Live Review: Linkin Park - The O2, London 24/09/2024
Linkin Park’s return was a welcome liberation for their devoted fans at London’s O2 Arena on Tuesday night.
The sold-out show marked the culmination of a busy day for the band, announcing more tour dates, and launching a new single, ‘Heavy Is The Crown’, complete with a ‘League of Legends’-themed animated video.
For one of the planet’s most talked about bands, it’s a far cry from their first London shows 23 years ago, or even the last shows in the capital barely two weeks before Chester Bennington died in 2017. Based on the merch queues inside and outside the venue, some fans were waiting those seven years just for a t-shirt.
Support act grandson brought headliner vibes to his 40-minute opening set. Aided with a drummer and guitarist, he blistered through stuff at the intersection between rock & roll and rap. The 30-year-old has a rich history of collaboration with Park’s Mike Shinoda, with set opener ‘Running From My Shadow’, and ‘Riptide’. It made him well placed to hype up LP’s return as “music history”. He urged the crowd to leave their problems behind with ‘Something to Hide’, but the true moment of the set was ‘Heather’, dedicated to those he’d lost – heroes, family members, and fans at an early London show at The Underworld. He didn’t explicitly name anyone – but it was implied. The arena was full of phone lights for that special performance, a rare sombre element in a celebratory set. It can be tricky for a support act to work in the round, but he nailed his brief. grandson ended by asking: “Are you ready? No, you fucking ain’t.”
Roughly 30 minutes later, Linkin Park walked through to the centre stage, an angular, rectangular performance area which brought them closer to their audience. The rest of the band were quickly followed up by the two vocalists. For their relaunch in the UK, it couldn’t be any different to LP’s first outing in London in 2001 at Tutu’s nightclub in King’s College.
Mike leads the double-header of ‘Somewhere I Belong’ and ‘Crawling’, underneath giant box screens showing artsy visuals to every side of The O2.
Emily Armstrong’s presence is quickly felt on vocals too, in her almost impossible job in that hole. She was a conduit for the fans – everyone sang and screamed their hearts out, including Emily. She knew when to step back too, and let thousands of arena voices take over. The healing process came in various shapes: arms aloft for ‘Points of Authority’, or raving to the electronic banger ‘New Divide’. These diehards weren’t the ones with reservations about a new lead – the gorgeous ‘Waiting for the End’ was met with rapturous cheers and chants of her name, which left Emily visibly emotional in the middle of the auditorium.
Comeback single ‘The Emptiness Machine’ is inexplicably Linkin Park’s biggest chart success in the UK, a No. 4 smash, leading Mike to note the warm reception was “even bigger than some of the other favourites”. It gets a fantastic reception and felt as much at home in this set as the classics of the last 25 years.
The old guard get their moments – the unmissable bass of Dave “Phoenix” Farrell, Joe Hahn with a turntable mix and drum interlude, which led into Mike’s solo run of ‘When They Come for Me’ and ‘Remember the Name’, backed with touring guitarist Alex Feder and drummer Colin Brittain, dressed in a rather surprising Diana Ross top.
Colin and Emily are the newbies, but they’re in their element. Colin threw a drumstick into the crowd. Nothing new there, but when Emily wanted one, he tossed it in her direction and she caught it, before celebrating. They’re a well-functioning unit despite only four shows so far.
The band were having fun with their fans too. On this run of shows, Set A and Set C had emerged, but speculation was rife about Set B. It set ‘Iridescent’ over the mid-set interludes, and a ballsy run of screamo classics, from Emily’s roar at the top of ‘Keys To The Kingdom’, through the crunchy ‘Given Up’, with its own impossible scream, and into ‘One Step Closer’. It’s quite a bitching bunch – maybe that’s what the B stands for.
A longer interlude in the middle raised fears about the show’s momentum, but it is quickly apparent they’ve swapped the instruments around so everyone gets a fair chance of seeing their heroes “in the round”. Their return was a gorgeous, revamped ballad version of ‘Lost’, just Emily and Mike, which acts as an intro to the cathartic ‘Breaking the Habit’. There’s a delicate, shimmering acoustic version of ‘My December’, where Emily’s vocals feel a little like Amy Lee.
These tender moments punctuate the bangers where Linkin Park’s light shines boldest. ‘Burn It Down’, ‘What I’ve Done’ – the list is endless.
The main set came to a rapturous end hurling ‘Numb’, ‘In The End’ and ‘Faint’ in a body blow of successive tracks. The cries resonate around the cavernous space, which the band grew accustomed to during the Chester years. (This their eighth headline show at The O2.) Emily joined those on the barrier to release the pent-up energy during ‘In The End’.
For those who saw the band in the past, it’s a chance to revisit those years. The newcomers also get an opportunity to share with genuine humans, some of whom were critical in crafting it. It’s all feeling; there are no explicit mentions of Chester in any of their brief speeches to the crowd. They named one of the interludes ‘Kintsugi’, and that feels apt – repairing broken pottery in a way that honours the damage done. They’re fighting through in their own way, without video clips of the past, or holograms, or goddamn AI. This suits them down to the ground they just burnt up.
Can I get an encore? Of course. ‘Papercut’ leads into ‘Heavy Is The Crown’, only the second time it has been played live. Mike introduced it by saying: “It’s not every day you get to release a new song.” It was officially released at 4pm, so probably not enough time to learn it, but it’s a corking live delivery, complete with a laser light show. Emily was screaming until she was laying on her back. They plugged the upcoming album ‘From Zero’, but these aren’t the ones who need convincing.
If anyone had any energy left, it was spent on ‘Bleed It Out’, starting with Alex performing the opening guitar in a cage of laser lights. It was loud, and manic: the perfect culmination of the past two hours.
This is not the location to contemplate the nuances of the return of Linkin Park. These dedicated fans have worked quickly to be here, and they’re not the ones about to revolt. They will carry LP’s current crew from zero to whatever number they want to achieve.
Where do they go from here? The arena stage may not satisfy all customers, while festivals and bigger venues may not take to this unusual staging. Maybe this was a one-off show in design and delivery. Maybe that’s okay. Based on this outing, they’ll be fine, whatever lies ahead.
It’s been a long time coming, but these songs speak to teenagers. They’ve been there for the thousands in the crowd, and millions globally, growing up through it all. It’s cathartic, liberating, healing, and intense. It’s not ideal – as Mike sings in ‘Leave Out All The Rest’, “I’ve never been perfect” – but it is Linkin Park. And that’s all you can ask for.
Words by Samuel Draper
