03.08.2008 - Atlanta, GA, Lakewood Amphitheatre

[hahninator]

The time came for the last day of our PR08 Southeast Tour. We woke up really excited for the *PERFECT* day...being able to see every band at our favorite venue - Lakewood. Lakewood's sound and atmosphere is unbeatable and in my opinion it's the best venue I've ever been to. Pooch mixes the fuck out of the sound at the place and with the classic vines growing on the concrete walls, it echoes perfectly to create THE sound of the show.

 

So we got up a tad late as always...I mean every time we plan to get up, it will always be 2 or 3 hours later than it originally is supposed to be. That goes for all of us. I was late to Charlotte and whenever we tell Preston to get up, I mean it's impossible. He's an absolute animal when it comes to sleep...even though I do the same, we are constantly waking up late, but that's fine since we all get extra rest. Well so today I decided to talk on AIM and post on LPLive...let everyone know what the deal was with the day being the last show.

 

I headed downstairs to see what the deal was because I hadn't properly talked to Preston's mom since we left...I mean how awkward is it when some friend of your son shows up at the house at 4am after a concert, lol. I managed to say a quick hey in the morning before we left for Florida but the morning of Atlanta I explained to her more about me, etc. Well anyway the day was a BIG FUCKING DAY. Not just because of the show but it was Preston's birthday!!! The big 2-0 for him. I was really excited but also worried because I had no idea what I was going to get him. Mary Ann and I had talked all summer about getting a Meet and Greet and having a birthday card signed for him, but knowing my luck, I didn't get a fucking M&G! Darn. Well I took a glorious picture of Preston because his mom made me, haha. We all were in really good spirits for the day actually, with Preston's mom having balloons and all sorts of stuff...I mean the atmosphere was upbeat and perfect for the last show. However, I still had to figure out what to get him and later you will find out it was not an easy task.

 

We left the house around noon to head to The Varsity in downtown Atlanta. For those of you non-Atlanta folks out there, The Varsity is THE place to be. It's the greasy, famous, epic fast food place right smack downtown that everyone in the southeast knows by name. We wanted the day to be epic so we started it off perfect there. Two chili cheese dogs, fries and a soda for me. I knew that couldn't be healthy especially after I had lost my mind the night before...sweating a ton, etc without really drinking anything more than soda and one water. No healthy food or anything, so I was sure I'd pay for it later. Anyway we got a table that Mary Ann picked for us, and after Preston and I came back with the food we enjoyed a nice lunch talking about the rest of the day. I'm glad Preston picked The Varsity that day...nice choice.

 

Leaving The Varsity, we booked it to the famous Lakewood Amphitheatre. The location is absolutely perfect...just maybe 2-3 miles south of the city. We parked and headed right in with plenty of others, and everything was going great when the first surprise happened. We happened to see 10 Years (minus Jesse) walking outside of the gates back to the Rev Stage buses parked pretty close to our cars. Very nice! I almost said something but I don't know why I didn't. Oh well!

 

We prayed we'd make it through security with Preston's camera. I made it in Tampa but I wanted him to handle it this time. Some people will consider it professional but it's really not since you can't remove the lenses from it. Mary Ann and I made it but he was held up a little...I'll let him tell you that story later. Anyway, straight to the Revolution Stage we went! Atlanta was a special show that was getting 3 local bands to open up the Rev Stage and it was supposed to be filmed by an MTV2 crew or something. Well obviously MTV2 wasn't there, lol, but the first band was about done when we arrived. They were decent, I have to give it to them. Anyway we worked our way to about 6th row or so when Armor For Sleep came on.

 

I do have to fucking admit, Armor For Sleep ROCKED it. They are not what I thought they would be. I was kinda bummed I didn't see them at the other shows actually. I mean they aren't any Linkin Park or 10 Years or anything but they are a solid opening act. Very nice. I only knew Williamsburg and Hold The Door, but that was fine...I got into their set. Maurice came out and said "We were in south Florida yesterday and couldn't use any profanity...but please make some noise for us toda-" and was interrupted by some guy saying "FUCK YOU!" ahaha, epic. Well he introduced Armor For Sleep and they promptly said "YO WHAT THE FUCK IS UP YOU SMELLY MOTHERFUCKERS?" Haha. Atlanta was fucking HOT that day and that was an appropriate way to start the entire day.

 

They were sick, I have to give it to them. There was a tiny pit behind me, etc. After they played, that's when Preston, Mary Ann and I got separated until later in the day. They wanted me to save their spot and I dunno why I didn't, but I went with them to get some water. It was really hot and I was sweating a good bit by the time the 30 min Armor For Sleep set was over. I just walked around and actually they disappeared when I turned around, but it was alright I guess.

 

I decided to walk over to the main amphitheatre, where Street Drum Corps was going a soundcheck. It was hilarious hearing them mess around saying stuff like "Man it sure is fun to be out hear so early. I mean more people are out here right now than there are for our regular set!" Funny since of course there was NOONE in the seats since they hadn't opened so early in the day yet. I went to the left side of the venue and browsed by the Projekt 96.1 tent, and then went back to the Rev Stage area. Long, hot walk really. At this point, Hawthorne Heights was beginning to play.

 

I was ready to check out the good ole Music For Relief tent, where I ran into ole Amanda working the booth. We greeted and said hi and talked, and it was nice to just have a moment and see what was going on over there. Street Drum Corps was going to do a signing, and some other bands were going to do one there too I think. I talked to her and Missy (MFR Chief) and we shared news and thoughts of the tour so far. I bought a Music For Relief bandanna from her (which I had wanted since they had come out) and just chilled until Hawthorne Heights were done. I heard their set from a distance and it sounded awful, so that was fine with me.

 

Next was 10 Years. I was super pumped since they rocked it in West Palm. This is where I was planning to meet up with AJ, but it never happened...my fault. I was going to meet him after the 10 Years set but my friend Greg showed up so I just talked to him instead since he knew the 10 Years sound guy. Anyway I just propped up on the rail on the right side of the soundboard and enjoyed 10 Years. "AAAATTTTLLLLL" screamed Jesse, and Russian Roulette kicked in. It was a very solid set and I was fucking impressed. 10 Years won me over at Proj Rev. They brought a ton of energy. Prey and Beautiful were great. They had some pits going for them for sure. Then came my favorite song later on in the set...Actions & Motives. Hands up clapping with everyone and I was rocking to it. The band was really on and I was having a really good time.

 

After they tore me up with Actions & Motives, they slowed it down with the song So Long, Good-Bye which I love, and then Waking Up followed by the almighty...Wasteland! The place went nuts on Wasteland, man....it was sick as fuck. Everyone's hands were up, everyone's heads were bobbing. They really do have a good fanbase in Atlanta it seems. Anyway after we sang that, they launched into the SICK outro and rocked us like no other band had that day. 10 Years was very impressive, and their Atlanta show was a big factor in why Preston and I went to Buzzfest in September in the almighty Nashville.

 

Well 10 Years finished and Greg came to talk to the sound guy for 10 Years and we had a nice little chat together. Greg and I decided to go walk around, etc. After the first few songs from Atreyu didn't look very promising (not NEARLY as good as West Palm), we went to sit at a bench and talk about some other shows and such. We went back to the MFR booth and grabbed a few waters courtesy of Amanda and just roamed. Atreyu finally finished, so Greg went to grab some pizza. I found Preston and Mary Ann at the merch booth, where we all got a shirt (and they got the show poster). They went to grab their seats, so I followed. Even though my seat was in another section, I found them and just stayed there.

 

Street Drum Corps...eh. Decent. I liked them in Tampa better. Atlanta wasn't really anything special to be honest. I was going to use the time to meet up with AJ, but he was already in the pit according to his text messages. ASHES dIVIDE came on and holy their their bass was ROCKIN'. Their mixer cranked them loud as hell because Preston and I both looked at each other right when they opened with The Stone. The bass was vibrating my entire body, but I loved it and it reminded me just why Lakewood was such a good amphitheatre. I'm sure Preston was thinking the same thing because we both just laughed, leaned back and soaked it all in.

 

During the break, Greg found me and he sat down next to us...saying he had enjoyed ASHES dIVIDE from the lawn. The Bravery came on and they weren't anything special either really. I didn't enjoy them that much in Atlanta as much as I did in Florida. Atlanta was mainly about Chris and Linkin Park.

 

After all of that, Chris came on. Finally I was pumped again. Cochise led that shit off and everyone stood up in appreciation. What pissed me off in Atlanta was these dumbass girls behind us that sat through the entire Cornell set. They didn't get into LP either...what a bunch of fools. I was rocking along with Chris for mostly his entire set. I made sure to film Hunger Strike at this show. I never told you guys that I tried to film it in Tampa either, haha. I shot it and had it nicely but when Chester came out I absolutely broke down and screamed and everything, LOL. What a loser. In Atlanta I was definitely going to get it, so that I did. I think I got a pretty good video, so go check that out on Preston's YouTube... http://www.youtube.com/zuben7o7

 

I recorded Be Yourself since that one was great too. Part of Long Gone also. Chris really did well performing Long Gone and Watch Out off the new album....I really enjoyed them. Both of them are excellent live. What the treat was for us was after Like A Stone (Acoustic) he started talking about how Atlanta was special to him and stuff, and then went into Fell On Black Days (Acoustic)!! That is the only time on the tour he did it, so it was really special. Black Hole Sun rocked. Rusty Cage rocked. Chris Cornell got a fucking great crowd in Atlanta for that show and I'm glad...he deserved it. He is a great rockstar and his live sets are excellent.

 

Then it was time for the main attraction. The main act. The thing we all came for. Linkin motherfuckin' Park.

 

I was so excited because it was all 3 of us together at this show and we were just going to lose it. I moved down to the left past Preston so I could have a lot of room, and I was set. The lights went down and it was fuckin' go time. We were ready for LP to rock our faces off again. SDC walks out and starts bangin' away as I sway from side to side and get ready for some epic LP'ness.

 

After all the "HA's" and "HUH's" from them we finally got it....CLICK CLICK....BOOOOM. The OSC sample ripped through our skulls as the intro sample started over purple and white lights. Tap tap tap tap, and Brad comes right in with the guitar. We are definitely getting into it....banging our heads to the intro, and finally the song kicks in...Chester runs out across the stage, the pit jumps, the crowd jumps, we jump, and everyone's going fucking crazy. Hell yeah, One Step Closer to start it off again. The crowd is loving it. Awesome as hell bridge and ending, and then it was time for the outro, which I let loose on again. They finish it up and Atlanta lets them know what's up.

 

I already had my hand up as soon as the LFY intro started, well before Mike asked for it, and soon after he asked if we were ready to rock tonight, everyone else joined in. Rob built up the drums and they kicked in some Lying From You. Both LFY and SIB were epic. Tonight was not a night about critiquing the songs...it was about just letting off any energy we still had from the last few shows and just having a good time. And that's what we did.

 

After I rocked it to the SIB ending drums, the lights cut out and here came No More Sorrow. I was going to film it this time, so I pulled the camera out. This is the funny moment Preston always refers to me with, because you know me...I don't pay attention to the specifics on the guitars and stuff, but during the intro I was like "Is this Mike?", hah. Anyway yeah that was him doing the intro of course, and so I put the camera up deciding not to film the rest of the intro and instead clap along with the rest of the crowd. The blue lights and fog on the intro is really epic. Brad did something I've been wanting to hear from him too...the part where he does kind of a countdown with the ebow sound. Dun, dun DUNNNNNN as he starts his part. Pretty cool.

 

No More Sorrow rocked. Chester tore the fucking micstand up AGAIN as always lol, and we sang with him on the bridge as he usually wants us to. Next came Papercut. Mike didn't really say anything except to make noise for Hahn and did ask for the oldschool fans at the end. We fucking kicked it and I was giving it everything I had on Papercut. It's such a good song with Mike all over the place and Chester screaming the random backing vocals. Great performance.

 

Points with the Petrified verse 2 intro just like the night before, and off we went. Hands up and everything. The outro was very nice...I enjoy seeing Mike do There They Go over it. Next came Wake 2.0 which of course I like too...and then Given Up, with me of course having the hands up ASAP. Sick as fuck bridge and outro, and after that we got some epic From The Inside lights. Those are really great to see. Preston and I had a moment and just both took it in as we watched the cool production on the intro. Chester unfortunately didn't do a good scream this time, ehh.

 

Mike took a moment and said that we had some big ass bugs and Chester told a story about seeing a bug in Tampa that was so big that he shit his pants, haha. Ok what happened next was pretty cool. In 2007 they wanted lights up for Shadow Of The Day, but the shows I had seen so far they really hadn't took a moment for us to pull the lights out. Well, on Leave Out All The Rest, they did, and I spent some time just checking out the thousands of lights that were all up at once. Very very nice. That's a cool part of the show. I guess you can thank LOATR for that...I guess there's no purpose for it other than that LOL.

 

Numb, which wasn't anything special (I think they should put it only in 1 setlist) and then the piano outro, which I took the camera back out for. I filmed the intro to Little Things as well as the entire song, so that gave me something to do. I tried to get Phoenix singing, Brad's guitar solo, etc...the camera on everyone at the right time but it was really hard because of the douchebags in front of me. Speaking of douchebags, does anyone know how to shut their fucking mouths on the intro? Seriously, please shut the fuck up when I'm trying to listen to Mike play the TLTGYA intro. People in Atlanta in 2007 knew how to do it but in 2008 it was like the IQ of the crowd was similar to a rock.

 

Anyway, BTH came on and I was going to film Mike again. This time I had enough space to film the whole show since we unloaded the camera before the show, but as I was going from Chester to Mike on the bridge, I forgot where Mike was! It was almost like his keyboard moved halfway across the stage because I was really late on filming him during the bridge, and therefore missed his headbanging. That was alright though since I got it in Tampa. The outro was nice as always, and off we were into Shadow.

 

Nothing special, I just filmed it all really...getting Chester on guitar, etc. Crawling was nice. I filmed the intro but I think I accidentally deleted it, lmao. I sang the regular part of the song with Chester, and then filmed Chris coming back out. Cool as usual. I fucking love the intro, let me just say that again for the 4th review in a row, hah.

 

During In The End, they didn't cut the guitar for us, but shit we gave it everything we had and I bet they sure wished they had cut the guitar! We were very very loud and I was proud of the crowd.

 

Encore time. We hammered the seats with everything we had, and then here came the familiar opening sound of the What I've Done intro. That thing is still sick as fucking hell, and I LOVE hearing it live. The ambience is cool and everything, and it's nice seeing the lights and everything build up to the epic Mike Shinoda keyboard piece. The crowd erupted of course, and the song was pretty much normal.

 

I think both Preston and I were kind of both on the same page when we realized the songs that night weren't TOP notch. I mean LP was performing normally, but not EXCEPTIONALLY. We planned to go fucking crazy on Faint, and I think we both knew it when the intro started too. All three of us just started jumping with everything we had and going nuts on the entire song. The choruses, the bridge, everything. It was hilarious because we both did what I did in Tampa during the outro - we grabbed the seats in front of us and just slung ourselves back to front, front to back to the instrumental. Hell yeah. We were using everything we had left to go as fucking insane as possible at the end of Faint. It was really a nice way to end things on the road trip....losing our minds to LP jam out on the end of Faint.

 

Now I should take the time and tell you about these girls behind us. I am pretty sure they got all this shit on footage since they had their camera out on the Faint intro. I sure wish they would have uploaded it to YouTube, lol. They must have thought we were NUTS on Faint, but who the fuck cares, it's Linkin Park. Speaking of who the fuck cares, there was this like 45-50 year old lady next to me. During one of my jump-fests, I landed on her feet once but she didn't care. I mean this lady was going ballistic to LP. How awesome, I thought. She lost it on Faint too. I guess LP just has that effect on people. It was so funny seeing her go as wild as us when these 20-something year old girls behind us didn't even fucking move during the show. lmao!

 

Encore break 2 and Rob's drum solo. Everyone came running back of course as Preston said, and the song was a very normal performance. I rapped and sang and everything, and then just headbanged it out to LP jamming the outro. It's fun to just give all you have left on the ending to Bleed It Out....I thought it was fun.

 

Unfortunately LP couldn't even come CLOSE to their performance in Atlanta in 2007. I mean 07 blows their 08 performance the fuck away, but one thing was for sure...Faint in 08 was great. It was a good way to end the shows and celebrate the end of the last one. I met up with Pooch after the show, thanked him for everything the last 3 shows and everything. One thing that saved my day, check this out. It was Preston's birthday, remember!? Well after we took a picture of all 3 of us, I went to Pooch and since Pooch knew it was his birthday, he gave me a guitar pick to give to Preston. How badass!!! That was very nice of him. I didn't ask for it or anything...I wouldn't ASK Pooch for anything that I wanted to keep in my possession, but he offered it and I mean that was pretty sincere of him. Great guy.

 

As we were leaving, we got into the car and started driving off, but wait. Of course there were black people all over the sides of the parking lot selling the illegal ripoff shirts. As we were waiting to get out of the parking lot, holy SHIT this motherfucking cop comes out of NOWHERE and just absolutely 50mph tackles this black guy INTO THE CAR IN FRONT OF US. Absolutely hilarious. We flipped and were laughing really hard. I mean I've never heard the words "Holy shit" from 3 people so much in my life...we thought it was a riot. This black guy was laying there and the cop was yelling "GET THE FUCK UP OR YOU'RE GOING TO JAIL" and all this crap at him. It was soooo great. I'm sure these guys in front of us were like WTF when some cop tackles a guy into their car and leaves a dent in the side. I mean that was some epic stuff. The cop just absolutely assraped this guy so badly and it was HILARIOUS. Right before he got tackled, the black guy threw all the fake shirts under our car and the car in front of us, but that didn't stop the cop. Amazing.

 

We yelled at all the other ones when we left, saying "YOU BETTER RUN NOW BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE", etc, and all that crap, but man that was fucking FUNNY. I have never seen a cop bust the fuck out of nowhere so quickly before in my life. It was like a sped up film or something, but that black guy got hit so hard he had NO idea what was going on. So great. What a way to end it. And that's the way I'll end it with you guys. A great run of shows for all 3 of us...good times with all of us...Mary Ann and Preston and I had a blast and can't wait to do it again at the next show!

[lp12311]

Why couldn't they use profanity in South Florida?

[hahninator]

Why couldn't they use profanity in South Florida?

I guess since the Tampa venue is so close to homes and shit, they have that huge sound restriction which BLOWS, and I think profanity comes along with it, lmao.

 

That entire thing is fucked up. Why the fuck do you build homes next to an amphitheatre? Why live there if you don't like it? Get the hell away and stop complaining, you're ruining shows for us.

[Ethanmr909]

That is an awesome review man! I absolutely had the best time of my life at this show! I was thinking about writing a review for it, but thank you for doing a much better job then I would've haha. I absolutely lost it reading that because I swear to you, my friend Matt and I were the ones that yelled FUCK YOU at Armor for Sleep, right in the dead center front of the revolution stage area. I haven't laughed that hard in so long, because you actually remembered that. The Hawthorne Heights singer also called me out as I was taking my shirt off, he said something like "Hell yeah, this guy knows it's a rock show, he's taking his shirt off." haha I'm so fucking glad you wrote that about Armor for Sleep, made my week.

[lp12311]

I guess since the Tampa venue is so close to homes and shit, they have that huge sound restriction which BLOWS, and I think profanity comes along with it, lmao.

 

That entire thing is fucked up. Why the fuck do you build homes next to an amphitheatre? Why live there if you don't like it? Get the hell away and stop complaining, you're ruining shows for us.

Yeah that venue was really weird lol. But LP used profanity, I wonder why they were allowed and the others weren't?

[linkinmetalfanatic]

man i wish i could see LP that many times,. but didnt you get sick of the setlist?

[hahninator]

lmao, no idea at the profanity. pretty funny though.

 

man i wish i could see LP that many times,. but didnt you get sick of the setlist?

nope. I only saw the same setlist twice, and of course every show is different even though the setlists are the same, so it was ok.

 

I forgot to mention the epic BIO intro in Atlanta, lol. Brad missed his cue and so Rob went and had to continue the solo. Then Brad came walking out hunched over the guitar from backstage. Hilarious. He went and stood on Rob's small drum riser at the front of the stage, then here came Mike descending from the fog and red lights on top of the stage. Preston and I were like "OH LOOK AT MIKE" lol.

 

Epic as fuck.