Qwerty18

I have tons of respect for Mike, one of my main inspiration. But no one is perfect, and everyone can mess up a bit some times. If what Ryu said is exactly how it happened, then yes, it was not the coolest move from Mike. It could simply be he changed his mind about the verse, or wasnt a fan, but didn't dare to say it straight to Ryu , or forgot, or whatever, and kind of found an excuse for it (the remix) later. No one is always 100% transparent about everything. And again, we dont know, so no point looking further into it. It is 10 years old, case is long closed.

I mean even in spirit, I woudnt go as far as saying it's more LP than FZ ^^' FZ is literally the current definition of LP, in spirit and in everything. The Mall was always ambiguous. For me it is what it was marketed as: a non-LP score feat. a bunch of finalized LP Demos.

Where does the legend about "the whole band but Mike dislike THP" come from? Pretty sure Phoenix was quoted about wanting to open shows with KTTK. Chester was always excited about whatever Mike/LP would come up with lol "ATS weird? F*ck yeah!! Heavy metal? F*ck yeah!! Pop? F*ck yeah!!" Rob gave himself a hard time to be able to play the tracks (the whole back injured with GATS thing), but if anything, that's the record where he shines the most, and probably the challenge must have been interesting to him. So that leaves Joe and Brad. Brad was famously not really into the guitar stuff at first, and he's the one blamed for the absence of THP on Papercut, soooo he maybe possibly is mid about the record. Joe, we just don't know anything... but he is a huge Rakim fan, so there is that. Yes, the band did not play all of THP live, but in the end, they've played even less from LT. And yes, we know Mike was the one to initiate the THP direction, but Mike has always been the driving force behind every single LP direction. Like for real, if he wanted to have a Reaggaton LP record, I'm sure he'd find his way to convince the other guys ^^' I don't know. I feel in general, there is too much speculation about the band disliking certain records, and often, it's not backed up by strong evidence. Meteora haters will say that the band is embarrassed by Meteora, LT haters will say the band only made LT because of the label pressure for more hits, etc. Of course, the band is going to have favorite records, but I highly doubt there is like one record no one is into.

^ That's so true. I really hope I can see IGYEIH live one day, and I know it probably has a higher chance of getting dropped at some point - simply because it is a deeper cut on the record.

I agree GTG is nowhere near terrible, but I think the live version just lacks the punch of the studio version with they key change. Even with the lower key, Emily still has a hard time hitting the "Only you can save me from my lack of self-control". No criticism, it's a hard section to hit for sure, but I think the struggles on it are audible enough it takes away some of the song magic. It is a great studio song, but one great studio song does not a great live track make.

Not only do they sound amazing live right now, but their presence and energy onstage is the best it's been in a decade. To me it's crazy they could keep that pace for the full year, yet they did. They look just as excited and pumped now as they did in Autumn 2024. It may not last forever, but let's enjoy it when we have it

Fantastic crowd. The beginning of Faint is some of the wildest footage I've seen of an LP concert. My two crush of this show are UFTB and CTB. Both sounded amazing, probably the best performance I've seen for both of them.

I just hope they stick with the approach of writing what sounds the best to them, and see what they end up with, regardless how different it is from their previous material. Like, I'm sure it's going to be different from From Zero, because rewriting the same stuff would be boring to them. But I don't think a forced 180° is needed either, unless, of course, they really want to go for that. Keep your foundation, build on top, extend it. Add new spices. That's what I would like at least.

That was a really strong performance for a debut. Emily killed it!

Emily's performance and the pivotal role of the song in the reformation of the band has to be the biggest reason why they choose to release this song in particular, I agree. Also true, Mike wouldn't say they release rubbish in a interview. But still, knowing how he and Brad are perfectionist, I have a hard time believing they would let it out on a widespread release if they truly saw it as a bad track and /or a demo. Like, a Deluxe is no LPU cd ^^' With that said, it's still the only true B-side of this era, meaning the band didn't choose it over any of the tracks of the standard album, meaning by default it's going to be a track they favor a bit less, and a track that probably did not get the final extra touch of polish-attention to details in comparison to other songs. But, in my opinion, this doesn't infer the band would dislike it. Else, again, I don't see them releasing it on a big official release.

I think the "Unshattered" thing is speculation. Mike has been quoted a few times saying they made a Deluxe because they felt the 3 songs were just as good as the rest of the album - otherwise they wouldn't have made any. But also, they felt they didn't had quite a single for it, and so, that's why UFTB got written after the album sessions. I think in one interview Mike implied they had couple of other things under the radar, but nothing that felt like "the single". My gut feeling is that, if they felt Unshatter was less good or "demo-like", they could easily have put another song in its place. While the band certainly prefers LYF (a favorite) and UFTB (the purposeful single), I wouldn't dismiss the idea of Unshatter being played later. Or maybe it won't, but that could also simply be because they've not nailed it during rehearsals.

I personally favor the band's approach. Mention of Chester in any show will always be bittersweet. While some special dates would call for it - Chester birthday is the obvious example - on other dates I find it more healthy to focus on the present and cultivate the fun atmosphere they've had during this recent tour. There is another aspect to it that I think is important to think about: every mention of Chester during a show could potentially give the vibe to Emily that "Remember, you are here because our legendary lead singer passed away. You're a substitute". Obviously it would never be meant like that, but bringing up the past in a repeated fashion could nevertheless be open to sensible interpretations. That said, I'm not sure Mike shutting down the "About Chester" interpretation of LYF was really needed. Even if it's not, I guess it doesn't hurt to let it open to interpretation. Not a criticism per se, just an observation.

I'll be there, see you in the pit folks, let's rock it out!!

To all of you lucky ones in Wembley - have a hell of a blast!!! And make the place completely explode on Two Faced, it's got to be as legendary as it can get!