Astat

If you're in a strict curfew situation like this and you hit more than half an hour late, there's no reason not to cancel/reschedule. People are going to be pissed about this and wanting refunds, and the venue will refuse to give them because "you still got to see LP play." A cancelled show with a full refund is a better option at this point.

LP is now 40 minutes late. Crew just came out and replaced all of the setlists on the stage with new ones, and now someone is going around with a marker and scratching songs off the revised setlists. Curfew at this venue is less than an hour away. Sounds like this sold-out crowd is going to get treated to half a set for their money. Great way to start a tour, guys...

Has anybody found a Mark the Graves acapella that DOESN'T abruptly cut off before the song is over? I've had no luck so far.

Found this backstage pic of Brad's new rig over at MSC today, so credit to them. Time to get nerdy on this shit! This is a typical dual-unit rig where there's a backup for everything, so just ignore one side of it. I'm using the right side as a reference point: -On top of the road case, you can see a box for a Dunlop Volume X. While you can't see this pedal anywhere in the picture, I would assume Ben uses it from backstage to control Brad's volume swelling effects (the first chorus of Guilty All the Same, for example). -Below that, kind of tucked in on top of the first piece of rack-mounted gear, you can see Brad's old Voodoo Lab Ground Control board. I'd assume this is being used as a MIDI switcher like it always has been, but it's controlling patches on the Axe-FX II now, instead of the old setup of one board serving as the "master controller" controlling the patches and a second acting as a "slave" board with the preamp changes programmed into it. Much simpler setup now since both effects and amp models all come out of the Axe-FX II. -Next is a Furman power conditioner. Basically a fancy surge protector. Woohoo. -The middle portion of the rack is all wireless stuff. The big box with the Audio Technica logo is the main "antenna" for the wireless receivers. The 4 screens below that are individual receivers. One channel is always Brad's main PRS guitar, one is always his main Strat, and his other guitars are bounced around between the two remaining channels. Below the receivers is a Whirlwind 4-channel multi-selector, which is used to switch the wireless signals when necessary so there's always only one guitar "on" at a time (you wouldn't want feedback from the other guitars hanging out in the rack backstage!). Brad is still using the same wireless system he's had since at least 2003. -Below the Whirlwind selector is the new Fractal Audio Axe-FX II unit. This holds nearly all of Brad's effects patches, all of his amp sims, and all of his EQ settings. The old T.C. Electronic G-Major? Gone. All those Boss pedals he's had in his rack for years? Gone. The Randall MTS preamps he's had since 2007? Gone. Even the Drawmer Dual Gate is gone, which was just added on the last touring cycle! I thought for sure Brad was still using that on Points of Authority, but evidently the Axe-FX II has a similar effect in it somewhere. -Next is another new piece of gear, an RJM Music Effect Gizmo. This is just a really fancy loop switcher, basically a replacement for the old GCX Audio Switcher Brad had been using for years. This may have been an upgrade out of necessity, as the Axe-FX II is so advanced, I don't know if the old GCX would have been 100% compatible with it. -Below the Effect Gizmo are the only two remaining pedals in Brad's rig, both of which are new on this touring cycle. The one on the left appears to be one of the ISP Technologies Decimator pedals (there are a couple variants of them), which is a really nice noise gate (much better than the old Boss NS-2's Brad had been using for 12 years!). On the right is an Electro-Harmonix HOG2 (they released a newer version of the HOG last year, and it looks like Brad didn't hesitate to upgrade). The band must REALLY like the sound of the HOG, because I know the Axe-FX II is capable of modeling the sound of one. Having the HOG also allows for a more intuitive interface, as Ben can manipulate the silders on it in real time to adjust the settings on Brad's pitch-shifted effects. -At the very bottom of the rack is a Matrix GT1000FX, which is a power amp. Brad's sound obviously has to go SOMEWHERE after it goes through his rack gear, and since he uses amp models instead of actual amps, he needs a power amp in there to drive his speaker cabinets. He used to use a Randall RT 2/50 for this purpose, but with all of his MTS stuff getting tossed after the Living Things tour, I'd imagine they didn't think twice about replacing the power amps too. Overall, it's a MUCH simpler rig than what Sean was dealing with towards the end of his tenure with the band, but it's also one that relies on a lot more technology than the old one.

Forgotten was rehearsed at some point during the Meteora touring cycle, per Sean Paden.

Yep. Whoops.

Off topic, but ugh, this reminds me of what a beast Chi Cheng was when it came to stage presence. I miss the hell out of that guy.

Everything I said in my post save for "the guitars sound sloppy" was an objective fact. Right vs. wrong notes and vocal parts being sung in spots they're not supposed to be aren't "opinion."

It's in Drop C. Mike has two silver/grey PRS SInglecuts, one of which he hasn't been using lately. He brought it back in a different tuning (Brad appears to be using his blueburst PRS Custom 24, which he's had since 2001 but has only used live a handful of times).

Probably best to trust Jim on this, he knows his shit when it comes to the setlists more than anybody else on the crew because all of the setlist changes the band makes have to be run by him in order to re-organize the production elements of the entire show. Jim probably had the Carnivores tour setlists before the band was even done touring Europe.

Chester's singing a bunch of the harmonies wrong/in the wrong spots, guitars sound sloppy, Mike's playing the lead guitar line wrong, and Brad's playing the pre-chorus wrong. About what I expected...

It's not the setlist itself that's terrible, it's what they've chosen to do with it. Why would you keep the Ballad Medley, which EVERYONE complains about, but shorten the most popular song off the album you just released less than 2 months ago? Why would you not only keep, but EXTEND the awful sped-up version of Crawling, but drop A Light That Never Comes, which was a very successful recent single that hasn't been played live much? Why would you drop With You, a universally-loved song by band and fans alike, but keep Runaway, which is Chester's most-hated song in the entire Linkin Park catalog and generally not what people would rather hear if given the choice between the two? These guys are getting more and more clueless about what people want to hear at their live shows as the years go on. Play a bunch of hits. Play them in full. You have enough of them at this point in your career that you're going to have to pick and choose which ones to play anyway, so play a set of 80% hits and 20% "goodies." Rotate both hits and "goodies" from time to time, instead of letting songs from your most popular album go untouched for over 10 years. Pay attention to what people think when it comes to your live show, because while it's perfectly acceptable to make the album you want to make, the entire essence of the live show is the FANS. Judge what should stay and what should go by what people are saying about each show. Drop the diva attitude and ego you cleverly hide when you're in the public eye, stop thinking your fans are all idiots and that you know everything, and QUIT PLAYING STUPID SHIT.

...They're still playing the Ballad Medley, but they're playing a shortened version of the biggest single from their CURRENT ALBUM. LMFAO @ the cluelessness of this band. Seriously considering selling my tickets now. Logic and Jim Digby are two things that don't typically co-exist.

Issues? With LP management?! SHOCKING!

Sorry that you lack the listening capabilities to hear the clearly-audible guitar on Breaking the Habit or the fact that the solo on Waiting For the End IS guitar. It's a production rehearsal. They'll be running through all of the new elements of the show that weren't part of the previous tour, meaning Rebellion and Final Masquerade are literally the two MOST likely songs they're going to play tonight... Joe takes pictures on his phone during the show all the time.

Yeah, they're going to play it. That doesn't mean it won't suck.

He had an operation to correct a hiatal hernia at the end of the Meteora touring cycle. Not something that really affects his voice directly, but it stopped his chronic acid reflux problems, which were damaging his esophagus and causing him a lot of discomfort while he was singing.

There's absolutely no reason for Rebellion to have 3 guitars on it. The only point there's even 2 parts in the song is when the lead melody is played, and the guitar is as low in the mix during the synth breakdown as it is at any point in the song, so there would be no reason to have 2 guitars in that section. Not to mention that Chester is almost certainly incapable of playing all of Rebellion in its entirety (particularly when he has to sing harmonies throughout most of the song), and there's no way for Linkin Park's live rig to accomodate 3 electric guitars at once. Chester and Mike play through the same guitar rig.

Auto Tune.

James Jean. Not sure how you missed that because his name was thrown around almost as much as the word "visceral" during the pre-album hype.

Ryu has literally mentioned 3 different track names from Reanimation that he supposedly recorded unreleased verses for. First he was on the With You remix instead of Aceyalone, then he was on an unreleased Points of Authority remix, then Pushing Me Away. The guy clearly doesn't remember shit about what he actually recorded. I pretty much guarantee he recorded one verse for one song, it didn't get used, and his years of partying since then have clouded his memory. Crystal Method definitely had nothing to do with Pushing Me Away, my guess is Ryu recorded a verse for the Crystal Method Points of Authority remix and it didn't end up on the final track. Z-Trip and Prince Paul were mentioned in some pre-Reanimation press that listed contributors to the album (which also listed contributors like Team Sleep, Marilyn Manson, and the Girl Scouts). Tricky might have been included in that list too, I forget.

I'm 99.99999% sure that Rob was referring to the standard versions of those songs performed in 2000-2001. The question he was asked was basically "Did you ever play Hybrid Theory EP songs like (list of HTEP song titles) live," which he gave a catch-all "yes" response to without going into detail about any song in particular. That doesn't really give us any concrete info. I'm not convinced that Part of Me was ever performed live. Carousel was at some point, because samples from it were on Joe's Tasty Gas Station Breals vinyl that he used for live performances. The version of Slip performed live would have been different from the LPU recording too, because the version on the Lockout video starts off with the guitar riff found in the bridge of the studio recording.

There's some original/new stuff in Joe's solo that doesn't come from any previously known song. I definitely remember hearing W&K in there, I was the one who messaged Mark about it and told him to add it...but now I can't find it again, lol.

The size of the GA section tends to vary quite a bit from venue to venue. The GA section at the MN State Fair show is HUGE, for instance. On the flip side, I remember the pit at Blossom Music Center in Ohio being unusually tiny. Regardless, LP's stage setup isn't THAT big, so having a good view from the pit shouldn't be too big of a concern, you might have trouble getting a good view of the screens, but you'll also be close enough that you probably won't need them. It's pretty enjoyable as far as I'm concerned, maybe a little claustrophobia-inducing since you'll constantly be surrounded by people instead of having an aisle in front of you like you would with seats, and being on your feet for a few hours can get tiring...but I do it for 10 hours a day at work anyway.

There have definitely been exceptions to that. I believe the last time anyone in the band made that claim was around the MTM era too.