Melbourne, Victoria, Australia - May 3rd
(Thanx to hedLP @ the mb)
Well, hello....
I just got home from last night's Linkin Park extravaganza at Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. I've been horny for this day since I first heard their stuff so I was really pysched. Anyway....
Anyway, personally I walked up to the venue, and all my friends were at different doors, so I lost them. We get in finally, and the place starts to pack. I'm General Admin so I was looking up at the seaters and feeling kinda sorry for them. It's also clear of the majority of the fan-base of Linkin/Sunk, millions of teenies (including mahself) littered the floor amongst a few older people that filled up the potential pit area. Anyway, we're treated to some shit music (I think it's oldies music) untill 1200 Techniques hit the floor and the lights fade.
1200 Techniques 1200T's are a local Melbourne, Hip-Hopper band. I was one of the only ones around there that from the look of it had atleast heard ONE of their songs, that being their current single - Hard as Hell. I kinda had this bad feeling the crowd wouldn't buy into their act. And after playing a few songs, the crowd didn't seem to move or really get pysched. But, they did cheer after each song - was it because it was good? Or was it because it was "One Step Closer" to Linkin Park coming on? Anyway, the crowd got a bit tired of them, and started yelling shit at the poor guys...and even threw fucking COINS at them. That shit is fucking dangerous, and in rightful fashion the lead singer went off at some throwers telling them to "Meet him out the back, MUTHAFUCKA". Well, they were good. BUT, they really didn't fit the nuish-metal theme of the night, and because of that, it was hard to get into. But a good starter off for the night. After that, it was soundcheck time for Sunk Loto.
Sunk Loto
It was obvious that Sunk had ALOT of fans of theirs out in the crowd. Many people came dressed in Sunk merch. So....in classic "Build up some shit" fashionn, Jason (lead singer) comes out and raises his arms all holy and shit...the crowd is fucking creaming and well, and BAM, straight into a song they went (don't ask me the setlist, I ain't a big fan of Sunk). And it's now I kinda realise, being stuck in the middle of the pit, that Sunk's live-reputation fits them perfectly. The pit was rabid, but also that sorta "untrained" pit, where people just jump up and down and not to any beat. Ugh. That causes lots of hurtness. Why can't people jump in time?! Anyway, halfway through Sunk's set, I filtered my way to the back - just so I could watch and save myself for Linkin. Sunk was pretty sweet, but after they played their classics, it kinda died down. So....there goes Sunk Loto. And it's time for Linkin Park soundcheck....
Linkin Park ....rightio. Time for the shit I came for. While the soundcheck was going down, many people wandered off for liquid beverages, I probably should of done that mah-self, BUT, being a dumb bastard - I didn't. My friend came back, and I had half of his glass of $3 water though. So, we figured we had about 25 minutes untill Linkin started....so while everyone was recovering we neaded our way into the pit. And there we wait, through countless shit PA music - but now that I think of it, if they played good shit like Deftones, the crowd would probably mosh, so it's a good idea to keep the crowd settled with SHIT. So......we wait, and the lights cut out. OH MY FUCKING GOD. The reality of the whole night has finally hit. I cream myself, kinda sticky, but a necessary course of action. And the lights come back on....guess who it's pointed at? Of course, Mr Hahn! And in typical Linkin Park concert fashion (I do believe, as the webcasts have shown) - 'Ol Joe starts spinnin' some wicked Turntable shit, that gets the crowd pumping. Again, the lights cut out - then the first few bass bits of With You play, and the lights cut back on.....Linkin Park are on the fucking stage. Everyone's made some fucking noise and raised some hands. And with a huge weiling scream from Chester, up and down the fucking crowd go. I kinda thought Sunk's pit was crazy, this was fucking mental, it went everywhere, and was pretty un-trained - BUT, it did feel safe as the crowd wasn't a "big" bunch of guys. Anyway, they whipped the crowd into a frenzy going from With You to Runaway to Papercut to By Myself to Points of Authority, with a little break in there somewhere (btw, I THINK that's the setlist, I can't remember but it seems right from my sweaty memory remains)... they then did that little talk about some old-school shit, and here's some "Hip Hop" shit, they they went into High Voltage (with the remixed lyrics)then into Crawling, which made the crowd go wild. They then went into Pushing Me Away, then played some EP shit again, being And One. That was kinda funny, because the song goes way off live (it's also MY favorite oldschool song of theirs), and in honesty the crowd had NO idea what the song was. I had some funny looks when I was singing the lyrics, but some guy nicely beside me asked me "What's this fucking awesome song?!", so I wouldn't be surprised if And One was downloaded like a bitch this week off the internet. In The End was next to follow (again, I THINK, I am not sure)....but then it was definately into A Place For My Head. My fucking god, that song went off.....and then...they dropped their shit, and left, giving everyone a big cheezy wave.....oh my god, can someone spell, Encore? Sure enough, Linkin Park done what they wanted to do....they had the crowd calling their name and doing some Aussie-Aussie-Aussie, Oi Oi Oi and "Let's go Linkin, Let's Go" chants...and a huge "Lin-kin Park, Link-kin Park" chant. Then the lights came back on, and Hahny done some more DJ shit which made the crowd go wild.....knowing that One Step Closer was coming. They then played Forgotten, and guess what they did? They got the crowd to sing "Now you got me caught in the act, you'll bring the thought BACK" line, over and over....untill the song finished, just like on the Webcasts ^_^ . Now, they then asked the crowd to demand a song.....now, I wonder what they could play? I doubt my chants of "Step Up" were heard under the deafening roar of "One Step Closer". So anyway, Chester's like "Well, yeah, this is One Step Closer - it's our last song anyway" and yeah - I then thought "it's time I'm going to die" and die I nearly did. That song went pschitz, around and up and down everyone went, and a HUGE abundance of Crowd Surfers helped die the mosh down by kicking us in the head and landing down infront of us and shit. Then it finished, and they were gone. Holy fucking shit. What a great night. And in great Linkin Park fashion, they came back down and signed autographs after the show by standing behind the railing and letting people reach over and basically shake shit in front of their eyes to get stuff signed...I walked away 6 signatures more happy on the front of my Hybrid Theory booklet, which I put in some bubblewrap and then in my cargos.
Some other interesting shit that went down, was Chester came back out draped in the Australian flag. He mentioned how he loves this place (I guess he says that to 'em all ) and how Melbourne was the Biggest Crowd they've ever played infront of, and how we "Fucking Rock". I thought "BULLLLLSHIT" because I remember hearing they've played 'fore 20,000 before. But upon jumpin' on the tour-section of linkinpark.com today, I just found out we were the biggest crowd for a Linkin Park HEADLINING act....I bet Sydney woulda been bigger, save for the small venue. Anyway, that made the crowd feel proud of themselves, and I couldn't help but feeling a bit proud for us Australians. When signing graphs at the end, Chester also let peeps sign the flag....somewhere amongst the huge amount is my little signature which looked more like Child Vomit, but it's still there, YAY! Also, another funny bit was where Chester mention they gotta sware alot to make up for the lack of fucking sware words on the album. All in all, a fucking awesome show. ... oh, and did I mention, myself and a friend brough in two disposable cameras and we got away with it - totalling around 20ish pictures from 2 different vantage points? OOOOH. I'll have them up as soon as I get 'em developed - but dont' expect high quality, I'm SURE a bit of sweat landed on the lens-thing causing the pictures to be blurry...I'm sure. I'll also scan up my 6-sigged Booklet, if anyone's interested. Fuck, what a great night....
....I'd love to thank Linkin Park, Sunk Loto and 1200 Techniques for giving me the best night of my life, and a concert that didn't dissapoint (except, Chesters vocals weren't turned up enough and he was REALLY hard to hear through the songs....especially crawling where he had to strain his balls to pull out them weils). . . come back soon.