Linkin Park is back and it means business. The reconstituted band, with Emily Armstrong stepping in to a lead singer role, played its first full performance since the death of former frontman Chester Bennington on Wednesday night at L.A.’s Kia Forum. And if there was any thought that the very short international tour the group is embarking on would just be a repeat of the abbreviated livestream set they did to announce the new lineup last week, that was put to rest with a packed 27-song show that came in at just a hair over two hours.
The Forum show included all of the hits the band did as part of that 50-minute livestream, which was webcast from a soundstage in front of a small live audience. But it also included 10 songs that weren’t performed in that teaser show, including some relative obscurities and two songs, “Keys to the Kingdom” and “Friendly Fire,” that had never been done live in any context before, with or without Bennington.
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Although there has been no small amount of controversy over the hiring of Armstrong — from issues some fans have had about her personally to the very idea of “replacing” Bennington and carrying on at all — the approximately 17,000 fans at the Forum clearly were signaling their assent to her joining the band with a constant roar that roughly matched the one she was putting out.
No newly written material was debuted, with the only freshly minted song being the new single “The Emptiness Machine,” which was already heard in the webcast and has received a good reception as the only teaser so far for the band’s forthcoming comeback album, “From Zero.” But co-frontperson Mike Shinoda made promises about how much fans will like it when they hear it Nov. 15.
The short tour will continue with one other U.S. show, at New York’s Barclays Center on Sept. 16, followed by four more dates in Germany, the U.K., South Korea and Colombia later this month and in November. These half-dozen dates are just a warm-up, albeit an arena-sized warm-up, with a full tour said to be following in 2025. The band indicated in a new Billboard cover story that stadium dates will be in the offing for their return.
A full review of the concert will be coming in Variety.
Meanwhile, here is the full setlist for Linkin Park’s show Wednesday at the Forum:
Somewhere I Belong
Crawling
Lying From You
Points of Authority
New Divide
The Emptiness Machine
The Catalyst
Burn It Down
Waiting for the End
Castle of Glass
Joe Hahn Solo
When They Come for Me/Remember the Name
Lost in the Echo
Given Up
One Step Closer
Lost
Breaking the Habit
What I’ve Done
Leave Out All the Rest
My December
Friendly Fire
Numb
In the End
Faint
Papercut
Keys to the Kingdom
Bleed It Out
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