

 

I said thanks a billion times to Natalie, I said bye to Sanjay after he told me to call him later, and then I waited for Preston and Mary Ann. When they found me, we headed on up to FOH to say bye to Pooch, and then we got out of there. Tampa treated us nicely. Good city, good amphitheatre (beautiful, even though the sound is too quiet), GREAT crowd.

 

I'll tell you what happened after the show. We walked out of the right side of the amphitheatre when we came in on the left, and holy shit we had a very hard time finding the car (aka what Mary Ann named it: Vanessa, haha). I was under the impression it was on the entire other side of the amphitheatre, but it really wasn't. We argued, we looked, and we walked for like 20 minutes. Maybe it was longer, but I'm not sure. I was so fucking hot and tired, and it was unbelievable to me that we couldn't find this thing. FINALLY Preston actually found it himself, which I thought was heroic haha, and we drove off. What sucked is that we had the all night drive back to Atlanta left.

 

After picking up some McDonalds, Preston hit the passenger seat, I collapsed in the back after calling some folks, and we began the trek back to Preston's house. What a drive. Whatever time we got in (I am pretty damn sure it was after 6 or 7am) we just collapsed. I mean after Charlotte we were tired, but after Tampa we were exhausted. The power was actually out for some reason, meaning I couldn't check LPLive, but I was way too tired to do it anyway. I found my familiar spot on his floor and slept really well, as I'm sure both of them did.

 

Aaaand more in the Atlanta review about the final day of our Projekt Revolution 2008 Southeast Roadtripping Tour

[lp12311]

Wow great review! I was there too! Did you get into the M&G?

Edited December 3, 2008 by lp12311

[hahninator]

Nope, sure didn't LOL. I applied for all 5 shows and got NOTHING. But that's ok. I had a really good time at this show. If you attend another show in the south, let me know and we can say hi.

[lp12311]

Dang that stinks man. Great review!

[LPxDC]

nice review man. thats awesome. cant wait to see ATL 08

[hahninator]

It is taking so long to write LOL. Notice the others went up 2 nights ago. Tampa took a long time. Atlanta will be MASSIVE.

 

And then I need Preston to write one too because his opinion of the show is different and he might catch some details I missed. I especially would like you all to hear his stolen camera story. He also had pit in Tampa so I mean of course he will have an entirely new perspective.

[BBBruno]

Great review =]

 

This show was in my birthday =]

[linkinmetalfanatic]

nice review man

[And One LTU]

What a great review... I've just listened to Tampa DSP... I believe that this is incredible show... Best of Projekt Revolution 2008. Especially I love Papercut intro and Faint outro, which reminds me Rock Am Ring 2007