AtomTan.co.uk - Septmber 2001
Linkin Park: Manchester Apollo, 9/15/01
Support: Puddle Of Mudd, Adema, Dilated Peoples
Tonight, the Apollo is practically bursting at the seams. Linkin Park are in town for their first local headline show, and the place is rammed to the rafters with 12-year-olds wanting a glimpse of their nu-metal heroes. First up, however, are PUDDLE OF MUDD (4/5), the latest band to be signed by Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst. Given the previous two bands he's signed (Staind and Cold), you'd be forgiven if you thought that POM might sound like them. Not so, in fact. Puddle Of Mudd sound like Pearl Jam, only ten years later. It's grunge mixed up with the power of metal, and it works really, really well. Although the band only get a short half-hour slot, it's still long enough to impress us. If they'd been around ten years ago, they'd have been massive - as it is, they may have to contend with being merely big and damn good.
The same, however, can't really be said of ADEMA (2/5). Apparently their debut album's shifted more than twice the amount in its first week of release that the headliners' debut did, although on the strength of this performance, it's hard to see why. Their sub-Korn riffage is dull and monotonous, and their songs too similar to one another for it to be bearable. Vocalist Marky Chavez is Korn's Jon Davis' half-brother, and with a band whose bassist looks like Fieldy and lead guitarist looks like Munky, you've got to wonder really.
It would be hard to go down further than Adema, but DILATED PEOPLES (1/5) manage it in spades. Their dull hip-hop really isn't what's needed - it's not even good hip-hop, for fuck's sake, it's the same as every other hip-hop band trying to make a quick buck. Dull, dull, DULL.
After that, the only way can really be up.
As nu-metal heroes LINKIN PARK (3/5) strut onstage and kick into "With You", the pit goes off as only a pit full of pre-pubescent schoolkids can - with a LOT of energy. Almost all of tonight's material is culled from their "Hybrid Theory" album, with a few surprises chucked in here and there - we get an old track called "And One", as well as b-sides "My December" (which features vocalist Mike Shinoda playing keyboards) and "Step Up". Apart from that, though, it's plain and predictable sailing - we get all the singles (though "Papercut" is very early in the set), "Pushing Me Away", "Runaway", "A Place For My Head", "Cure For The Itch", the lot. Vocalist Chester Bennington is the centre of attention for all, running around the stage, jumping into the crowd, and acting like a real star, whereas Mike Shinoda is content to stay on the stage itself, picking up guitar for some songs. However, it all has an air of predictability about it, and the band seem to come off as a little too polished, perhaps. Still, it's nice clean fun for the kids, and by the time they close with "One Step Closer" (with the vocalists from Puddle Of Mudd and Adema joining in with Chester for the "shut up when I'm talking to you" hookline) there's a roomful of happy children ready to be tucked in to bed by mummy.
A nice family evening out, perhaps, but not exactly what we want from a rock show.
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