Fan Review: Linkin Park at Rock in Rio, Lisbon (Portugal) by Fabio

Hey guys, I’d like to apologize as I’m writing not only about LP performance, but the whole experience I had that day. The reason I’m doing that? Cause this was my first LP concert and meet+greet so I felt that wouldn’t be fair to share with you what this day meant to me in many ways . Big thanks to Adie for letting me write this down on her blog =)
Saturday, May 26th, the BIG day has finally come, I was pretty sure that day had the necessary trumps for each LP(Uer) fan/Street Soldier to succeed and accomplish what they hopelessly wanted, see Linkin Park having a blast with their loyal fans as ONE .
It was time for me to move on, and go straightly to Rock in Rio which was about to be my LP debut concert. I took the train to Bela Vista (RiR Venue), and fortunately met my friend Rita and Monique on the way. They looked just like me but especially Rita, eyes overflowing  joy while her smile from tooth to tooth were proving excitement for keeping in mind that Linkin Park was separated from us for  just few hours. We got there finally, and we got caught up in the middle of like a thousand people in line to enter the venue. Some of em’ wearing their “music” from  heaviest to the softest music style, not just the bands who were about to perform, from Pink Floyd to Motorhead, The Offspring to Linkin Park. I was glad to see most of em’ wearing  LP shirts, for me the alleged headliner for that day. I could hear some fans shouting their lyrics while the line was moving forward to the main entrance, unwittingly I started to picture how would it be the whole thing, when they finally appear *.* ..

Back to reality we finally got in XD, we were just one step closer to meet the band (our first Meet and Greet), before that we (me and Rita) decided to participate and give a hand to Music For Relief cause, helping them to spread the word about the Organization and its role down the history of LP, and what it does these days, which served as well in a certain way to let time run out kind of fast till the M+G.
We did great team work together, raising some donations given from a lot of humble people at the venue, although few soldiers who were there showed some interest and passion to help the LP cause :/ . The clock tics and tics, and at the end of the evening we were done with Music For Relief volunteer thing and satisfied for doing something meaningful that one day we will be proud of for sure, you can check for some more info here www.musicforrelief.org

Done with that,we moved to the LPU  Meet and Greet spot to get our LPU M+G pass..
At that point I was starting to feel so nervous and started to wonder what would be the perfect thing to convey to the band, between those few minutes we have to get things signed by them. Adam showed up with his assistant for that day, Cátia (LPU Roadie, you all know that nice girl ^^ ) and Missy ( who’s in charge for MFR this European tour) loaded up with a bunch a LPU M+G passes, I kind of wondered how many people were confirmed to attend it XD [Read Cátia’s article about her experience as LPU Roadie of the Day here!]

Adam was quickly surrounded by the LPUers to get their thing to go on, he was literally swallowed by them (including myself haha). Not too long,we all had the pass to carry on, but unfortunately we did wait for like 1 hour to see Linkin Park, and to not let that waiting make us cold, we fought back and contradict by taking group pictures and all that kind of stuff, showing our joy at that moment, getting the opportunity to meet each other, getting stuff signed by Adam (LPUHQ), as downstairs Offspring was kicking some ass with their fans.

Almost 9:00 pm (one hour left for LP to get on stage), apparently they did have some organization issues, but that didn’t make OUR excitement fade at all. Meanwhile the LPUers were getting things signed by the band one by one, I was freaking out shouting their names really loud as we approached them kinda fast 😀  ..PHOENIX aka (Sea) Bass was the first to shake my hand, and to receive my scarf, which I asked later for him to take it to the stage (but he forgot). Then was Bourdie, Shinoda, Chazy, Bradford and Joe, I just could not believe that they were there and I shook their hands, I was shaking like never before – that was definitely one the most beautiful moments of my life, which passed really fast, but some remaining pieces of it are still in my memory m/ …

But then,was time to get  get this thing more serious 😀 …
The big moment CAME DOWN! Lights off on stage, and just an eery background echoing through the venue, that’s when a heavy PRS guitar and thunderous drums showed up with a groove bass sound, introducing themselves. Then Shinoda and Chester appeared to the eyes of the ecstatic crowd when all instruments stopped to play, Mike put himself in the front looking with a serious face full of will to show that they weren’t there to play around but to have a blast with their soldiers, he raised the microphone as the crowd started to scream loudly “LINKIN PARK,LINKIN PARK,LINKIN PARK! “ …Suddenly they ripped us off with one of their heaviest  hits A Place For My Head, we were all crazy that point, it was like we were going back to the 00’. Next  Given Up entered, and it’s not such a BIG surprise for all of us, as Linkin Park have been playing that since MTM, strong choruses with heavy guitar riffs while Phoenix’s bass was keeping up that groovie taste.
Faint entered in its place up next, reminding me of the Meteora era, such a Rap-Metal thing with so many elements that still distinguishes Linkin Park from the other bands.

With You  showed itself in a tour (despite them playing it 2 weeks ago at HOB ) after like 6, I just couldn’t believe I was about to rap up with Mike his verses, as BBB made appearance with his harmonic notes and Rob in the background, while Phoenix and Chester came strongly in pre-chorus / chorus, before 2nd chorus, I thought “oh yeah it’s time for MISTA HAHN to scratch in a way none could ever imitate “, seconds after Mike introduced “Ladies and Gentlemen,Mr.Hahn !! “ and Joe ended up doing what was required 😀 .
Forthwith Runaway started to play, we were totally moving backwards to 00’, it felt so awesome,cause I remembered how i met Linkin Park back then, such a beautiful moment. The crowd was definitely as much astonished as I was.
From The Inside , neither a surprise for us, an anger/desilusion broken trust anthem of Meteora, which the crowd sang loudly.

When Somewhere I Belong came in with an extended intro, with harmonic guitars while Rob was hitting softly the hit-hat and “ride” cymbal, the crowd couldn’t believe it, cause it’s such a meaningful song in many ways for each person that made their appearance in Rock in Rio, singing really loud, with passion, the bridge’s part “And I will never know, myself until I do this on my own..” , was one of the best moments for me.
Then was Numb, one of their biggest hits, we sang all the lyrics until we lost our voices, and for me in particular, I felt every single word while pictures of Numb’s video were playing in my head. Could there be one song more sung in the whole set by the fans 😀 ,beautiful!
When Numb ended, Mike interacted with the crowd, introducing their upcoming record Living Things that comes out this June 26th , at that point I knew they were about to play Burn It Down or Lies Greed Misery. A “freezin’” cold up-my belly, when he said “WE wanted to play something new for you guys tonight, it is called “Lies Greed Misery” , I knew that me and few soldiers knew the lyric of that song (Cátia, Inês and Rita weren’t too far from me, I’m pretty sure they did it well :D), that it would be a beautiful moment for us to show off to people, what is exactly a true Hardcore Linkin Park fan, surrounded by unknown people I started to rap up Mike’s heavy verses sounding like we were back in the 90’s, ripping people’s ears without no permition, with a background filled by Bourdie drums (reminding me of When They Come For Me drums) then with Chester’s strong chorus, I got to say Lies Greed Misery for me is even better live, it’s a song that contains a lot of energetic elements which can take you off the bed in the laziest Sunday morning XD .
Points Of Authority,another one that doesn’t need introduction,everyone knows where this hit lead us to m/

That’s when the Until It Breaks intro for Waiting For The End led me to the sky. Once again they exceeded my expectations by mixing differents songs as one. When the first verse came up I SWEAR to GOD, the first thing I did was looking up to the sky and raised my hands as fluorescent lights in the stage with outstanding effects created a brand new atmosphere around the whole venue, everyone singing with Chaz “Waiting for the end to come, wishing I had strength to stand”… I felt really touched by that, probably my fav song of Linkin Park, it means a lot to me and I was there seeing/hearing them playing it <3 … I wish I could get back to Saturday to feel that again, which reminds me again why Linkin Park is the best band in the WORLD! “All I wanna do is trade this life for something new, holding onto what I haven’t got” with extended Outro, Rob knocking down on the drums really fast like on Bleed it Out drum solo few years ago .
Breaking The Habit made its presence too, such nostalgic verses that remind me of some moments of my life, definitely related to everybody’s lifetime in a way. Could be one of the highest points of that night, but the real ONE was about to show up… LOATR/SOTD/Iridescent Medley  no doubts, the HIGHEST moment of RiR that day! As Mike Shinoda started to play some single notes on piano, Chester’s angelical voice slightly took its place while the crowd raised their cellphones as candles to bring a different energy to the venue, I got to be honest , I almost cried that moment pictures of memories were flashing deep inside my head of some pretty rough moments in my life (some of em’ really recently). I just looked up to the sky and contained myself not to start crying in the middle of unknown people. This is for me that kind of music that you can not tell much about it, in fact, they are the ones who do  have something to tell you about it *.*

Things were collapsing when The Catalyst  began. I pulled up my voice till the limit singing out loud “GOD SAVE US EVERYONE WILL WE BURN INSIDE THE FIRES OF A THOUSAND SUNS..! “, then from all those samples and guitar/bass noise and Chazy’s torn cries, the music finally came to just solid piano chords in harmony with Shinoda’s begging for salvation singing “Lift me UP,Let me GO ! “ ..That would be a perfect cue to end up the first Encore, but didn’t happen. They jumped straight to their first single of Living Things (coming out this June 26th ) Burn It Down. We got all burned by the single’s energy, even the people who didn’t know the lyrics were singing along the harmonies and with BID’s powerful chorus,  every single one was jumping as if it was an obligation .. Of course, shout out to the people who sang Mike’s rap cause something happened with his microphone so we did the best we could to overcome that :P.
What I’ve Done, Crawling and New Divide  led us to “madness” literally as well, you know about those ones m/ . FINALLY In The End. I was kinda desperate to sing that one, cause it has a special meaning for me as my first song of Linkin Park back in 2001 ^ ^. The crowd got CRAZY when Joe started the first chords on the MPC with Mike going straight in the middle of the crowd to tease them up – and it worked. It was the perfect moment for those who had the chance to touch Mike Shinoda! The chorus was sung with a lot of energy as well and the best part and the one I was waiting to crack myself up, the bridge “I’ve put my trust in you,pushed as far as I can go,for all this,there’s only one thing you should knooooOoow !!”, GUYS that was crazy, I gotta tell you 😀 😀 ..
On Bleed It Out, they F*****G NAILED IT  with some extra energy w/BBoys Sabotage bridge, thoroughly amazing, a big slap to people who didn’t check up on HOB video’s. Impressive how LP can mix any song with Bleed it Out .
As expected there we were, back in 00’ to end up the night, soon I’d claim it as my PERFECT one ever since, with Papercut and One Step Closer.

So resuming ,it was worth the whole experience,I met a bunch of cool guys,most of em’ LPUers from Spain (Shout out to @XaGiCo @v1c70rlp @PRiKA4v @IreShinoGohan @stefy2287 @TamaRM2012 @JaiMeMoLlyNeDo @MikeMG4), Portuguese LPUers as well and even some from Australia.

That night Linkin Park proved to me once again,why I call them my WORLD. It is such a challenge to be a fan of them, which keep things more interesting and exciting, cause you never know what ‘s coming up next. The only thing we got in mind is that they will keep their essence, being true to their own genuineness and peculiarity. Something that can not be expressed in words to understand. You need to be open minded and let the music take you wherever it wants, so that you can. Proud to be a Linkin Park Soldier and glad to have LP and their community in my life =)

Adie: Thanks so much for this great review, Fabio! I love how euphoric it’s written, it makes me feel as if I’m there in the crowd! Remember that all pictures are in courtesy of Fabio Ascenso, so credit him if you use them.
Fabio’s reivew is the last one of the Rock in Rio show. We’ll move on to Pinkpop next, with Kelly Gios’ review coming up very soon! Stay tuned!
By the way, if Fabio’s review made you curious about Linkin Park’s Rock in Rio performance, just watch the whole thing here!