From mikeshinoda.com:

End of the US tour. It was a fun and memorable one. Thanks to everyone who came out to the shows, and sent the band lots of love. Big shouts out to The Prodigy, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Pendulum, Paper Tongues, and Circa Survive as well.

I’m glad to be home for now. Time to re-charge, catch up with friends and family, hit some Laker games, and make some new music. It always takes us a while to write a record, so we’ve been hard at work getting a head start.

And in a couple months, we’ll be back on tour again, in Europe (dates are being posted on our website). If you decide to come, we hope you leave feeling like this guy.
mike

From giantrobot.com:

I’ll admit the largest concert I’ve ever attended was my first. Rush played to a sold out arena at the Fabulous Forum in the 80s. I went along without a parent supervisor in a scene that resembled the kid from Almost Famous except I went with three other geeks and met no girls. Since then, it’s been a series of smaller shows from a living room to the Hollywood Bowl and even a “smaller” festival or two.
Fast forward decades and despite my own harsh skepticism in arena rock that crept again and again as I stood outside waiting for the will call folks to find my lost ticket, I went in. The varied crowd ranged from sweaty young jocks and their forefathers who are now sweaty old jocks, parents, kids, and plenty of people of color. Linkin Park have been around for over a decade and you can see it in their fan base.

I was gifted the green badge with no directions explaining what it does. A security guard said in a bright tone, “With this, you can go anywhere, except on stage and in the dressing rooms, have fun.” Of course that meant I could see the show unobstructed from almost any angle from almost anywhere. The stage was actually in a diamond shape so the folks in the seats who are practically behind the stage could get a glimpse of the performers. It’s at least a 270 degree stage, if not a bit more.

(I like this shot the best with Mike Shinoda on the mic).

Stop one, get to the front of the stage with the photographers. I didn’t bring my SLR but I did get to shoot pics and some video from the pit for the first three songs.

The show opens with a recorded musical intro that bursts into their rap rock sound which has the front men, Chester and Mike covering the stage. Say what you will about the band, since they also bring out the haters, but in front of a packed crowd of about 20,000 who know their lyrics, they perform without make up, fireworks, and gimmicks. The most the sextet employs is a huge video screen of imagery.

That’s the all access pass. You can’t bootleg the holograms.

It’s nice not having to fight the crowd. I guess there was a time when I’d do that, but not at an arena.



Towards the back, the arena was still packed, the seats behind the General Admission floor was completely packed.The upper decks were filled too.

Knowing that I had a pass, I walked around the backstage, which isn’t anything like some of you would think. Groupies? None. Kids, not many, but if there were any, I’m sure they were industry people’s kids or band related. Most of the folks were obviously union types who were waiting for the show to end so they could pack it up. As you see in the photo above, Prodigy opened up, and you might remember them for their infamous “Smack My Bitch Up” song. I remember them being pretty big, but the crowd was definitely there for LP.

The stage graphics and camera work for the screen were done by these two in front of a mountain of gear. I can’t begin to figure out how do get this done, but one thing to know is that LP usually embraces technology in their releases and stage show. (but thankfully not as far as the Black Eyed Peas halftime show costumes.)

Standing in the tunnel during the last song, I was behind what looked like a crew of MMA thugs wearing caps, hoodies, and jackets. Who were they? It turns out, these were even more union guys ready to pack it in. I couldn’t tell if they were fans, but they were into the last song and watched it all happen. This vantage point was actually nice since you can take in the sound, performance, and the crowd in the background. The pack up began nearly a minute after it ended as the crowd filed out. On the way to my car, I walked behind a group of fans who were saying the same things I said about Rush, many years ago. “I knew every song except one!” Arena rock concert after decades? Only I changed.

The weird thing is, the fella on stage playing music beat everyone to the post concert meal. How can I not be proud of Mr Joe Hahn? From being the focus of a crowd of 20k to a 24 hour Korean diner… After a tour around the world and the US, a taste of home is hard to beat.

Watch the clip on MTV.com

From boston.com:

Maybe it’s the brutal weather and its attendant aggravations — the shoveling, the icy roads, the frozen pipes — but there was something deliciously cathartic about the moment Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington began repeatedly shrieking “put me out of my misery’’ while performing “Given Up’’ Tuesday night at the TD Garden. You could feel a ripple of eager agreement move through the crowd.

Given the abysmal traveling conditions and the failing health of commercial arena rock in general, it was a fairly sizable crew. Filling about two-thirds of the venue, including a packed general admission floor, the all-ages audience enthusiastically latched onto the opportunity to collectively blow off some steam with a finely calibrated soundtrack of howls and murmurs, big riffs and meditative burbles, stomping backbeats and intricate grooves provided by the California rockers.

Performing on a stark, multilevel stage that jutted into the floor in front of a massive video screen that projected images in austere black and white, the band alternated between its brawny, insidious radio hits of yore and the more measured, electro-leaning tracks of its current album “A Thousand Suns’’ for 100 sweaty minutes.

The former drew the biggest response as fists pumped and small mosh pits broke out on the floor during the fervent, angst-ridden yowls of “Breaking the Habit,’’ “Bleed It Out,’’ “In the End,’’ and the still bracing “Numb’’ with its simple, icy synth figure sending shivers as a flailing Bennington unloaded his inner turmoil and rapper/instrumentalist Mike Shinoda served as cool counterpoint.

While the response was more muted to many of the newer tracks — save singalong sing-song single “Waiting for the End’’ — LP made a strong bid for approval with the percussively seductive “When They Come for Me,’’ the percolating, almost Depeche Mode-esque “Burning in the Skies’’ and the glimmer-of-hope anthem “Iridescent.’’

Aussie-British-American collective Pendulum opened with a frantic, techno-metal-pop hybrid that evoked everyone from Prodigy to Oasis to the headliners.

From mtv.com:

As MTV’s POSTED Artist of the Month, the men of Linkin Park were nice enough to send us this missive from the road. Linkin Park, seen above rocking out in Atlanta, are currently touring the U.S.A. in support of their A Thousand Suns LP. And this guest blog post by bass player Dave Phoenix Farrell, gives you a behind-the-scenes look at all that goes into making a Linkin Park show an epic event. Plus, check out a video interview with the band to find out about their charity, Music For Relief, which they founded after the 2005 South East Asian Tsunami. And take in some incredible photos of the band playing live in Detroit and Chicago.

We’re currently in the middle of our North American tour, and the shows have been really great so far. This is our first tour in the States since 2008, and it feels good to be back and playing shows here. Since our last tour here, we’ve played in 21 different countries on five continents.

Performing the songs from our new album has been a lot of fun and a whole new challenge for us. Chester and Brad each have percussion responsibilities on a few songs, and everyone except Rob have backup vocal duties. Before our first show of the tour in Sunrise, Fla., we had a rehearsal to run through some of our more challenging songs — “Burning In The Skies,” “Blackout” and “When They Come For Me.” A bunch of contest winners stopped by and watched us run through the songs over and over.

We’re off to New York now for a show at Madison Square Garden later this week, followed by a performance on “Saturday Night Live” with host Dana Carvey. Check back for more updates and follow me on Twitter (@phoenixlp) if you are a fan of awesomeness.

Phoenix

Watch videos here.