Fleur de Lys

Please don't put words in my mouth. I am not obsessed with Chester, in fact I'm out there defending LP 2.0 and Emily on the broader Internet (a meaningless battle, I'm sure). I am very invested in the new band. I already stated that I would find it distasteful to make a big show-moment out of Chester, so no, I would not want more. But not mentioning him ever is just weird. But again, I support their right to decide for themselves. And you know nothing about my relationship with deaths of relatives. Don't make this personal.

Even if it feels off to me, I do realise that it's really not my place, and I really gotta emphasise again: I don't judge the band (bc I can't from my position) and I support them in making their own decisions on this.

I agree wholeheartedly. It would be so distasteful to plaster his face all over the screens and capitalize on the sorrow for a big show-moment. A lot of bands who lost members do that. So I actually like that LP errs on the side of not using the past in that way. But still, just saying “the next one goes out to Chester Bennington. We miss you.” That would make a world of difference. It is possible to stand firmly in the present, looking towards the future but at the same time accepting and remembering the past. Not doing so is its own kind of mistake. I know they probably do it privately ofc, and no one can demand it to be done publicly, but I can’t help but think something feels a bit off about it being so buried.

I think there is an interesting shift that happened between the livestream plus the first arena LA show, and everything coming after it. Mike said the “in the role of Chester Bennington, all of you”-line at both shows and reacted to a drawing of Chester in the crowd. But then Chester’s toxic family members were going insane all over the news and I think it soured all public Chester-acknowledgment for Mike and he probably figured he would just stay clear entirely. The great tragedy here is one that I also feel as a fan - seeing the countless Chester fans spewing the most unjustified and hateful shit makes me sometimes lose sight of what Chester himself was: an amazing man who would have 100% loved seeing LP 2.0 flourish. The result with the total radio silence on Chester is just a bit weird and cold. I don’t judge them, but one little mention or song tribute per show would be such a warm relief for fans. I get that the public discourse has left a bad taste in the band’s mouths, but honestly they should not let anyone make their memory of their friend taboo. They actually deserve to keep the memory of their friend, and own it for themselves, no matter what the rest of the world is saying. But of course, it’s all up to them and I support their right to decide for themselves.

Blast from the past, haven’t heard this in like 15 years. Really cool!

Mike is out there on the catwalk 5 songs out of a 28 song set. That’s 23 songs to look at Mike for your Golden Circle experience. The band is there 2,5 songs. Emily some more, for screaming bridges etc. But all in all, it reeks of entitlement to think that you get to have the band for yourself just because you had the money for a premium ticket.

For all I said about the reasons not to do a livestream, I just watched the video there, and ironically I think this was Emily’s single best vocal performance with LP yet. Maybe they should have done a livestream..! I’m not just talking about the full 16-second scream on HITC, which was… wow. Her harsh vocals are so effortless in this show, like the pressure of doing Wembley and stadiums is finally off. The high notes on the Cut The Bridge chorus are really pitching great here (otherwise a hard song for her), her general pitch is more on point throughout the set, the screams on OSC and Faint, but also on Bleed It Out: the bridge scream has Mike go: “God Damn”… also her end note on the last chord of the song was so impactful and rock and roll, and it has been a little hit and miss before. What an amazing thing to see, her base-level of performance is so high already, but she can take it even further. Wild stuff.

Fan-recorded YouTube videos are a lot more forgiving than a direct soundboard-mix streamed live. A lot of bad notes, voice cracks, wrong notes on the instruments are lost in the more chaotic sound of a amateur recording. It's about control. With how much (unfair) shit directed at Emily's abilities online, they don't want a festival's livestream to potentially give more fuel to the haters. Live streams can be notoriously dry and revealing for artists. Personally, I think the biggest risk (and maybe mistake) LP took, was opening their comeback with the livestream. And this one was even completely within their own control. Very bold and risky. I respect that, but damn... It did a lot of damage to Emily's reputation as a live performer, straight off the bat. She was so (understandably) nervous - the ironic thing is, that she in many ways is a more consistent, on-key singer than Chester ever was, and she delivers a lot of those old raspy choruses more in line with the studio performance than Chester did for years. But for a lot of people, they just heard her nervously force and voice crack her way through the older songs on that initial livestream, and they made up their minds about her right there.

Yes, that part was sooo frustrating. What a level of incompetence it takes to not hit the cue on the outro of The Catalyst... Just knowing that I, as a fan, could have done a better job of pushing that button lol The problem is, at the end of a day, stuff like that just reflects on the artist. Makes them look like a joke for a second. I'm not saying this was super serious or anything, but come on.

Yes, exactly. I think your explanation is probably spot on, there needs to be that disconnect first. I'm sure the inde-wave will truly hit around the end of this decade, yes. But it's pretty wild, you can see that same thing happen with movie franchises, gaming etc. Why did the Oblivion remaster hit so hard right now? Released in 2006 of course.

Well I think what is playing out here is what I call the 20-year rule. It takes around two decades for nostalgia to really hit and for stuff to come around and become really cool again. The Y2K and nu-metal comeback in recent years speaks for itself. Meteora is right in that zone now, so an opener like Somewhere I Belong will just hit different at this moment. I've seen it with lots of artists. Metallica also really returned to their early thrash material around mid-00s, two decades after their classic albums and they wrote back-to-the-roots Death Magnetic. It was like the culture was just screaming for it. I think LP is in a similar spot right now.

Fair enough, Central European. Still, dude had low emotional intelligence and it’s kinda funny

I would guess that it is Emily who is sick just from the vagueness of their post. They chose to not be specific about who and what exactly to not feed the internet/media hate.

Looked good. Interesting how Dave's bass was off from the bridge onwards in Casualty. Seems the bass is on a backing track for that song for some reason and it was off.

It's so funny how some Eastern European interviewers just go ahead and ask the most brash and insensitive questions right to their faces... But on the other side, it cuts to the chase and the answers will be less vague. Just a little uncomfortable to watch lol