Linkin Park in Milan: the weight of the past, the strength of the new
“Why don’t they change their name?!”; “They are no longer the same”; “There are artists who cannot be replaced.” They read, and they will continue to read, many comments genre On the reincarnation of Linkin Park. Yet, according to the organizers’ data, they are about 78 thousand Italian fans present at the Snai La Maura Hippodrome To review the band in action, orphaned by Chester Bennington since 2017 and returned only last year With a new singer to support Mike Shinoda. After years of uncertainties about the future of the US formation, who took refuge in a silence of respect and reflection after Bennington’s tragic disappearance, any doubt has been dissolved with a surprise return, but who was breathing in the air. And to answer the question about how Linkin Park play without their historic frontman, the group tried on the stages and with a new album, “From zero“(Here the track for trace, and here the review). A first short tour to warm the engines is concluded, now the band is engaged in one Long world tour that stops in Milan on June 24 as part of the I-Days For a given sold out. For a few days he feared for the worst, given the cancellation of the previous date in Switzerland for an unspecified “medical problem inside the band”. But, in the end, you do it great. The Linkin Park in their new formation, with the singer Emily Armstrong and the drummer Colin Brittain, have even organized a special initiative based on pizza on the eve of the tricolor concert, as if to reassure the Milanese public.
On a warm afternoon of late June, to turn on the enthusiasm of the fans after opening the gates, the Jimmy Eat Worldbetween sharp guitars and emotion, before the Canadian raid Spiritbox. Shortly after eight, the sun is still hot in the sky, and the racecourse seems an infinite expanse of people. Fans of all ages are recognized between the publicwith the most avid skate against the barriers. Some of them, already from the morning, recognized them through the streets of Milan wearing the shirt with the unmistakable “LP” logo. The date to the I-Days is, in its own way, a symbolic event for fans: many of those present, unaware of what would happen then, had witnessed in 2017 what would prove to be one of the last shows with Chester Bennington, just in the same festival. At the racecourse, however, for this new appointment with the Linkin Park It is not accompanied by the ghosts of the past, but by a necessary and authentic sense of evolution. At the exit of the album “From Zero”, we wrote that it was never possible to expect someone to somehow replace Chester Bennington. In fact, the band was reported in activity, was in fact a voice with a stamp and extension other than that of Bennington, but still full of power, capable of paying homage to the power of the late frontman, without putting himself in the shade and the legacy of him. There is no stomach socket that Chester managed to make it try; But it is right that the sensations are renewed. Even live the group goes towards greater brightness, playing on the strengths of one’s past, but opening up to a future load of novelty. The first test of the live also arrives on the iPipodrome stage even in front of the Italian public.
Time gets palpable when, ten minutes from time x, the displays next to the stage show the countdown. To mark the last moments before the concert, however, almost as if it were a joke, it is “L’Altitude” by Laura Pausini transmitted by the speakers. On the last note, around 9 pm, after a completely unpredictable moment, the show can therefore begin. The beginning is dictated by electronic sounds, such as electricity discharges, while the scene turns on, consisting of several levels, with a catwalk that cuts the pit, LED and screens in two. The band thus takes place on stage, presenting the renewed training for the first time to Milanese fans who, Next to the new elements, he sees historical members lined up Mike Shinoda, Dave “Phoenix” Farrell and Joe Hahn, in addition to the turn -up guitarist Alex Feder.
The evening is A concert of almost two hours of music, structured in four acts, plus an encoreduring which the band tries to the test with some classics, it is proof of a renewed energy with songs taken from the return album. The task of opening the live is entrusted to a historical song, “Somewhere I Belong“From one of the most representative study works,” meteor “of 2003. It seems that the group wants to clear up right away Each action is both a tribute to your career before now, that the signal of A new present and future.
The beginning wishes a littlewith Emily who seems to need to take the measurements of its space and role, while the band must find a way to build an adequate sound environment. With “Crawling”, from the 2000 debut album, “Hybrid Theory”, the public finally welcomes the “new” Linkin Park by starting a general choir. For the US formation, the situation appears less and less tense, and you can get to the heart without fear. There are also two songs from the recent album, “Cut the Bridge” and “The Emptine Machine”, inframed only by “Lying from you”, to load even more. The new songs manage to bring out the best of Emily Armstrong who, until recently known to a more underground audience for having co-founded the Dead Sara, Bring the Linkin Park to a more hardcore dimension. On stage the singer has all the air of an outsider, hidden behind a pair of glasses alone that will remove only in the middle of the concert. He doesn’t have a diva air, he doesn’t wear showy clothes, but little by little, he knows how to capture the public with the intensity and energy of his voice, surprising for the dynamism and frenzy of his attitude. But also for his sensitivity and empathy, which on “Waiting for the End” lead her to move. While with the new songs he immediately transmits the torments and fears, as well as light and hope, compared to the historical pieces of the band Emily moves discreetly. However, it is when he manages to leverage his personality, that he finds the right strength to give the best interpretations of old songs. Armstrong does not try to emulate Chester or to confront its legacy, but convinces with one’s energy and frankness to bring pieces full of technical and emotional difficulties back on stage. The Milan audience even comes to dedicate them A chorus of “you are beautiful”: It might seem inappropriate, but on stage Emily comes to shine with her own beauty, when she wins the fear of showing too much and lets go of your voice, both on high notes and visceral screams. For the singer, the test on classics such as “What I’ve Done” and “Faint” is more than overcome with an performance that puts those present. On other pieces, such as “number” and “in the end”, it is almost more the audience to sing. However it goes, Emily can always count on the heavy rhythms of the new drummer, staged with a shirt with a print by Diana Ross, and on the precision of his companions, as well as on the technicalities of Mike Shinoda – Both in the raped parts and on keyboards. Together, the two singers find their balance, leaving their voices or guitars to play with each otheras in the recent “Two Faced” and “Overflow”, intertwining and leaving their own space. It is Shinoda who lets go to the pleasantries: “Thank you very much for your support! Thanks for welcoming Emily and Colin,” he says in one of the short exchanges of jokes with the public. It is always the co-founder of the Linkin Park who gets off the stage during his solo moment in the middle of the concert to embrace the fans of the first rows.
The ladder does not give surprises or twists following the script of previous dates. After the fourth act of the concert dedicated to the most loved songs, the Linkin Park give the air of Chester Bennington in the air on the recording of “Castle of Glass”, which serves to fill the short break before the moment of encore. “Papercut”, “A Place for My Head”, “Heavy is the Crown” and “Bleed it out” are the songs that, by intertwining the past and present of the band, lead to the end of the concert. With an adrenaline discharge on you who accompanies outside the hippodrome, It is easier and easier to believe in the future of the “new” Linkin Park.
Here is the lineup:
