ShadowSora

Agreed fully. Speaking of Jay-Z, I don’t think there is any bad blood between him and the band, just seems they didn’t talk as much in the years after 2008 (when he joined the band for both Madison Square Garden and Milton Keynes). Mike did a great interview with Sway in 2018 for Post Traumatic where Sway mentioned how the band worked with Jay-Z and asked if Mike still talked to him and Mike said not in a while but he’d love to hear from him or some shit like that. I’m too lazy to search for it but basically I think Mike and/or the band would definitely be willing to do something for Collision Course 20 this year. I mean it was a huge release. Band won a Grammy for Numb/Encore and even was planning a stadium tour in the U.S. for it in 2005 according to rumors. Not to mention it sold a ton and people still mention the EP to this day in the meme world and pop culture world with how rock and rap kids came together when Linkin Park and Jay-Z collaborated. So I think it’s definitely worth celebrating in some form, and maybe that’s why it was kept off Meteora 20 completely, aside from the fact of the legality issues of the band re-releasing it on their own. Even in 2017, Jay-Z tributed Numb/Encore to Chester after he passed, there is even a proshot of it from BBC. But he also did it at shows that year and I think even in years after. So I think he also is still down with the band in some way. But back to your point, even if they don’t do anything for a re-release, that Roxy 2004 show, the band set before the Jay-Z songs coming out, would be epic. Hardcore fans have wanted this since 2004. That show insanely good sounding too. Band is in 10 out of 10 form, it’s basically a PR04 warm up set since it happened like a week before PR04 and Chester was sounded god like with his screaming and harsher vocals. Listen to how good he sings Lying From You and Faint at the Roxy show, insane. Plus a super intimate small venue for the band so far into their career at that point. So badass. And fans love the shit like you mentioned. The Smokeout stuff getting released reminded me of the old days being a fan back in the 2000’s when we were kids all talking about the band religiously and loving it. True sense of a brotherhood, or sisterhood, what have you. That’s the stuff that made the fanbase so great and great for the band having us be that way. I miss those times and re-releasing old shows is a perfect way to get them back. MFR 2005… wow talk about an epic show. Band sounded great IMO and Frgt/10 was insanely good. Love how Chester sang that chorus. Plus the Jay-Z portion was great too. I think they could for sure release it, they were able to release the DSP for Madison Square Garden in 2008 as well as Milton Keynes, even re-releasing it in 2016 on vinyl. MFR 2005 was LP’s benefit show, so it’s as much the band’s show as possible, almost like a Projekt Revolution tour which is 100% LP’s show. And didn’t Blink-182 not show up for that show, or did they? Can’t remember. I know Chester mentioned them during the set. But great show to release. I’d rather have Roxy 2004 re-released in full but MFR 2005 is epic too, why not both? Haha. I don’t think they’ll put the Grammy performance with Paul McCartney on their YouTube or anything but that would be nice to have officially released by the band in some way. By far the craziest moment of their career IMO, I mean you can’t get much legendary than winning a Grammy and then performing with fucking Paul McCartney of The Beatles AND Jay-Z who is now regarded as the best rapper of all time by many music publications. How many bands can say they did that? None. Collision Course is often overlooked by us hardcore fans and some of us don’t like it but personally I have always loved it, even got my DVD case copy of it signed by the whole band in 2007, and it definitely was pretty much its own ‘’era’’ IMO and definitely bigger than Reanimation which is epic but still. Late 2004-early 2006 (when the band won the Grammy and started seriously working hard on MTM with Rick at Korn) was definitely the ‘’Collision Course Era’’ to me. Just like how that period of shows in 2009 was definitely the ‘’New Divide Era’’ to me. Great post though. Love talking about this stuff and I believe making noise about stuff helps our chances of getting stuff released for sure.