CityLife

Linkin Park

Linkin Park

Linkin Park
MEN Arena
November 4, 2010
 
Riding the original nu metal wave with 2000's multimillion-selling Hybrid Theory, Linkin Park’s popularity shows little sign of waning, something a packed Arena with fans both young and parental can testify.

Given the somewhat mixed reaction to 2007's Minutes To Midnight - their third; an inconsistent affair by most accounts - a retreat to more familiar grounds was expected for the Californian sextet’s follow up effort, so it's a credit to the group that recently released album A Thousand Suns treads further outside of a more commercial-friendly path.
 
Indifference toward unit-shifting requirements in place of a more eclectic output can only be a good thing for a band looking to prove their detractors wrong, however it doesn’t make for a good setlist.

The massive audience crammed at stage-front aren’t shy about making it clear what sort of a set they’d like, saving the first big sing along of the night for Meteora track Numb, while barely acknowledging newer subtle songs such as Waiting For The End as well as some the albums more instrumentally curious moments - with one heavy percussive number sounding as though it were lifted straight from the soundtrack to Disney’s The Lion King.

The group also seem somewhat subdued by their usual excitable standards looking decidedly small on the huge triangular stage set up, with the tag-team duo frontmen of Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda barely crossing paths for much of the evening, even Bennington’s usual standout corrosive vocals come over as more a whimper than a scream.

In fact it’s not until the double header of breakthrough singles Crawling and One Step Closer before the encore that the energy levels pick up, with the Arena in full teen angsty voice for the climatic shout of “shut up when I’m talking to you!” 

Closing with Minutes To Midnight highlights What I’ve Done and Bleed It Out shows what the group do best, introspection with a big chorus and safe distorted riff - and for all the studio experiments and attempted genre splicing, that’s all anyone really wants.