Last Monday February 7th we were a little more than 13 000 fans of the nu metal band to fill the Bell Centre in downtown Montreal. Having bought my tickets more than two months before the concert, I was pretty excited to see one of my favourite band on stage for the second time. They did not disappoint the fan in me.
The evening all started with a glass of beer at a Korean restaurant/bar not too far from the Bell Centre. I had planned to meet my sister there and as I work downtown and she doesn’t, I waited while chatting with the restaurant owner. Diner was awesome and my sister and I were chatting about how excited we were to see the concert. Actually, my sister didn’t really plan to go with me to the show before I told her in the beginning of the winter that I had no one to go with. She then offered to go with me and asked me to lend her the Linkin Park albums, as she had only heard the widely commercialized songs. After only a few week, she texted me saying that she was now addicted and couldn’t wait for the concert. Perfect!
Convinced that the concert was starting at 8pm, we took our time until I decided to check the tickets tucked in my purse to see what our seat numbers were. Then I saw the time written on the ticket: 7pm. OH MY GOD! It was 6:55pm and we were about to miss the beginning of the show. We paid as quickly as possible and jogged to the Bell Centre but as we got closer, we saw many people still getting in and started to slow our pace down. It’s when we got inside that we relaxed: the first part was going to last for an hour and a half…
I’m curious as to why first halves have to be so long. Has the band just not arrived yet? Is it to allow people to come slowly in the concert hall and avoid traffic? Although it is good for other bands promotion, I must say that when you’ve been sitting there for an hour and a half waiting for the REAL show to start, the most talented singer could be on stage and no one would care. Furthermore, I was so scared that the show would start while I was gone that I didn’t dare going to the bathroom before the show started. I felt bad for the first part groups, because the crowd’s response was really pitiful, but we were obviously keeping our energy for LP.
Finally, around 8:45pm (!!!) the show started. When the whole concert hall turned to black, the crowd suddenly came to life. The screams we gave for the first part groups were tripled. My sister and I automatically stood up from our terrible 222 section seats (first balcony) and didn’t plan on sitting for the whole show. Unfortunately, most people around us sat for the whole show, as if they were at the movie theatre. Never mind them, I wasn’t going to restrain myself from screaming, jumping and singing along because I was sitting way back!
As soon as the first notes of The Requiem started, I got all excited like a kid on Christmas. I was expecting this opening since in 2007, at the Minutes to Midnight tour they started with Wake, which is also an intro instrumental piece on their 3rd album. Then they went on with Faint which got the crowd going crazy. It’s interesting how in 2007 when I saw them in Seoul, South Korea, they ended with this very song. Kind of a full circle moment.
The group went on with Lying from you, also from the album Meteora. As the crowd was now heated up with these two first well known songs, the heavy guitar of Given up started and Chester screamed his lungs out. I adore this song because it is so strong and really relieves stress (and probably causes some to elderly people :P)
After that, to calm the crowd and Chester’s voice, they played What I’ve done and I have to admit that at first I mistook it for The Catalyst. Shame on me. Keeping up with the Minutes to Midnight album, the first guitar notes of No more sorrow started and the crowd clapped, off beat at first, but we soon figured it out. Most of us recognized the melody (except of course the people who only know the songs from the first album, I’ll rant about that later). From the inside followed and had the crowd singing at the chorus.
Jornada Del Muerto, a transition track from the Thousand Suns album came on and Shinoda sang the Japanese lyrics live. What is interesting is that the song title is in Spanish and means “Journey of the dead man” but the lyrics are in Japanese and basically saying “Raise up, liberate” again and again. The song transitioned to Waiting for the end which includes a lot of Shinoda’s raps. The group then played Blackout, but the crowd wasn’t as excited as when Numb started. Even the boring people in my section stood up to cheer on.
Radiance, another transition track set the tone for Iridescent, a mid-tempo song with very inspiring lyrics. Unfortunately, not a lot of people seemed to know the lyrics…I thought this would be an awesome moment in the show, it wasn’t bad, but if we all sang it together, I would have had chills. Still, most of us took out our lighters or phones, so the crowd became like a sea of lights. This got us a “You guys are beautiful” from Chester. After Fallout, it was time for The Catalyst which again, just a few people knew. The lyrics :
God bless us everyone
We're a broken people living under loaded gun
And it can't be outfought
It can't be outdone
It can't out matched
It can't be outrun
No
These were definitely meant to be sang in unison, maybe in a few years when more people will have listened to the 4th album more. Shadow of the day came on, and that’s when voices in unison came on. It was quite beautiful to listen to. Then, these famous piano notes were heard:
The show had already been going on for a little more than an hour but it felt like it had just started. The band didn’t rest and went on with Bleed it out and this is when the mosh pit started to act like one (they had been very calm up until then!) The melody of the song kept on going on but Shinoda started rapping the lyrics from A place from my head getting everybody to scream: “You, try to take the best of me GO AWAY”. Again, another epic moment. Linkin Park then left the stage, to make us believe that the show was over, but none of us thought it was actually over as we didn’t even have to beg for an encore more than two minutes. (Does any crowd still believe in fake endings of shows anymore?)
Of course the group came back and they fulfilled one of my wishes: they played When they come for me, a song from their newest album that has a lot of percussions and electronic sounds. Also the “Try to catch up mother f****” line is a personal favourite of mine.
When I was at the show I thought people didn’t sing along, but when I watch those videos I realize that many actually were(some off tune, but who cares). Followed Papercut and New Divide. Most people recognized the latter which surprised me. I guess it got popular because of the movie Transformers which came out when I was in Korea and there, rock music doesn’t really play often on radio so I didn’t think it was a popular song. The crowd cheered a lot and so did I. At that point I really thought the show was going to last another two hours!
The show ended on a high with Crawling and One step closer and even if we didn’t know that it was the end, I think we all reached our craziest at the last song. It was an awesome song on which to end the show because it all left us on a high of adrenaline.
I am convinced if you remove the music and just show our faces, we all look possessed by the devil or something. Jokes aside, it was extremely liberating. Actually it was so much fun that when it ended everybody got surprised and thought it ended abruptly. After the show, when waiting for the subway, a couple who had been in the first row told me that before singing One step closer the guys said it would be their last song. In the back I never heard that so I was expecting them to come back on stage. But they didn’t…I will have to wait another 4 years or more before I can see them again!
In all, the concert was awesome there is no denying. If some people were disappointed by the format of the show, meaning one song after the other with no chit chatting by the band members, I myself wasn’t surprised as it was the same format in 2007 when I saw them in Seoul. Back then, I just thought they didn’t talk to the crowd because of the language barrier, but no, they did the same in Montreal. I’m alright with that, I mean, I didn’t pay to hear them tell us how our city is the best (which all bands say in every city) but I think saying a few words is always welcomed. On the other hand, some singers tend to talk way too much between their songs and that can become annoying too. I guess Linkin Park isn’t into small talk and prefers delivering their songs.
Also, I must say that this time the show didn’t have a “moment”. Maybe it is because I’m a girl and I like touching moments, but back at the Minutes to Midnight tour, the show had two very strong moments (at least for me). First was when Shinoda played Pushing me away on the piano. It was magnificent.
Second, The little things give you away. This song only had the power to give me chills and when performed live it hypnotized the whole crowd. I think maybe I would have had this “moment” if I had been in the standing section like I did back in 2007, but I was sitting very far this time. After comparing both, I prefer the standing section, even with the mosh pit. Actually, it seems like Linkin Park’s fans are getting older and the mosh pit isn’t as crazy as it used to be. So next time I’ll try to be in the front if possible! (I got my glasses stamped on the nose last time, resulted in minor bleeding)
Now, time for a short and sweet rant. Why, oh why, would you pay almost 100$ to see a band you don’t really know about? Why do you look at people funny when they scream at a rock concert? Pheeww….But actually, my section wasn’t that bad: there was a guy at the end of my row that knew all the songs and was rocking to the music the whole time, I wish to marry him teehee.
So to sum up, it was a real Linkin Park experience and also the first arena concert I saw in Montreal in my entire life. I feel lucky that I got to see them, because only 2 days after the Montreal show, Linkin Park announced that they would have to cancel two shows in the States because Chester has come down with something and can’t sing. Hope he gets better.
I’ll be there at the next concert! How many years later will it be….
3 comments:
Great review!!! From reading, I felt like I was there too~ :D
Did you look up the order of the songs or did you just memorize the whole thing??? Anyway, it was a great show.
Of course not :P I found the show tracklist under the videos that were posted ^^
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