Darkstryder

I was at the Paris show, front row. Best live show I've been to since at least 15 years, and this lineup of LP is at least as good as the old one, if not better (I previously saw LP live in 2007 and 2010). That night was the highlight of my year. I usually never take videos during shows, but my daughter is a small LP fan too and wanted me to bring back some videos. So I recorded a few of her favorite songs. Some videos turned out to be better than I expected, so I decided to share them here.

Long time lurker here. I’ve been a fan since Meteora. I was 15 then, 36 now. Yesterday was the first time in 21 years where I’ve felt genuinely angry at the LP team for something. Like others I also needed a good night sleep to fully articulate why. I’ll take a detour to explain it. Fifteen years ago I lost a parent. Last year my living parent sat me down and told me they had met someone. I was happy for them and told them that it was wonderful and that I wished them the best. After the discussion, which was straightforward yet emotional, I also acknowleged to myself that it was okay for me to have complicated feelings about it, even though I was happy for my living parent and looked forward to meet their new partner. What I would NOT have been okay with would have been for my living parent to give me a cryptic treasure hunt about whether or not they had met someone and the identity of the new partner. Now LP is technically not our family, yet it always felt like one for many of us over decades. Mike literally named an album Post-Traumatic and embarked upon a tour of the same name because he acknowledged that since LP fans always had a parasocial relationship with the band, many of them did experience a parasocial grief on 2017 july 20. So what really really grates me about the countdown is that they should have known better. Mike spent every interview of the Meteora20 cycle saying that the band was emotionally intelligent, and yesterday was not the emotionally intelligent thing to do. It made me feel punished for caring, so I will care a little bit less in the future. It also made me feel stupid because (european time) our family dinner was running a tad late and I excused myself in the middle of it, explaining to my partner and daughter that my favorite band from teenagehood had the most important announcement to make since 7 years, and I highly valued the fact of sharing this moment in time with all the LP community. Afterward I felt really stupid to neglect some precious family time for this tasteless stunt. I’m also disappointed that we traded one date for another without any new information. For all we still know, on September 5 they will announce the 4K remaster of the Shadow of the day video. Hopefully this will be a little more than that. Whatever happens on September 5, or whenever, I probably won’t be following it in real time this time. Following this thread used to be the funny part of my day and now it feels like a chore. And I’m caring a little less, and I’m a little less open to whatever they might propose in the future. So this countdown certainly was a letdown for me. I might laugh about it in 6 months, but I’m not laughing now.

I was at the show yesterday. What a wonderful experience ! In random order, my personal highlights : - First, a shout out to the opening act, Coco Bans. I did not know them at all, and for me they were the first opening act ever that I genuinely enjoyed during their set (usually at concerts I just grumpily wait for the main act to begin, thinking about how useless opening acts are). I actually went to to the merch booth to buy their EP, which is a first for me. - Mike actually invited Allison (the singer from Coco Bans) back on stage to perform Make It Up as I Go. The rendition of the song was absolutely stellar, the best surprise of the show for me. She (almost) stole the show, and the back and forth between her and Mike actually reminded of the back and forth with Chester back in the old days. If I'm allowed a digression, this performance made me more confident in a thought I've had for a while, that I would like a new singer for Linkin Park to be female. It would be meaningful as LP was never macho, it would make sense musically as a female singer would be more natural at reaching the higher range of Chester vocals, and Mike have proven times and time again that he could take the lower range when necessary. End of digression. - I loved how the show was upbeat overall. Mike was super talkative which I appreciated a lot, at times it almost felt like stand up comedy. Fans near the stage throwed a Pikachu hat at him (among other things !), and he wore it during a couple songs after that. The overall feeling of the night was very light-hearted, which was no easy feat given the context. - Going in, I feared the homage part about Chester would feel weird, but the crowd was absolutely wonderful during it. We sang In the End first, and on a whim, Mike decided to play Numb next as he seemed taken aback by the fervor of the audience (it did not feel planned, and the song was not on the setlist). Everybody just sang really well, it sounded more like a choir than a rock crowd. I thought it would be cheesy but it was one of the most emotional rendition of Numb I've heard since many years. I'm grateful to have been part of it. - I listened to the Fort Minor album in the morning, which I hadn't listened to for a few years. I forgot how much I loved this album, and I was super happy that Mike played quite a few songs (High Road and In Stereo were both fantastic) off of that record. - Overall I loved the setlist, which borrowed seamlessly from Post-Traumatic, Fort Minor and LP. It really showed how consistent Mike has always been as a songwriter. But I really feel the concert was a whole experience, and merely reading the setlist doesn't do justice to what happened here. For those of you that did not catch the tour yet, I hope you will ! - I want to kick myself for not having being aware of the #YouMakeUsProud flashmob going in, but at least it made the impact on me greater. Well played, LP fans ! Overall this was a concert tailor-made for the superfans that we are, and I am so grateful to have been part of it. Thank you for reading.