Has LP ever surprised you live?

[hahninator]

Has LP ever caught you off guard live and played or did something you didn't think they would do? My examples (in order of coolest) are below. I've seen a good number of LP shows so I've been surprised a few times.

 

- Honda Civic Tour had some great surprises for me. I didn't know the setlists at all before the tour. The medley of 4 songs in Bristow surprised the hell out of me at the rehearsal as well as With You opening, WTCFM surprised me at the Bristow show, the encore surprised me at that show (LITE, WID, OSC), Mansfield surprised me in a bad way by dropping Runaway and Blackout, Wantagh surprised me by having LFY added mid-set randomly (really caught me off guard mid-show), and Camden I suspected APFMH would open but still that surprised me and also the epic encore really was the best surprise I've ever had with LP. So good. And WTCFM in Camden surprised me because I was sure it'd only be in 1 setlist.

 

- Bleed It Out in Tampa in 2011. After being pretty bummed at seeing the ATS tour main setlist for the 2nd show in a row (after Australia had some new setlists, wtf), I was stoked for APFMH over BIO. Except what happened was they did BITS over APFMH. I had APFMH over it at the show before in Sunrise and I was raving about how epic it was literally the whole day of the Tampa show. So they did BITS and I was literally as bummed as it gets haha. Papercut and APFMH are pretty much my favorite LP tracks and when Mike started BITS I said "damnnnnnnnn what a bummer". Except right after it, he broke into APFMH. And I fucking exploded. Caught me as off guard as it can get. Really awesome - one of the best LP live highlights I've experienced.

 

- Papercut in Atlanta in 2011. We saw the new setlist before the show and we were pretty stoked for it. Except we heard they changed back to the setlist we had seen the last 2 shows. Darn. So Requiem comes on to start the show and they went into Papercut. For a second I thought they were going to play a DIFFERENT new setlist but no, they just changed Papercut with Wretches. Still though, it was nice to be caught off guard. The crowd didn't really give a shit though unfortunately. To this day LPFreak64 (Miles) and I still joke about being victims of the "2011 Atlanta plot twist" haha.

 

- Bleed It Out at my first show in Atlanta in 2007. I totally forgot they were doing the slow -> fast outro (yes I had the Seattle recording before the show). After the song ended they broke into it and it really caught me off guard. Pretty sweet.

 

- On PR08 since We Made It was dropped from all 3 sets and my shows were the next appearances for a few of those setlists, I was pretty positive they'd bring back Reading My Eyes or A Place For My Head. Nope. I guess that's an example of being surprised in a bad way haha. I think in 2 of the sets they just put CFTI in and in the other they didn't do anything.

[[AndOne]]

- Berlin 2007: My first LP show and probably the one with the most surprises for me ever. It was the first public 2007 show and we knew nothing about the set. Not even how many new songs they were going to play or how long the show was going to be. During the M&G Mike revealed it was 3 MTM songs. No More Sorrow and Given Up premiere was epic. It's something completely different if you hear the live version of a song first. But the biggest mindfuck was that the show opened with One Step Closer, which was ALWAYS the last song until this very show. So the first song was OSC what no one expected and I was just thinking, wow anything is possible tonight. The new extended Faint outro was a huge surprise too.

 

- Frankfurt 2008: I already knew the set, it was basically the same from the night before but they added Papercut, that did surprise me.

 

- Köln 2008: They premiered a new setlist there so that was a big surprise too. I think that was the only time I saw Wake/Given Up open a show. My December was a surprise. For the first encore they brought out the keyboard again and I was like, what could they possibly play now, they already played My December, Numb and Breaking The Habit, it turned out to be the premiere of In Between, that was really cool. 2nd encore with A Place For my Head and One Step Closer was the icing on the cake. Awesome setlist.

 

- Zürich 2009: Hands Held High over Crawling.

 

- Rock im Park 2012: When they stopped Bleed It Out before the Sabotage bridge and someone proposed on stage

 

- Bristow 2012 rehearsal: we could hear the band play but not very clearly from the VIP area we were in while we waited, it sounded very distant and echoy, even though the stage was not that far away and they played the Victimized/QWERTY for the first time, and I was like: what the fuck was that? They played it again, then me and Richard were sure what it was. I went to Mark and sad "idid you just hear that?" "What?" "They just played Victimized with QWERTY" He said "No?" and I was like "Dude are you retarded or something, how did you not hear that" I totally lost it lmao.

[Astat]

I think there have been moments that caught me off guard at all 4 shows I've been to:

 

Cuyahoga Falls 2004: I saw this show at the point where NO recordings of the tour had surfaced yet, so I knew the setlist, but the last recording I had to go by was Rock Am Ring, so I didn't know about the little changes like the slightly altered Don't Stay intro, the new BTH/Numb transition, the new intro to Figure.09 and the Figure.09/From the Inside transition (I had heard about the latter obviously, but didn't have a clue what it sounded like). I was also pleasantly surprised to get Bert on Faint AND Jonathan on OSC at the same show, as I don't think too many shows got both. Some of Chester's stage banter was just priceless that night too..."Someone's hand went up my ass...I don't think I've ever been fisted before, that was kind of awesome!"

 

Cuyahoga Falls 2007: Debuts of new piano intros to Breaking the Habit and TLTGYA, as well as the changed-up piano parts to Pushing Me Away. I was also relieved to catch QWERTY because I knew it tended to be the first song they'd cut out of Set B if they had to drop one (and it ended up only lasting one more show on the tour). The Points of Authority ending that went on FOREVER was hysterical too.

 

Cuyahoga Falls 2008: Got surprised in a bad way at this show when I heard Remember the Name blasting from the second stage while I was stuck in line at the merch booth...pretty sure that was only the second time Mike joined SOB on that tour? Mike also went into the Just Like Heaven piano part after Numb at this show, and I just about freaked out because they were basically NEVER playing that anymore at that point, but he wound up not singing over it. Brad's epic fail on the outro of In Pieces that actually prompted a look of disgust from Mike was pretty funny too.

 

St. Paul 2011: Got to see a new setlist debut at this show, which included the U.S. debut of Burning in the Skies. The piano transition from What I've Done into Empty Spaces/WTCFM also totally caught me off guard, as did the short-lived "slow encore" that started with Wisdom, Justice and Love, Iridescent, and Shadow of the Day. The sub blast at the very end of Jornada Del Muerto also scared the shit out of me, wasn't expecting it to be that loud.

Edited March 18, 2013 by Astat

[RogueSoul]

Have to say seeing the House Of Blues set earlier this year and VIC/QWERTY almost made me shit my pants.

[hahninator]

Mike also went into the Just Like Heaven piano part after Numb at this show, and I just about freaked out because they were basically NEVER playing that anymore at that point, but he wound up not singing over it.

Ah yes I had that in West Palm Beach too and I was like WOW until he didn't sing it. I think we should add it to the show pages and put something like "Piano Only, No Vocals" or something. I don't think that many shows had it. Looks like Burgettstown had a tease, Wantagh had it, VA Beach had a tease, WPB had it, so I guess just Set Y on PR08.

[JanekZech]

-Stuttgart 2009: Mike rapping RME over the POA outro, I freaked out and people were staring at me, apparently i was the only one in that part of the venue to recognize the song haha

 

-Hamburg 2010: during the BIO bridge, Chester started singing the APFMH bridge after Mike did his verse, that was a real surprise and it was probably my personal Linkin Park live highlight

[michalangelo]

Hannover 2008: APFMH now that's a BIG surprise! + a new show setlist but still when Brad started the intro to APFMH most of the hardcore LP fans were like WTF is that? In a positive way And the Just Like Heaven cover

 

 

London 2010 night 2: NMS instead of POA, two fans playing Faint \m/ and yeah, the acoustic set on the summit!

 

Two (or 5)biggest surprises ever for me (counting shows I've been to)

Edited March 18, 2013 by michalangelo

[LinkinMark]

iTunes Festival 2011: Adele cover which was good. I was more excited when I heard the Burning In The Skies intro come on...UK debut for that song.

[ChuckCheese]

Charlotte, NC 2007 - Knew nothing about the setlist going into this. NMS as an opener made me shit my pants and I lost it. Was shocked that they played HHH live also. Lost my mind again when I realized Mike was rapping some Fort Minor over the intro to Points, thought he was gonna do all of Petrified at first, lol. Motherfucking QWERTY was the biggest shock of the night though, never thought I'd see that monster of a song live in its entirety. Rob's solo on BIO also excited me.

 

Madison Square Garden 2011 - Knew all about the sets and everything, was surprised and excited to see them play my favorite set that was being rotated though, which was the Faint opener. SO happy to see FTI played here too. They randomly tossed in BTH at this show, which wasn't on that set at any other show, which was cool. Mike never came in at all for his part and they all joked about it afterwards, pretty funny. WTCFM opening the epic ass encore was a shock too, awesome live song.

 

Bristow, VA 2012 - Fucking Game of Thrones theme opening the set into With You is as epic as it gets. Wasn't ready. Victimized / QWERTY debut if you don't count the rehearsal, which was fucking amazing. And of course that went on seamlessly into LFY / Papercut, so the madness that is that 4 song medley blew my mind. Fucking awesome.

[hahninator]

-Stuttgart 2009: Mike rapping RME over the POA outro, I freaked out and people were staring at me, apparently i was the only one in that part of the venue to recognize the song haha

How did I forget this one?? High Voltage intro was so cool, that REALLY surprised me since he hadn't tried that intro in ages before Stuttgart. But he fucked it up and went into Bloc Party but I thought that just made it more unique. Then as soon as it said "this comes from a request" I knew he was going to do RME. Can't believe with how nervous Anne was that she remembered to ask him to do it. That was luck too because I was going to ask him in Zurich if he was at the M&G to do RME...Jonas and I even told Pooch when we saw him before the M&G that Mike was going to rap RME over BIO haha. But we got Joe and Brad instead, so we asked for A.06 (which of course didn't happen). Anne said sure, she'd ask for RME over BIO and bam Mike did it over POA.

 

I thought he'd do it over BIO but it being over the POA outro was even better. So unique and cool. In 2007, 2008 and 2009 Mike took requests (like Step Up at WPB 2007, Athens 2009 with APFMH over POA, Stuttgart 2009 with RME)...really neat. At Alpharetta 2012 I asked him to do RME over BIO either before or after Sabotage and he flat out said no. Damn lol. Guess he isn't down to do it anymore.

 

That was such a fucking highlight. Literally the best moment of my Europe 2009 trip. Mike nailed it too. I was rocking big. Not a single person around me in the pit knew High Voltage or RME LOL. But damn they sure did know every single other part of the show other than DBS. Place was exploding. Being in the pit there for NMS was one of my live LP highlights. Stuttgart is the best crowd I've ever seen at a concert. I've never seen so many hardcore fans in one spot and it was like everyone was ready to rock the fuck out the entire show. What an encore!!

[Pez]

Heres a couple from the shows Ive been too.

 

-20/10/07 - Sydney, My first LP show. I kinda had an idea of what I was going to get set list wise from reading stuff off here, but I still was blown away when the lights went out and One Step Closer intro started with the Kubuki. It was a great "Welcome to your first Linkin Park show" for me. And mention goes to Faint with the extended Outro. That has always been one of my all time favorites and for it to close the show with that massive outro was something real special.

 

-04/12/10 - Newcastle, Well I was volunteering for MFR then so It was pretty much a score show for me. And I was lucky enough to get a M&G for the show. The rest is pretty much history. I was surprised when the guys said yes to getting me up on stage. I go from scoring the show through MFR, meeting the guys to playing with them in a matter of hours! So that was that! Plus I got access to the band and crews catering before the show. I dont know what was better, that or being on stage

 

-15/12/10 - Sydney Night two + Summit, There's a couple of mentions here. First goes to Blackout getting a run. It was debuted two nights before and I thought I wouldn't see it at all this tour (the one song off ATS I wanted to see live). So BANG There it was and it fucking rocked! Second goes to Bleed it out with the APFMH breakdown. I wanted to hear that real bad but only got BITS the other nights. But just my luck I got it. Lastly was the band letting me up a second time to play on Faint in front of an audience which family and friends were in, but not only that let me do it with Brad on bass. Will always be my favorite LP show without a doubt. You cannot top that moment.

 

-24/02/13 - Sydney Soundwave, After already being on a buzz from the Brisbane show the night before and meeting the band before the show, words cannot explain that feeling when I had when I could here that Synth part of Intro for APFMH. I remember just loosing my shit. I waited since my very first show to see that live. And boy did the guys deliver. The crowd went nuts! I'll also mention the stopping of POA by Chester when he saw the guy having trouble in the pit. I had seen them do this before in the past on videos etc but it feels completely different when your in the crowd. And not only did they surprise me, they surprised everyone else in the crowd. They gained a lot of respect by the crowd knowing they give a fuck about the people down there in the pit. Awesome moment.

 

27/02/13 - Melbourne Sidewave, When I heard Tinfoil/Faint I knew this show wasn't going to be as spectacular as the night before. But come Encore, Mike gave us the choice between A Place For My Head and In The End. Being in the middle of bit you could hear ITE was getting all the votes but the band played APFMH anyway. That was real cool of them. And then Rob threw the drum solo in surprisingly as well. Those two things pretty much made the show for me.

 

02/03/13 - Adelaide Soundwave, This one isn't so much a LP surprise, but I thought it was worthy of a mention. I chose to hang this one out at the back of the D barrier because my ribs were looking nice and blackish after being on the barrier for the other shows. I met a dude who was hanging up the back next to me, he wasn't an LP fan but was hanging around to watch Metallica afterwards. By the time LP got into Somewhere I belong he turned to me and said "This performance alone is worth the price of my ticket". For someone to say that about the guys performance is pretty cool.

 

I also want to make an honorable mention to two shows I was watching online. First goes on iTunes festival, the guys pulling Rolling In The Deep out in the encore surprised me. I thought that would be a LPU summit only thing but they ended up working into the set. And not only that, every now and again I see MTV, Channel V or one of our TV music channels play that performance randomly. Second pretty much goes to the entire iHeartRadio set the guys did recently. Opening the show with ITE which had that Piano intro was a massive surprise. Not only that but cutting verses out of songs was something I didn't see coming. Basically half the set was all abbreviated songs. So yeah, that was an interesting performance to watch, especially when I had no idea on what was coming.

[Geki]

Yes, a couple times.

 

Bamboozle 2007 - It was my first LP show, so I didn't know what to expect at all. It was one of the best days of my life. Got a meet and greet and got my copy of HTEP signed, also got to take pics with the band members. The only show they played Runaway at throughout the entire MTM and ATS touring cycles. I used to think this would be the last performance of Runaway ever until they brought it back in 2012. Also I wasn't expecting Chester to try and bring out his son Tyler, he told the crowd it was also his son's first concert ever. Epic. Faint outro blew my mind.

 

Manchester, NH 2008 - They played Umbrella cover for the second time ever. Took me by surprise, but was awesome. Epic show as well. Glad it had My December and A Place For My Head plus other awesome songs. Also great energy.

 

Edgefest 2008 - The band played BTH in full piano version, then proceeded with Pushing Me Away in piano version, and then Mike rapped HHH over the WID intro, they then went into What I've Done. The only show the band has ever opened with BTH in front of a crowd on just in general I think, and it took everyone by surprise. Really cool opening.

 

Mansfield 2008 - It was the first PR 08 show, so nobody knew what to expect really in terms of setlist. Chester came out on Hunger Strike which wasn't a LP performance but still fucking epic and it took me and everyone by surprise. I still love that cover today. And also, Chris coming out on Crawling was really epic as well. Never expected that. I also didn't know LP would be doing We Made It during their set, I expected it during Busta's set to be honest. Great show even though they didn't play my favorite LP track, WID due to time constraints.

 

NYC 2010 - The band opened with The Requiem/The Radiance/New Divide, the only time all 3 have opened together at a show. It was fucking epic. The whole crowd was rocking. Great set and great energy. ATS was also released the same day which added to the awesomeness.

Edited March 19, 2013 by Geki

[SOHAIL_Lq]

if you're taging (if you were surprised in a ive show) then I'm v unlucky to post something here

[lpplus]

I wasn't in LP's shows till today but I think "QWERTY" is the biggest LP surprise ever.

[maxstar]

2012, show in Ukraine. I was expecting common festival set and was REALLY surprised to hear BLACKOUT in live

That was pretty awesome!!!

 

2011, Moscow. Iridescent single version!!! That was really great, sweet and powerful!!!

Edited March 19, 2013 by Maxthunderer

[charv3z]

When chester and mike did Numb/Encore after numb!

[lakersfan13]

Game of Thrones at Nissan last year for sure. It caught me completely off guard and was such an epic way to begin the tour.

[lgr]

I've only seen them once, and I wasn't a LPLer back then, so I guess the whole thing was a surprise. getting to hear New Divide felt pretty damned special back then though.

if anything, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked DBS, even if I thought they weren't really worth putting in the LP's encore...

[Dave-Stone55]

MSG 08- I had guessed the setlist would be the Wake / Given Up intro setlist, so I was incredibly psyched that my first LP show would be an M2M era show and STILL include APFMH. Definitely a highlight, In Between, My December, Don't Stay, and Points of Authority were also all huge surprises for me, it's like I knew they were coming but when they were actually played it made it so much more epic. Of course, the REAL surprise of MSG 08 is the one that NOBODY expected, the unexpected cameo by Jay-Z with the abbreviated Numb / Encore and extended Jigga What / Faint. It was certainly a huge treat and privilege for MSG to be my first Linkin Park show.

 

Best Buy Theater 2010- Setlist was great, didn't know what to expect AT ALL since it was one of the first shows. I'd already heard the album leak at the time, so I knew all the ATS songs, but I honestly hadn't been expecting to hear Wretches & Kings already, that was a huge plus The only bad surprise of that show was not getting to meet with any LPL members like planned (though LPxDC caught me on video apparently), and they didn't play Crawling, I was really looking forward to hearing that one live again.