Linkin Park<\/strong><\/p>\n Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane, QLD<\/strong><\/p>\n Thursday, March 5th<\/strong><\/p>\n A generational mix flocked to the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Thursday night, plagued by nostalgia for the early 2000s as they entered the venue for the second night of Linkin Park\u2019s Brisbane tour dates. <\/span><\/p>\n For some fans it was a brand new experience, whether that was due to the band\u2019s revived lineup and most recent album From Zero<\/em>, or because they\u2019d simply missed the last tour held back in 2013, when Linkin Park were still led by the one and only Chester Bennington.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s certainly been a long time since that era of the band, with Bennington sadly passing in 2017 and splitting the band\u2019s legacy into two sides. After a seven-year hiatus spent recovering and redirecting, the alternative rock band re-emerged with new music and a new vocalist, Emily Armstrong (Dead Sara).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Band members Mike Shinoda, Dave \u201cPhoenix\u201d Farrell, Joe Hahn, Emily Armstrong, and Colin Brittain took to the stage, beginning with 2003 hit \u201c<\/span>Somewhere I Belong\u201d<\/span>. The familiar opening riff drew the kind of roar that reminds you the depth at which these songs have taken root in people\u2019s memories. Emo anthem \u201c<\/span>Crawling\u201d <\/span>followed, and Armstrong made her first real statement of the night, her face visibly reddening as she pushed into the upper register. <\/span><\/p>\n Get your daily dose of everything happening in Australian\/New Zealand music and globally.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n For the Bennington-era catalogue, Armstrong largely let the crowd carry the melody, or sang in the style of the original recordings \u2013 a conscious, respectful decision not to tread on sacred ground. The grace was admirable, but Armstrong is a genuinely extraordinary vocalist, and those crescendoed chorus moments were precisely when the room needed her to show off her obvious skills and prove herself the powerhouse that she is. The restraint was understandable, it\u2019s still technically early days, but the opportunity was there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Despite <\/span>From Zero<\/span><\/i> having been out for well over a year, the crowd\u2019s energy noticeably dipped when the setlist ventured away from the classics. The band clearly felt it and did the extra legwork, \u00a0Shinoda coaxing seated sections to their feet, Armstrong keeping the energy relentlessly high.<\/span><\/p>\n Credit: Ashley Mar<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe Emptiness Machine\u201d<\/span> was the night\u2019s most precisely engineered moment. Shinoda eased in for the second verse as the lasers reignited in the bridge, pulsing in perfect time with <\/span>\u201cI only wanted to be part of something\u201d<\/span><\/em> \u2014 props to the set and lighting designers for an incredibly enhanced experience, be it the lasers, backdrop visuals, or smokey pyrotechnics.<\/span><\/p>\n The stage fell dark and quiet then, save for blue lasers flickering haphazardly in the black, before a thumping alarm sequence kicked the crowd back into gear for \u201c<\/span>The Catalyst\u201d<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBurn It Down\u201d<\/span> followed, with timed visuals of cascading sand that gave the song a weight it might not have carried otherwise. Some of the longer anticipatory intros that peppered the night built beautifully in theory, but landed softer than the wind-up deserved. The slow burn works best when it\u2019s saving itself for the mega-hits, not warming up a Thursday night crowd still finding their feet.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou guys ready to jump?\u201d Armstrong asked, before the whole floor began clapping in unison, the mosh pit stomping along in kind. Shinoda returned to guitar and rapped the majority, while Armstrong alternated between killing the high notes in the chorus and picking up a tambourine in the gaps between. She made it look effortless, which it certainly wasn\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n Then the room shifted, with Shinoda leading Fort Minor\u2019s \u201c<\/span>Where\u2019d You Go, <\/span>fusing his two musical identities. The song arrived quietly, and the crowd seemed to absorb it differently to everything else. While the single was originally written from the perspective of a partner left at home while their loved one goes on tour, the chorus had a very Bennington-shaped hole in this instance. <\/span><\/p>\n A hush fell over the floor that felt less like calm and more like everyone retreating inward at the same moment, collectively carrying the same thought about who wasn\u2019t standing on that stage anymore. The high-voltage energy Armstrong and Shinoda brought wasn\u2019t quite matched from the crowd\u2019s end, but that wasn\u2019t a bad thing in this moment. It was just the room doing what it needed to do.<\/span><\/p>\n Credit: Ashley Mar<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Sadness was replaced by that angsty adrenaline-injected sound quickly afterwards, lifting the mood once more. Shinoda turned to face the crowd and raised his hands slowly and deliberately, parting the floor. The pit opened on command for \u201c<\/span>Two Faced\u201d<\/span>, and without hesitation, two walls of people sprinted headlong at each other with the kind of gleeful commitment usually reserved for last drinks. \u201cAlright, you know what to do,\u201d Armstrong said, watching the gap form again.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A DJ scratch solo from Hahn then bled into a Bollywood-influenced guitar section,\u00a0 before Shinoda took the mic for some crowd work. \u201cBrisbane you\u2019re beautiful. What\u2019s up fellas? Brissy, how ya goin\u2019?\u201d he offered, in an Australian accent that landed somewhere closer to English. A signed hat went into the crowd at the barrier. <\/span><\/p>\n The closing stretch \u2014 \u201c<\/span>Numb\u201d<\/span>, \u201c<\/span>In the End\u201d<\/span>, a lung-shredding \u201c<\/span>Faint\u201d<\/span> \u2014 arrived with the weight of songs that have meant something to too many people for too long to ever feel routine. The encore brought \u201c<\/span>Papercut\u201d<\/span>, \u201c<\/span>Heavy Is the Crown\u201d<\/span>, and finally \u201c<\/span>Bleed It Out\u201d<\/span>, extended with a Fort Minor verse buried in the bridge, closing the night in a breathless, confetti-dusted blur.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a long time for us to come back to Brisbane,\u201d Shinoda said before the final song. \u201cHopefully it doesn\u2019t take us as long to come back next time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Australia will definitely be holding him to that.<\/span><\/p>\n Check out Linkin Park\u2019s remaining Australian tour dates here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\nLove Music?<\/h2>\n
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