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On a recent Instagram Q&A, Mike Shinoda revealed he has no plans to release more solo music at the moment, but he has been working with other artists as producer and songwriter. In addition, he said the Post Traumatic bonus tracks "Prove You Wrong" and "What The Words Meant" should be coming to streaming services soon.

 

Mastercard is working on rebranding themselves and asked none other than Mike Shinoda to reinterpret their new song. Check out a behind the scenes video here. Pictures here.

 

Mike has also collaborated with Felix Jaehn back in September 2017, with Sir Sly on their 3rd studio album, with AmirSaysNothing in February, and Taka Moriuchi from One Ok Rock has recently hinted on a future collaboration with Steve Aoki and Mike.

 

Update (20/02): Mike has confirmed via social media that the Post Traumatic Special Edition vinyl bonus tracks "Prove You Wrong" and "What The Words Meant" will be released digitally on Friday, February 22nd.

Mike Shinoda has played a private show at Mercedes-Benz USA Headquarters in Atlanta, GA on February 6th. The short set featured an special remix of “In The End” with vocals by audience members Farina and Dave Silva. Check our show page for more information.

 

Mike has announced two shows at Hangar 11 in Tel Aviv, Israel on March 25th and March 26th. Linkin Park performed only once in Israel, in 2010, making this Mike’s second time ever in the country.

 

It looks like the Post Traumatic Tour is coming to an end after those shows as Mike told Access Online the tour has already served its purpose. Read the interview here.

 

Strife Magazine is giving away tickets for Mike’s show in Amsterdam on March 21st. Access their Twitter page to know how to win.

Back in 2017, Grey Daze announced they would be playing a reunion show at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe, Arizona on September 23th with their new line-up consisting of: Chester Bennington, Sean Dowdell, Mace Beyers, Jason Barnes and Christin Davis. Besides the show, the band had entered the studio with producer Sylvia Massy with plans for a reworked edition of their sophomore album ...No Sun Today. Chester unfortunately passed away before they could finish it. Starting in early 2018, the band has given continuity to the project at the Salt Mine Studios and NRG Recording Studios with a number of special guests giving their input, including Ryan Shuck (Julien-K), Marcos Curiel (P.O.D.), Jaime Bennington (Chester’s son), Chris Traynor (Bush), Lucas D'Angelo (Betraying The Martyrs), Esjay Jones, Brian “Head” Welch and James "Munky" Shaffer (Korn).

 

Now the plans are for reinterpretations of both of Grey Daze’s studio albums, modernizing the music for the current market, and a documentary in tribute to Chester and his work with the band.

 

Check out a brief video about the band’s history here (more to come!):

 

In other news, as part of their Too Young To Die series, ARTE (Franco-German television network) will air Chester Bennington – A Voice of Pain, a 50-minute documentary about Chester’s life and music featuring interviews with fans, friends and family members. Tune in on March 1st at 9:50 PM CET to watch it.

 

Source: Rolling Stone

 

Update (22/02): Due to legal issues, the broadcast of the documentary has been cancelled.

“Cross Off,” Chester Bennington’s first posthumous single, has put him back on rock charts. The track, recorded for Lamb of God's Mark Morton solo album, debuted at No. 18 on the chart dated January 19th, with 2,000 downloads and 209,000 U.S. streams over the tracking week.

 

Source: Billboard

 

Linkin Park’s axeman, Brad Delson, has worked on Allan Rayman’s new album Harry Hard-On which was released on November 16, 2018. The album was produced by Andrew Dawson (additional producer on One More Light album), who co-wrote the track “Crush” with Rayman and Delson. Listen to the song below:

 

 

Thanks to lhcluiz for the heads up!

 

Last month Joe Hahn was in India shooting a documentary hosted by Kai Stuht, setting up portrait photography, working with dress-makers and doing street photography. Watch his interview with Red FM India below:

 

 

Source: Times Of India

 

In case you haven’t seen it yet, Joe has recently directed a video for Steve Aoki’s collaboration with BTS, “Waste It On Me.” Watch it here.

You got the year wrong.

 

 

2018?

 

It's 4:13am. Fixed.

With only three shows left this year, we were beginning to worry that there wouldn't be another show for awhile... but the wait just got a lot shorter! Dropping a big announcement today, Mike Shinoda (with Dan Mayo, Matt Harris, and the rest of the crew) confirms that the Post Traumatic Tour will be returning to Europe in 2019!

The sixteen show tour will be hitting the following stops in Europe:

2019.03.02 Berlin, Germany - Columbiahalle
2019.03.03 Bremen, Germany - Pier 2
2019.03.05 Hannover, Germany - Swiss Life Halle
2019.03.06 Oberhausen, Germany - Turbinenhalle Oberhausen
2019.03.08 Hamburg, Germany - Sporthalle

2019.03.09 Paris, France - Zenith
2019.03.10 London, England - Roundhouse
2019.03.12 Budapest, Hungary - Budapest Arena
2019.03.14 Milan, Italy - Fabrique
2019.03.15 Padova, Italy - Gran Teatro Geox
2019.03.17 Zurich, Switzerland - Halle 622
2019.03.18 Munich, Germany - Zenith
2019.03.19 Prague, Czech Republic - Forum Karlin
2019.03.21 Amsterdam, Netherlands - AFAS Live
2019.03.22 Ludwigsburg Germany - MHPArena
2019.03.23 Luxembourg, Luxembourg - Luxexpo

That's a pretty HUGE tour! Mike's previous European Tour this year took him to a couple countries hitting mostly festival. Europe's about to get the full treatment, seven shows in Germany (reminiscent of the 2014 Hunting Party Tour), TWO in Italy for the first time ever, and Mike's first performance EVER in Luxembourg.

Following massive shows at Reading and Leeds in 2017, Mike will return to the intimate Roundhouse in London for the first time since Linkin Park's show there on July 4, 2011. The tour will kick off at the exact venue that Linkin Park's 2001 European headlining tour kicked off at... Berlin's Columbiahalle.

Who's gonna buy tickets? Onsale times and sale times for both general and LPU are as follows (so get your wallets ready!):

• LPU Pre-Sale: Tuesday (11/27/18) @ 9am UK/10am CET
• Public On-Sale: Friday (11/30/18) @ 9am UK/10am CET

For full coverage of the tour and all the latest Mike Shinoda and Linkin Park news, be sure to hit us up on social media! Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for the latest updates, and join the LPLive Discord for discussion with fans around the world! Subscribe to our LPLive Archive YouTube Channel that is loaded with hours of rare content from the Linkin Park world - including videos from this past tour.

Check out the rest of Mike Shinoda's touring schedule here. With this tour announcement, we will be launching our 2019 Mike Shinoda page as well.

Big news!

 

Now we know what Mike has been working on.

Mike Shinoda will be releasing a 2 LP color vinyl for Post Traumatic that includes a 10" vinyl of two brand new songs. The release date is set for December 7th, and the price is $44.98.

 

1. Prove You Wrong

Following our report on November 6th of Mike working on new music this tour and possibly jamming new tunes at soundcheck, our friends at LPA have caught a nice update....

Around the Detroit show on the Post Traumatic Tour, Mike stopped in at Royal House Recording in Detroit, Michigan to work on new music. Joining him were "Motown Horns" and also Walter White on trumpet.

Find more photos of the session here.

Whatever is going on... new music seems to be on the horizon. Exciting!

As Mike Shinoda's North American Tour wraps up this week with shows in the northeast USA, fans may be disappointed to only see a few holiday radio shows on the schedule for after this tour. However, no worry, as we have learned that the Post Traumatic Tour will continue in 2019.

 

During a recent livestream on Instagram, Mike's multi-instrumentalist bandmate Matt Harris (ha... funny to introduce someone of Mike's that way when that's always how Mike himself is introduced) confirmed that Mike has him booked up in 2019 with touring. Dylan from LPLive actually is who popped the question to him, so thanks to Dylan for that.

 

There is new music being worked on right now, both with Mike solo and Mike with other artists, so 2019 looks to be very promising.

 

With how well the Post Traumatic Tour is going, it would not surprise us if it took another lap around the planet... Europe and South America specifically, but we'd love a second North American Tour next year if the time allows for it. Mike is having a blast on this tour and the fans undoubtedly are very appreciative of being able to see such an intimate, emotional show.

 

Where would you like to see Mike take the tour in 2019? A European headlining tour? Some South American dates? A visit to Australia? Opening for someone big in the USA next summer?

 

Check out Mike's tour dates for 2018 here including the rest of the North American Tour and the upcoming holiday radio shows as well as all past setlists here.

LPLive member "skyzlmt" made us aware of something interesting...

"Just as a note, There seemed to be some excessive filming for IOU last night in Chicago. Could be some live usage later in the future for it..."

 

Indeed, while Mike does have a crew member filming and/or taking photos during the show, this is a lot more intense than we've seen on any song during this tour. He's all over the stage during 'I.O.U.' which makes us think the footage could be for something more... like a new music video.

 

Check it out:

 

 

So far, 'I.O.U.', a fan favorite, is one of the remaining Post Traumatic songs to not have a music video. Mike said he would likely make videos for all of the songs on the album, so we will have to wait and see if 'I.O.U.' gets that treatment!

On the 12th Mike Shinoda takes his Post Traumatic Tour to Cincinnati, Ohio at Bogart's! This is the fourth to last show on the tour, with dates wrapping up in Boston, Detroit, and Silver Spring coming up.

 

At the last show in Chicago, Mike stuck pretty much to script, but did have a few cool highlights:

 

Invisible got its second performance ever with Mike's solo band. The drum solo on the bridge is something different, and was probably added to give Dan his solo since Invisible and Sorry For Now are rotating in the setlist.

 

With a run of In Stereo, I.O.U., and When They Come For Me in a row, there was no shortage of action in Chicago.

 

 

Until It Breaks was added to the set in the encore after Robot Boy and World's On Fire.

 

 

And finally... Lift Off was soundchecked again! This time, it was rehearsed with mashup lyrics from another song (unknown). Will we see the song pop up before the end of the tour? Recently, Matt confirmed that the world tour will continue in 2019, so we will have plenty of time to see more songs show up.

 

This will be Mike's first appearance in Cincinnati since Honda Civic Tour 2012, but Linkin Park did play in nearby Columbus for Rock on the Range in 2015.

 

Check out Mike's tour dates and past setlists here.

The show rolls on! Mike Shinoda takes the North American Post Traumatic Tour (Monster Energy Outbreak Tour) to Salt Lake City, Utah on November 8th!

 

We are actually surprised to see Salt Lake City on the tour's routing since Mike performed there in July for the LoveLoud event put on by Imagine Dragons. That was a fun show as we saw Mike open with "Castle Of Glass" and we had a special appearance by Phoenix for the first time, on "Running From My Shadow". That was Mike's very last show performing by himself before he added Dan and Matt to the world tour beginning in Asia about a week later.

 

 

At the last show in San Francisco, Mike completely flipped the setlist on its head and it took us actually several days to decipher what exactly occurred. That show featured a nine song encore for the first time, which broke the LPLive show page coding. Since we were only designed for eight song encores and never thought something like this could happen, we had to do some adjustments to fit all of the tracks. Clearly we weren't ready for this tour!

Mike brought "Place To Start" back for the first time in 32 shows, rapped "Hands Held High" verse 2 for the first time all tour, added "Petrified" and "Until It Breaks" to the encore at the last second, and managed to fit in the rare "Cigarettes" as well. Could this be the best setlist of the tour?

 

 

What to expect in Salt Lake City, you ask? Actually, we have no idea. Mike changed the set so much in San Francisco we aren't even sure what could occur here. "High Road" has been soundchecked this tour but hasn't been performed yet despite being played in Asia and Europe. "Invisible" has been soundchecked as well, and Mike mentioned wanting to play "Waiting For Tomorrow". Maybe we see some of those tracks appear soon. As tour manager Jim Digby said, "hold on tightly until the ride comes to an end" and brace yourselves for some great, unpredictable shows.

 

 

After Salt Lake City, the tour heads to Denver, Chicago, and Cincinnati before closing on the east coast. Check out Mike's tour schedule and all setlists on the world tour here.

Heads up, Northern California fans!

 

In case you didn't get your dose of Mike Shinoda in May or November, he is returning to perform at ALT 105.3's Not So Silent Night! Held at San Jose's SAP Center, the event takes place on December 8th. Tickets can be found here.

 

The lineup is: Florence + The Machine, Death Cab For Cutie, Bastille, Young The Giant, Chvrches, Mike Shinoda, The Struts, and Elle King.

 

Mike seems abnormally low on this bill... you think he'd be between Death Cab For Cutie and Bastille or something.

 

The Post Traumatic world tour dates can be found here.

Make it three times in one week! Just go ahead and add him to the tour, why don't ya?

In a crazy night in San Francisco that saw Mike Shinoda totally flip the setlist on its head and take the phrase "do whatever you want" literally, he also found time to bring out a surprise guest... none other than the beloved Phoenix! After joining the shows in Las Vegas and Anaheim, Phoenix has once again stepped back on stage with Mike.

"Ladies and gentlemen I'd like to welcome to the stage... from Linkin Park... Mr. Phoenix Farrell!"

Mike completely restructured the set, moving "Crossing A Line" and "In The End" much earlier in the set and opening the encore with "Castle Of Glass" for the first time. Not only that, but he did the "Wisdom, Justice, and Love" mashup with "Hands Held High" in the piano portion of the set despite "Iridescent" being later in the encore. It was the first time that the tracks have been separated in the set.

"Place To Start", which we thought had completely disappeared, returned to the set for the first time in 32 (!) shows! The extended outro is gone from the song, which actually may be better for the song to not have it.

grandson appeared on "Running From My Shadow", but his guitarist who wrote the song with Mike also made a special appearance on it for the first time.



And the encore? Nine songs. Nine. Songs. Mike added "Introduction", "Petrified", and "Until It Breaks", none of which were on the setlist, to open the encore before bringing Phoenix back out. Phoenix, as usual, was on "Papercut", "Castle Of Glass", "Iridescent", "Make It Up As I Go", "Remember The Name", "Good Goodbye/Bleed It Out", and "Running From My Shadow".

We'd like to mention how good the songs are sounding in which Dan and Matt have just started performing on. "Cigarettes", "About You", "Until It Breaks", and all of "Over Again" were not tracks that initially had Dan and Matt. The drums, synth, and more on these songs really bring them to life and add a lot to the show.



You can watch the entire show here.

 

Full show setlist here. Yes we know that 'Running From My Shadow' is listed as a second encore. In all honesty when we created the show page template on LPLive, we never thought we'd have such a long encore! Mike actually broke the site... good job Mike.

The tour continue as Mike heads west to Utah, Colorado, and Illinois coming up! Tour dates, setlists, and more here.

Heads up NorCal! Mike Shinoda's #PostTraumaticTour lands in San Francisco tonight at The Masonic! This is the fourth show of the tour in California and fifth if you count the James Corden performance. Certainly, California is not lacking this year in shows as Mike is sprinkling his home state with performances.

 

This will be Mike's first appearance in the San Francisco area since the 2014 Carnivores Tour ended with a stop in Concord, CA just outside of town. Linkin Park also performed in Oakland, CA that December.

 

The most recent show in Anaheim last night featured none other than our favorite Phoenix as a second guest again on the tour for seven songs. Phoenix gave a great speech to the fans about Linkin Park and Mike, which you can see here.

 

Sticking true to form, Mike's Anaheim setlist actually came out differently than planned once again. He added a mid-set "I.O.U." for fans and gave someone in the front row their choice of a piano song; "Burn It Down "was selected!

 

Something that we just noticed on the tour that is new in California (from Los Angeles), is that Matt and Dan are now performing on "About You" and all of "Over Again" for the first time. This was soundchecked earlier in the tour but didn't get changed in the live show until just now.

 

 

We're still looking for "Invisible", "High Road", and "Waiting For Tomorrow" to be performed on the tour, but hey, we still have two weeks left and plenty of shows as Mike makes his way back east. After San Francisco, he starts that journey by heading to Utah and Colorado before he plays in Illinois. Stay in touch with LPLive on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for show updates and more!

Mike's upcoming tour dates and setlists for every show can be found here.

Following an eventful run through the west, Mike's second to last show in the state took place on November 5th at Anaheim's House Of Blues.

 

In the span of seven days, Mike:

- Had Phoenix join him in Las Vegas for seven songs

- Performed "Make It Up As I Go" w/ K.Flay on The Late Late Show With James Corden

- Had Joe Hahn and Rob Bourdon attend his Los Angeles Palladium show

 

....and now had Phoenix return for a second appearance on the tour!

 

 

A man that needs no introduction, obviously, as the crowd completely lost its mind when Phoenix stepped out on the stage.

 

Following the Las Vegas set, Phoenix popped out as the surprise guest once again on "Papercut" in Anaheim. He stuck around for the six song encore which included "Iridescent", "Make It Up As I Go", "Castle Of Glass", "Remember The Name", "Good Goodbye/Bleed It Out", and "Running From My Shadow".

 

Mike had Phoenix give a speech again to the crowd which was very sincere and heartwarming.

 

 

Phoenix said, "The thing that is really cool that I really appreciate about the Linkin Park family and community as a whole... online, in a space that can be so nasty and so negative, you guys have been really really supportive. It means the world to us, so personally, thank you to all of you guys. Secondly, in the midst of tough situations, when the shit really hits the fan, you need to look at somebody who is going to pick up the flag and lead. And that's been Mike."

 

Mike added that he asked Phoenix a while back to join a few shows of his tour but he wanted to make it special for Linkin Park fans and not make it a big deal in the media about "what's going on with Linkin Park?" This is one reason why Phoenix decided to perform on a few of Mike's newer songs and not just Linkin Park tracks during the show.

 

After the show, Phoenix posted on Instagram, "A nice onstage “bro-snuggle” last night at the @hobanaheim with @m_shinoda . Last night I got a chance to share a bit about my love, gratitude, and respect for Mike. It is in the lowest of valleys that one’s true character is revealed, and Mike has proven what I’ve always known about him. He is a driven, yet compassionate leader, whose kindness flows from a loving heart. He is courageous and strong, but carries a gentle manner. He loves his immediate family, and his Linkin Park family, deeply. A truly top class human... I’m proud to call him a friend."

 

With Phoenix joining Mike twice within a week and the other three Linkin Park members (and Talinda) all coming out for Mike's shows in the area... things are heating up online. Fans have been extraordinarily supportive of it all and there is a lot of interest in what is going on right now. While obviously no one is pushing Linkin Park to do anything, it feels really good to see Phoenix back on stage and rocking out with Mike and to see the other band members appear at the Post Traumatic Tour shows in support of Mike.

Since it's no surprise to anyone, we thought we'd go ahead and jump into the news (or "not news", depending how you look at it) of Mike working on new music.

 

All the way back at the Apple Store event in June, Mike told a funny story about making music on the road. He said when he was working on new music in New York City, his management team would debate between what time to ask him to come down for their daily lobby call since he was busy working on tracks in his room. The joke was "don't disturb him, he may be making another hit!", ha. And literally the very next day after he told the story, he missed his flight to Toronto for that exact reason and had to reschedule for the next day!

 

Anyway, it's no secret that Mike is constantly working on music. It would not surprise us if he worked all summer and during the Asia and Europe tours on music. However, lately we've seen a few newer developments that we wanted to bring up.

 

Mike backstage in New Orleans just the other day said he was "vibing out and making a new tracks."

 

One thing that may be happening is occasional experimentation with new tracks during soundchecks. Fans have heard tiny clips what COULD be new songs during this tour. The first look came in New York City, back when VIPs and Meet & Greet winners were allowed into soundchecks.

 

 

While only ten seconds long, it beats us as to what this could be. We're hesitant to call it brand new, but it also doesn't fit anything in the catalog either. Fans have reported to us one or two other times about unknown songs being soundchecked, but no one has captured anything to this point.

 

If this is true and Mike is already playing around with songs in this form, we could see new music earlier than we think. However, he has hinted at least twice lately that he may be working on producing music for other artists after the Post Traumatic era.

 

EDIT: Thanks to our friends at BlackChesterDe, we have learned that Felix Jaehn revealed to 1LIVE that he is working on new music with Mike Shinoda. He did not get into details of the song. Back in September, Felix posted a picture with Mike in Stockholm.

 

What do you think? Would you like to see Mike release a second solo album or an EP in 2019? With how fast he writes, it wouldn't shock us if he already has amassed a lot of new material. Certainly the fanbase would love a followup to Post Traumatic.

After performing to packed crowds throughout California in the past week, Mike has added two new exclusive merch items to his online store.

At both the Los Angeles and San Diego shows, he sold Dia De Los Muertos-inspired shirts for fans, with graphics that he drew himself.

The Los Angeles shirt (white, with green colors) features Boris and Miss Oatmeal on the front and a green Dia de Los Muertos graphic on the back, drawn by Mike.

And the San Diego shirt (cream, with yellow colors) has a skull on the front and a different Dia De Los Muertos graphic on the back. If you asked us, it looks inspired by Chester's look during the One More Light era.

At the San Diego show, Mike performed in front of a large backdrop of the Chester-looking image when he opened for the Deftones at their Dia De Los Deftones event.

Mike's full online store can be found here.

After Chester Bennington's passing in July 2017, Linkin Park's very tightknit and dedicated community set out on a mission to help #MakeChesterProud by getting Meteora sensation "Numb" to one billion views on YouTube.

 

Behind the movement is the Facebook group "Linkin Park's Numb To A Billion Views!" with over 3,700 members of the Linkin Park fanbase. It took just over a year for them to reach their goal, as the video has now reached a billion views.

 

 

This is an extraordinary statistic for Linkin Park, who dominates the social media world for artists. Coming in as the number one band on Facebook and with one of the largest YouTube followings for a band, Linkin Park has a massive following online.

 

See, Linkin Park's YouTube account was not created until 2006, well after the chart topping singles from Hybrid Theory and Meteora exploded the music world. "Numb" was not even uploaded until 2007, almost four years after it was released. The channel is approaching 13 million subscribers and has over 6 billion views collectively amongst its uploads. In just July 2017, "Numb" received over 58 million views in one month.

 

Perhaps the most surprising stat about "Numb" is that it received over 100 million views in 2007 alone, the year it was uploaded. Compared to massive Minutes To Midnight lead single "What I've Done" having 36 million views in 2007... that is incredible. Linkin Park is the only band in the history of YouTube to have two videos in the top 5 of yearly music video views in the same year - ever ("Numb" and "What I've Done" in 2007).

 

Another shocking stat is that the video started at just around 600 million views in July 2017 when the Linkin Park community decided to rally around the song. Now, the time has finally come as it will reach 1 billion views any day now.

 

Filmed by Joe Hahn and shot in Prague and Los Angeles, the music video is considered one of Linkin Park's best. You can read more about the video on Linkinpedia, including funny facts about it (like the film Eurotrip being filmed in Prague at the same exact time) and other cool information.

October brought a great month for us here at LPLive, with Mike Shinoda's Post Traumatic Tour arriving in the southeast US. Of course, we knew we had to see multiple shows of the tour just as we had done for 10+ years with Linkin Park.

However, this time things were different for two reasons.

For one, Mike is performing a uniquely different show each night and incorporating a wide variety of singles, fan favorites, and deep cuts into his show, and two this tour is the best possible way you will get to experience a special in-person tribute to Chester Bennington.

Our journey took us from Charlotte, NC to Tampa and Orlando, FL and finished with a show in Atlanta, GA.

These shows are a different type of statement than the solo shows we saw Mike perform in June when we traveled to New York City for his extremely intimate album release show at the Gramercy Theatre (which sold out in a mere two or three minutes) and to Philadelphia for a radio show. Those shows featured only Mike on stage and were in a way, more of a tribute to Chester by themselves. At that time, Mike's logical next step after releasing the Post Traumatic album was to get on stage for fans - by himself.

When it came time to take the tour around the world, Mike elected to bring in two musicians that are new faces for the Linkin Park / Mike community - Dan Mayo on drums and Matt Harris on keyboards, guitar, and vocals. It became apparent almost immediately that the vibe of the shows had shifted to more a fun, celebratory manner. Each night on stage, Mike takes the time to mention that one of the big reasons he is out on the road right now is to personally say thank you to the fans in person for supporting him throughout his career but most importantly during the past year.

To say Dan and Matt have been warmly embraced by the fanbase is quite an understatement. They add quite a lot to the show and are fantastic musicians. Mike has moments in the shows where each can shine - Dan has a drum solo in the middle of "Sorry For Now" while Matt takes guitar and vocals on "Sharp Edges" in a special moment that undoubtedly Makes Chester Proud.

With a 23+ song show, that is a LOT of room for music and it's divided pretty much into thirds between Linkin Park, Fort Minor, and Mikes new solo music. With the Fort Minor shows in 2015 (the first time Mike had truly performed solo) and with a few Linkin Park intros here and there, we knew how masterful Mike was already at creating mashups. Besides, that' how he first learned to create music in the first place... so we werent surprised to see a few fun mashups in this show as well.

Undoubtedly, there is a level of spontaneity right now which Mike has not experienced before. Never before in his career with Linkin Park or Fort Minor has he been able to change his show on-the-fly at a moments notice. While Linkin Park focused on a few "perfected" setlists, Mike is now able to pull any song out of his back pocket at a moment's notice without having to run it by a full band first. Having seen four shows, we've come to learn quickly that Mike's planned setlist is merely just a suggestion - in a good way.

At our shows (which were six through nine on the tour), we saw several songs receive their tour debuts (which means the first time performed on the tour) like "Watching As I Fall", "Until It Breaks", "Cigarettes", and "Its Goin' Down" - a wide assortment of tracks from Mike's expansive catalog. Whether you are a fan of Linkin Park, Fort Minor, Post Traumatic, or Mikes guest spots on other artists songs, you're going to find something in the show that you will really enjoy.

During the show, Mike acts as sort of the emcee of the evening, directing the show to become more upbeat or to take it down to an intimate, emotional level. Most of the set is upbeat, featuring bangers like "Petrified", "When They Come For Me", "Ghosts", new single "Make It Up As I Go", and an amazing mashup of "About You", "Over Again", and "Papercut" which leaves the crowd roaring for more every night.

Another highlight is "Roads Untraveled" from Living Things, which actually received its live debut at Linkin Parks Celebration of Life show for Chester last year. Mike proves he can impressively handle lead vocals on a large number of Linkin Park songs, perhaps (from a fans perspective) an optimistic nod towards the possible future of the band.

In a stripped-down portion of the show, Mike takes time to tell touching stories about the beloved Chester Bennington before leading the crowd in a singalong of "In The End" and "Numb". Many of these stories are exclusive to the city Mike is performing in that night and have gained tens of thousands of views on YouTube already. At several shows, we commented that it was worth the price of admission just to listen to Mike tell intimate stories about Chester from their time together in Linkin Park for 10+ minutes. While an emotional moment in the show, things pick right back up with songs like Post Traumatic lead single "Crossing A Line", Linkin Park hit "Castle Of Glass", and the new closing song "Running From My Shadow" where Mike comes down to the crowd to sing with fans each show.

Just like the song selection, fans at this show are a big mixture as well - some have come alone to see Mike, some have come with friends to remember Chester, and some have traveled great distances for the full experience. Between songs, fans sometimes choose to shout "thank you Mike!", "we love you and Linkin Park!" and other kind words. Everyone is cordial and spends the time between bands talking about shows they've seen, great memories they've had with Mike, Chester, and Linkin Park, or how much respect they have for the band as a whole for always being so humble and gracious to their fans; the whole show feels like a giant moment of appreciation for everything from Mike but also from the fans. This is a show where you're going to walk away with a dozen new friends.

Behind the scenes and away from the general admission crowd, we watched Mike's VIP experience and LP Underground Meet & Greet before the show, where he took the time to take photos with fans, give them tattoo suggestions, personalize drawings for them, take song suggestions for the show, and sign anything they happened to bring to the show with them. It is no secret that Linkin Park and Mike go out of their way for their fans and have always treated them with great respect.

If you're on the fence about attending this tour, do yourself a favor and go see it. If you missed out, you truly missed something special. And if you were there you know how special it was. Fans are saying that this is a once in a lifetime type of tour and we agree wholeheartedly.

Catch Mike Shinoda on the Post Traumatic Tour through November in North America.

We would like to extend a very big thank you to Mikes management team for being so kind to us and for allowing us to shoot the Atlanta, GA show for our tour review. Photos by Preston Bonner, a great friend of LPLive for over 10 years.