Linkin Park headlines all-day rock concert at Tuesday's state fair (August 27 2007)

Quelle: http://www.syracuse.com

By Mark Bialczak
Staff writer

Chester Bennington and his band mates in Linkin Park bring 10 other cutting-edge rock bands for this year's version of their Projekt Revolution concert Tuesday at the state fair's Mohegan Sun Grandstand.

Two stages of music weren't hard to fill, Bennington said during a teleconference that also included members of My Chemical Romance and Taking Back Sunday. These are good days for great music, he said.

"Honestly, I think there are a lot of bands that are really good right now," Bennington said. "Not that there ever have been more bands out that aren't good, but I think people are kind of in the mood to just experiment and play around and try to reinvent themselves every time they come out and try to do something new and different, and I think that's resonating through all of music, not just rock music, but I think hip-hop music is evolving and country music is evolving and crossing over in ways it hasn't really done before.

Gerard Way, of My Chemical Romance, added that Linkin Park was one of just a few bands that sparked MCR to be ambitious in its musical pursuit from the start.

"But coming and starting a band, it was almost like this anti-ambition thing out there," Way said. "And that was extremely frustrating for us even back then. So I think that is kind of why, at least from our perspective, our growth spurts have been so dramatic with each record. ... We felt we had to make up for a lot of lost time of making ambitious records. Like Chester said, it is a really exciting time in music for that reason."

Matt Rubano, of Taking Back Sunday, said he thinks the lineup is full of rock bands that know how to connect with their fans. Yet there are different styles of rock represented, he says.

"There are a couple of bands on here that, while it makes an incredible lineup that you wouldn't normally see performing together, would not be on a festival like this," Rubano said. "And I know that there are some environmentally conscious themes and things like that that are sort of undertones or possibly overtones for the tour, and I think all those things mixed together are really great.

"It sort of reminds me of when I was a teenager and going to see the first couple of Lollapaloozas where there was something more than just going to see bands," he said. "It was going to see really, really unique bands playing together, and then there were a bunch of other sort of ideas and concepts floating around the place while you were enjoying your band. So I'm excited for it."

Bennington said Linkin Park is 100 percent behind benevolence and education.

"Linkin Park, we started an organization called Music for Relief after some pretty horrible natural disasters occurred," he said, "and we felt that we were in a position where we could actually do something. And now with the question arising, does global warming have an effect on the increase of a lot of these natural disasters, I think that it's important to raise awareness.

"In my opinion, let's say the worst-case scenario is that there is no connection and it's just the way the world is moving and we're not contributing to it, great," Bennington said. "But at the same time, what's the worst thing that could happen? You know, we'd have cleaner air, less greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere, people are using less energy. There is really not a downside.

"But if there is a connection and we keep going down a path that we're going and these horrible natural disasters that could be prevented by making some easy changes, I think that's not an option that I'm willing to gamble on," he said. "So I think that by raising awareness as much as possible, encouraging people to make simple changes in their life, and showing them how by offering information at the tour, I think we can make a difference. If at the end of the day, all we did was plant a bunch of trees, that's cool with me."