Two miles in Madison separate Linkin Park’s past and present. It was just a couple years ago that the introspective rap-rockers were playing club shows with The Union Underground for 50 people.
One of Linkin Park’s club-era shows took place at the Annex on Regent Street, a club that stands just two miles from the Alliant Energy Center Coliseum, where the band brought the fourth show of their Projekt Revolution tour to a sold out crowd of 15,000 Saturday night.
Linkin Park may be from California, but there were no sunny beaches in sight Saturday. The dismal, frigid conditions did little to deter the mostly teenage crowd from showing its love for Linkin Park. By 2 p.m., crowds wearing hooded sweatshirts and black cargo pants began lining up for the best view in the house at the general admission concert.
Jessica Polcynski drove nearly three hours with two of her friends from the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg to catch Linkin Park one more time before the band closed out the Hybrid Theory era.
“The Chicago show was sold out, and we just had to have one more shot at seeing the band before they take a break,” Polcynski explained as her two friends passed the time with card games until the doors opened for the show.
“We saw the band at Ozzfest in Tinley Park, but it was a short set and it wasn’t their tour, so we wanted the real deal tonight,” she continued. Many approached the ticket booth of the Coliseum hoping that a few tickets had opened up for the long sold-out show, but nearly all were turned away. At 3 p.m., 20 spare tickets opened up, but they were gone within five minutes.
As a city that doesn’t see too many big rock shows, Linkin Park’s performance was highly anticipated. From the second that Linkin Park hit the stage, the point was made. Beneath a large red, white and black banner that featured the Projekt Revolution emblem, a large black curtain surrounding the stage opened as the banner retracted toward the ceiling.
The unveiling of the stage revealed a stainless steel stage flanked by the samurai soldiers that adorn the cover of Hybrid Theory, the album that has proved to be an unstoppable force on the Billboard charts. Having sold nearly six million records and spent over a year on the Billboard charts, the album currently charts at the No. 3 position.
As DJ Joseph Hahn (Mr. Hahn), guitarist Brad Delson, drummer Rob Bourdon, and bassist Phoenix Farrell took the stage, the half-frozen crowd came to life, quickly defrosting before the band. The energy reached a climax as vocalists Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington entered stage left. “With You” kicked off the high-energy, 15-song set that saw the band hit 11 tracks from Hybrid Theory while finding time to dig into the vaults for early material and a surprise cover track.
Bennington, donning plaid pants, catapulted himself from steel platforms at the front of the stage and the crowd ate it up, with the tightly packed fans in the mosh pit moving like a single organism to the music. After acknowledging the Madison crowd, the band quickly shifted into a fast version of “Runaway” with Bennington viciously bobbing his head during the final rhythm break.
As the crowd came to life, Shinoda and Bennington took the opportunity to lay some ground rules for the evening. “What do you do when someone falls down?” Shinoda asked. “Pick ’em up!” the capacity crowd screamed in response.
As for moshing, the band doesn’t try to stop it as long as everyone respects each other. Bennington made the point of saying, “We are cool with that sh*t,” but then warned the crowd that this was no reason to violate the space of the females in attendance. “There is no stronger woman than a woman who comes to a Linkin Park show,” Bennington announced as all the women in the audience screamed in approval.
The band then launched into the fan-favorite “Papercut” with Shinoda displaying his rap talents while Bennington criss-crossed the stage during the choruses, running up ramps on both sides of the stage to get the crowd riled up.
Digging deep into the vaults, Linkin Park got the crowd to sing along on the track “Step Up” from its 1999 Hybrid Theory E.P. The band closed the pre-encore portion of its set with “Crawling,” and for a moment it was like a Creed concert, with everyone singing along.
The evening closed out with the track that started it all, “One Step Closer.” During the final portion of the raucous song, the band brought out members of Cypress Hill and Adema to add extra vocals to the “Shut up when I’m talking to you” portion of the track.
The crowd loved it. When the lights went up to conclude the show, the joy of the crowd turn to malaise as they realized they had to venture out into the cold, having nothing but memories to remind them of the show that they had waited so long for.
-Nathan Lichtman
