Astat

From the original LPUX announcement email that was sent out on August 23rd: LOL @ double dosage of fail. Not only did they fail to meet the release timeframe that they set themselves, they didn't even manage to announce the CD tracklisting, which was supposed to happen even before that. Sometimes I give the benefit of doubt with release dates, but this is clear-cut, black and white. They said October, October's over, and there's no LPU launch or CD tracklisting.

Except for that pesky little fact that the band has stated numerous times in the past that they don't mind if people distribute the DSPs freely. Mike even posted a thread on the old LPMB dedicated to doing so.

Also, a bit of insight into whether or not APFMH was planned: That song is in Eb guitar/bass tuning, which is a tuning the band's only used on a few songs over the years (APFMH, Somewhere I Belong, Easier to Run, Forgotten, and some pre-HT stuff like Part of Me, Step Up, Carousel, and Fuse). As a lot of you are probably aware, they use a bunch of different guitars over the course of a show so they never have to change tunings between songs. Normally that wouldn't cause an issue with APFMH, as Somewhere I Belong was always in the setlist up until this tour. Now that SIB has been dropped though, Brad most likely doesn't have a guitar tuned to Eb in his touring rig. So basically, if it was planned, they probably would have had the guitar/bass techs re-tune one of Brad and Phoenix's backup instruments to Eb prior to the show, just so they could play that song. If it wasn't planned, they either would've had to re-tune between songs (unlikely, considering the song's positioning between two drop-tuned songs, Crawling and One Step Closer), or they would've had to figure out how to play the song drop-tuned on the spot, which is possible, but also somewhat unlikely if you ask me. I don't have a definitive answer, but I'd say it was probably planned.

Good point there. I may have even had something similar to say about Set X/Set C around that time, I don't remember, lol. But I think that was a bit of a different situation for a couple reasons, one being that Set X wasn't quite as heavy on new album material as the current set is, and Reading My Eyes actually replaced another song that a lot of people wanted to see dropped at the time (Don't Stay). As similar as X and C were, there was some tweaking that went on there (taking TLTGYA out of the encore, replacing Don't Stay with RME, changing up some of the intros/outros). Adding APFMH to the current set isn't really "changing" anything, it's just a bonus on top of what's already there. It's a nice treat on its own, but it doesn't really change anything else about the set.

Depends on who actually owns the trademark of the name "Orgy." If it's solely registered to Jay (or if the other members sold their portion of the rights to him at some point), it's really up to him. If not, expect there to be lawsuits if he ends up continuing as Orgy with another band.

I couldn't have said it any better myself. Woohoo, they brought back A Place for My Head...again...and people do a total 180 on their opinion of the setlist. A Place for My Head is not the end-all, be-all of Linkin Park's live repertoire (it's one of their better live songs, but you'd think it puts the entire rest of their catalog to shame by the way some people worship it), and the perceived quality of their performance should not revolve solely around whether or not one measly song gets played.

I think the band should be given the benefit of the doubt as far as rotating setlists goes at this point, they haven't played live in over a year and they have an entire album's worth of material that they're still getting acquainted with on stage. Nobody complained about the non-rotating setlists for the first couple months of the MTM touring cycle...oh wait, that's because they had never done it at that point, so nobody expected them to. It's just as ridiculous to expect the band to always rotate their setlists as it is to expect them to always do anything else (close shows with One Step Closer, make the same kind of music every time they do a new album, etc.). Hey, everybody seems to think LP should just go back to being the same band they were in 2004, and they didn't rotate their setlists then, so maybe they're taking the advice of their fanbase! You guys should be excited!

I lol'd. I've heard some good ones before, but wow. I wouldn't call RTR "super" edited compared to the DSP. It's just remastered with a couple of the big flubs overdubbed (Mike's guitar going out of tune and him subsequently having to change it during the NMS intro, and his late entrance on the rhythm guitar part in Jigga What/Faint being the 2 biggest ones) and some minor pitch correction done to the vocals here and there. Nowhere near as edited as LIT is, I still suspect that LIT was just as much a studio creation as a live one. Anyway, as for the original topic, the thing is, Chester was actually already starting to switch over to a less raspy style of singing by the time Rock Am Ring 2004 was recorded. It's a lot more obvious now, but if you were to compare Faint from RAR 2004 to say, Faint from Top of the Pops 2003, there's a big difference there. As best as I can tell, Chester's voice first started to change considerably around the summer of 2003.

I guess every tour Linkin Park has ever done outside of July 2007-August 2008 was a "joke" then.

The mix of Burning in the Skies on GH is awesome. There's so much guitar stuff in that song that was mixed down to the point of being nearly inaudible on the album that they thankfully brought to the front of the mix for the game, I learned a ton about how to play it just from the gameplay video. The ending of Waiting For the End is that way too.

Also, an idea for people who can't make it to London: Don't feel like the "official-ness" of this event should prevent you from being able to organize an LPU meetup elsewhere yourself! I say this because I've been keeping up with the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" that's going on in Washington D.C. on October 30th, and people have been organizing companion rallies in dozens of other cities for those who can't make it out to D.C. for the real thing. LPU'ers have put together some pretty awesome stuff in the past that was totally independent of stuff HQ had going on, so I know there are some pretty brilliant/resourceful LPU members who could make a companion event happen.

In general, this is a good idea. Taking the "LPU meetup" concept that's been organized by members a few times before and turning it into an officially-sanctioned event is something that does add a lot to the LPU experience. I just have a couple thoughts on how to make it better: -Vary the locations they're held at. Obviously major cities are the way to go, but ideally, if this is going to turn into an annual event, it would probably be best to do them in a different region each time. If this year's is in London, have next year's in Tokyo, Sydney, Berlin, Chicago, or somewhere like that. There will always be people who can't make it, but switching it up will hopefully get people who couldn't make it this year to come to future ones. I'd imagine this is already something LPU plans on doing, I'm just bringing it up now. -Announce it farther in advance! For something that LPU members worldwide are all invited to, 22 days isn't a lot of time, even for people who could actually afford it. I won't be able to go this year anyway, but even if I could, my next paycheck comes on the 29th, then I would have to put in the time off request at work no later than the 2nd, which would leave me just over a week to book a flight and a hotel. Trips to London for people that live halfway around the world are generally things that we need to plan several months in advance, unless we're rich and don't work.

One of the LPU emails said the tracklisting for the CD would be revealed before LPUX launches.

The download link on LP.com always gives you the same 2 mixes: Digitalomat's and Ill Audio's. Alex's mix hasn't been used in any official manner. Only 5 out of the top 20 mixes have been released officially - 2 on LP.com, 2 on the iTunes The Catalyst EP, and the winning mix on the Best Buy version of the album.

I pretty much guarantee the X/Y/Z setlists shown there are leftovers from 2008 that are still saved on Joe's computer. It's not like it'd be the first time Joe's had samples stored that weren't being used, we know he still had some of the samples from P5HNG ME A*WY stored in his rig as recently as 2007. Also, I can count 13 different entires on the side bar on Joe's computer there. Even if you factor in the South America set, the NYC set, the KROQ set, and assume 3 rotating sets for Europe/some point in the future, that's still way more than needs to be there. There pretty much HAS to be some older stuff in there too, and I'd assume X/Y/Z would be among the older stuff. There was also already a picture of the current setlist in the picture of Joe's rig on his blog, it just wasn't as clear as this one.

Just a couple more updates I figured I'd throw in: -Rob's basic drum kit is the same as it's always been, just with the addition of 5 timbale-like toms on a big stand to the left of his hi-hat (I'm assuming he uses them on When They Come For Me). I'm not sure, but he might have a 3rd floor tom now as well (he normally has one on either side of him but it looks like he may have added a second one on his right). I've also heard some reports that he's using a double bass pedal now, but I haven't been able to confirm that and I honestly doubt it. -I THINK the purpose of the theremin that Mike's added to his rig is to function as a filter control for his synth parts on New Divide (probably hooked up through MIDI). If you watch the 2009 live videos of New Divide, he plays the keyboard part with one hand while manipulating the filter controls on his Virus synth with the other. Since he's not using the Virus anymore, he needs some other device to achieve that. -Just a follow-up on the Waiting For the End guitar solo, it was recorded using an Electro-Harmonix HOG pedal on the album (seen in one of the LPTV episodes), but Brad's not using that or a Digitech Whammy for it live, he's actually using the expression pedal he's always had next to his pedalboard (which I've honestly never seen him use until now). I'm guessing it's controlling a pitch-shifting preset on one of his rack units, either the TC Electronics G-Major he's had for years or some new piece of gear. It functions the same way the Whammy pedal would, but it's still something different. -As for the additional percussion parts, Chester has 2 rack toms and 2 floor toms on When They Come For Me. Brad has 2 floor toms and a snare for that song, and I believe he uses the same setup for the bridge on The Catalyst (he doesn't use the snare there though so it might just be the 2 toms on stage for that song). -Additional backing vocals by other members (Joe, Phoenix, and Brad - I don't think Rob does any) are found on Wretches and Kings (the "hey hey" parts), When They Come For Me, Iridescent, and The Catalyst. Joe also sings harmonies with Mike at the end of Waiting For the End. -Lastly, there was a slight change on how they play Wretches and Kings between the NYC and South American shows. In NYC, Chester played the pads during the verses, then he and Mike swapped for the choruses so Mike was playing them. Now, Mike goes behind his keyboard for the choruses and picks up the sampled part with the MIDI pads built into it, so Chester's the only one playing the drum-like pads now.

I guess in the case of Foreword, that's different because it's essentially part of Don't Stay - it's not like they're going to play Foreword and have it go into any other song. Empty Spaces is pretty much the same way, but I think it should be left as its own track (for now anyway) because the band could just as easily tack it onto the end of Burning in the Skies sometime in the future, or even use it as an interlude between some other songs. But with every other instrumental/interlude/intro track - Wake, Fallout, Jornada Del Muerto, The Requiem, The Radiance, WJ&L, Session, CFTI, etc., they're all pretty open-ended and could be tweaked to work just about anywhere in a set. I would say it's unlikely, but then again, they went and split up The Requiem and The Radiance 2 shows into the tour, which I honestly thought they'd never do, haha.

I voted for the second option. I like the title "The Radiance 2.0," but I think it should just be left alone for now (with a set note for it of course), then when/if we find out the band refers to it as something different, we can always go back and change it. Also, on the whole "individual songs" argument: If it's a separate track on an album, it should be a separate track on a setlist. The paper setlists the band uses shouldn't be an "end-all, be-all" gospel of how LPLive should note things. Paper setlists are made with convenience in mind so the band can read them quickly and easily in the middle of a show, not so they can be the most informative thing in the world.

Considering the show had just started about half an hour ago when you posted that, uhh, yeah. The band probably wasn't even done with Numb yet.

Crap, I missed it. How much did they show, everything through Given Up? And did anyone record it?

Put it in perspective: Do you think they'd be so strict about those noise restrictions if it was a home soccer game for Argentina going on at that stadium at the same time on a Thursday night? Of course not. They only enforce noise restrictions as they see fit. That's how it always is. My friends in Berea have the cops up their asses all the time for jamming in the garage on their own private property when the Cleveland Browns football training camp is like 2 blocks away and considerably louder on any given night in the summer. Politicians only create noise restrictions to deter "nuisances" like live music, but they turn a blind eye to how loud sporting events get because they're a "source of community pride" or some lame excuse like that.

I think you mean The Messenger in the encore, not The Requiem. That country version of One Step Closer is from the Bluegrass Tribute to Linkin Park album, I know they've used it at the end of a few LP shows over the past couple years, they also played it at the end of nearly every Dead By Sunrise show.

The band is really still in "promo tour mode" right now. They didn't do any pre-release shows this time around, save for the NYC album release show, so they're likely focusing on promoting as much of the new material as possible for now. Don't expect the rotating setlists to return just yet, I wouldn't be surprised if they hold off on them until the U.S. tour at the beginning of 2011 (the only thing that makes me think otherwise is the fact that they're doing 2 consecutive shows in London). They didn't start with the rotating setlists until about 3 months into the MTM tour, they didn't do them at all in 2009, and it's been over a year since the band was on tour at all. I'm not expecting them to go nuts with that kind of stuff yet, the one set they have now is crazy enough as it is. That being said, I'd be very surprised if the rotating sets didn't make a return at some point, it's just a question of when, and I don't think it'll be in the immediate future.

Ahh, thanks for that link. That clears that up then. The vocal part is one that's not found in either The Requiem or The Radiance (although it's similar in style to The Requiem, with the vocoder effect), so I think it'd be more proper to call it something different altogether. "The Radiance 2.0" ? We had a Wake 2.0, lol.

I really don't think we should call that interlude before BTH "The Radiance." It's just the Oppenheimer speech that was used in The Radiance, played over a piano transition between Numb and BTH. There was an added vocal part after the speech too, but I couldn't make it out due to the quality.