Astat

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.

I've been a musician for 10 years (16 if you count when I started singing). My family's musical heritage goes back at least 3 generations. My dad's a drummer who's had tinnitus for longer than I've been alive. I'm already developing tinnitus myself, from years of listening to loud music in headphones, and my telemarketing job (where I make phone calls wearing a headset 5 hours a day, 6 days a week) probably isn't helping either. Needless to say, I know a thing or two about it. I also know that any concert-goer is inherently assuming that risk by attending a show. You're more at risk of developing tinnitus by listening to music in headphones than you are by going to a loud concert. Loud sounds in high concentration at close proximity are what cause tinnitus in most people. That's why my dad's tinnitus is far worse in his left ear - being a drummer, having his hi-hat ringing in his left ear all the time brought it on. A 2-hour outdoor concert at between 100-110 dB isn't highly concentrated because the open air dissipates the sound, and it isn't in close proximity for anyone except those who are directly in front of the PA stacks (and even then, it's nowhere near as bad for their ears as headphones). I guarantee that nobody in the history of mankind has ever developed tinnitus just from going to one loud concert. And like I already said, frequent concert-goers should be held responsible for taking that risk. As for noise restrictions, I've always been a staunch supporter of the concept of "not on your property, not your problem." If you don't like living next to a concert venue, move. They're entitled to be there just as much as you are, and they're also entitled to do what it takes to maintain a healthy business. Booking a world-renowned act like Linkin Park and then being forced to keep their PA volume at such a low level that the people way in the back can't hear anything is not a good way to maintain a healthy business. 95 dB is PATHETICALLY soft compared to most concerts (according to the American Tinnitus Association, 95 dB is comparable to the noise from an MRI machine at any hospital), the industry average is around 110. Most governments get it - the industry average is what it is for a reason: It works. It's loud enough to fill pretty much any venue, but it's not painfully loud to the point that it damages people's ears. Then you have the occasional politicians who probably have ulterior motives ("rock and roll is the devil's music!") who push for noise restrictions for no reason other than to shut down as many concerts and parties as possible. Of course, that wouldn't go over well with the general public, so they use "noise pollution" (one of the most laughably absurd phrases ever coined) as a front to get people to agree with it. People going to concerts should be held responsible for the risk of hearing damage. The government shouldn't need to "protect" people from something that's completely voluntary in the first place.

I was gonna say, there had to be something going on, because you literally can't hear the band AT ALL on some of the Youtube videos shot from the nosebleed seats. That's a really lame way to start a tour, hopefully the band makes a statement by not going back to Buenos Aires until they change the ridiculous restrictions.

Holy crap, they took The Messenger all the way down from G to Eb. I figured they'd take it down a half step, maybe a whole step, but not 4 freaking semitones...I hope this isn't a sign of Chester's voice getting even worse. He was painfully out of tune on the outro of When They Come For Me too, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on that one since he's not used to singing and playing drums at the same time.

Also, I think it should be noted that The Messenger had an extended outro.

Uhh...what? Robot Boy is a full-length song. LOL @ the idiocy of expecting a band not to play songs from their new album on the tour immediately following its release. I'm sure if you're that opposed to the idea, they don't want your money anyway. I sure wouldn't. Every time somebody says this about a show, it ends up being a gross exaggeration. I have NEVER heard a show where the band didn't interact with the crowd at all. Check out the end of The Messenger, for instance. In other words...drop all the hits that 95% of people who go to a show want to hear, and play a bunch of obscure tracks that most of the people in the audience won't even know (save for APFMH, With You, and Figure.09). I've actually witnessed QWERTY live, and I can tell you, nobody in the audience gave a fuck. There were maybe 3 people around me who knew the song, and it got by far the worst audience reception of any song played that night. If LP didn't play Crawling, Shadow of the Day, What I've Done, and a bunch of their other singles all in the same show, people would probably be lined up at the box office demanding refunds after it was over.

That's exactly the same setlist that was already posted...?

Nice selection of songs, surprised they played The Messenger! Not sure how I feel about the setlist though. The order of the songs seems a bit randomly thrown together, but I'll reserve judgement until I hear some recordings. Just saying though, I think this would make a better setlist using those songs: 01. The Requiem 02. The Radiance 03. New Divide 04. Given Up 05. Faint 06. Wretches and Kings 07. Papercut 08. Empty Spaces 09. When They Come For Me 10. No More Sorrow 11. Jornada Del Muerto 12. Waiting For the End 13. Wisdom, Justice, and Love 14. Iridescent 15. Numb 16. Breaking the Habit 17. Shadow of the Day 18. Crawling 19. Bleed it Out [Encore 1] 20. The Messenger 21. What I've Done 22. In the End [Encore 2] 23. Fallout 24. The Catalyst 25. One Step Closer