LINKIN PARK Blends Rock And Electronic Music In Tour Opener

January 24, 2011

According to The Pulse Of Radio, LINKIN PARK opened its 2011 North American tour on Thursday night (January 20) in Sunrise, Florida, with Spin.com reporting that the concert "showed a group of veteran performers standing on a divide" with the band wanting to explore the electronic sounds of its new album, "A Thousand Suns", while also aiming to please the diehard fans who came to hear the band's many rap-rock hits.

Rap-oriented vocalist Mike Shinoda dominated the early portion of the show as the band reeled through a series of hits like "Given Up", "New Divide" and "Faint". Shinoda also played guitar and keyboards.

The middle of the show found singer Chester Bennington taking more of the spotlight as the band worked out new cuts from "A Thousand Suns". Spin.com described the mood as "somber" during these more atmospheric offerings.

But the energy level picked up as the band hit the homestretch with favorites like "Crawling", "One Step Closer", "In The End" and "Bleed It Out". Spin reported, "Though fans had respectfully listened and sung along to the subtler songs, it was during these ragers that the mood became electric."

Bennington told The Pulse Of Radio how the band went about putting together its set list for this trek. "We kind of put, you know, the obvious ones, like any song that we've done that's been No. 1," he said. "Then let's go and look at all the most popular ones from fans, the ones kids are listening to. And then, you know, obviously there are things that we like to play. And then there are songs that we put in to keep the flow of the show going. So we try to, like, give a good mixture of energy, you know, rock, with the more emotionally driven kind of mid-tempo stuff and use that to take people on a ride."

"A Thousand Suns" has received mixed reviews from critics and fans, due to the band mostly abandoning its old style in favor of a heavily produced, electronic sound. The record has sold more than 600,000 copies since coming out last fall.

LINKIN PARK next plays in Detroit on Tuesday (January 25).

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).