Fan Review: Tensh_iie’s Summit Experience

Day 1 – A night of games and activities

The first day of the Summit was held on Monday in the “Schwarz-Licht-Viertel” in Hamburg. I never heard of that place before so I was excited to see what our beloved LPU had thought of for us. My friends and I traveled about 1 ½ hour to Hamburg and reached the meeting point 30 Minutes earlier. A few fellow LPU’er were already waiting on the outside and it didn’t take long before Adam came over to greet us. Adam is a very nice and gentle guy and I am very happy I had the opportunity to meet him. Anyways after that I went inside were other LPUers were already waiting. So I took a seat, ordered something drink and pretty soon everyone was talking and chatting. Seeing that I’ve been to a several Linkin Park Concerts before I already knew a bunch of people, or just had seen their faces before.

After everyone had arrived (around 26/30 people) Adam welcomed us AGAIN and explained everything that was about to happen today and he even told us some things about tomorrow. After that we were split up into groups and brought, one group after the other, to the, let me call it the “Playground”. We were about to play Underground Mini-golf. I NEVER played Mini-golf before, so I was sure I would suck balls. Anyways we arrived at the Playground and I was stunned. The whole thing was like a tunnel with a bunch of turns and curves, corners and stuff and it all was painted in like Underwater-world Environment, or jungle, technical stuff. And on top of that everything and enlightened by black light, which means the pictures were glowing and shining. It looked incredible. I never saw something like that before, a really original idea in my opinion.

We went trough the whole course, talked with each other, made jokes and had lots of fun together. At first I thought it would be awkward but it wasn’t. Everyone was nice and friendly. Everyone took a bunch of pictures, including Adam, whom we got to talk to as well. It was a really good night and I enjoyed being there very much.

Day 2 – The Actual Summit

We arrived in Hamburg around 10.30AM, My friends went to wait, because they weren’t participating on the Summit, which bummed me out, but I eventually found someone to tack along.
After getting inside and choosing the activity I wanted to do, which was the Stage Tour and getting my wrist band, I went to buy some more raffle tickets. You got one for free and could buy as much as you wanted – the money went straight to Music for Relief. With those raffle tickets you could win some dope prices like a Backstage Tour with Mike Shinoda, being Roadie for a day, Picture with the Band, or watching 3 songs from the side of the stage or being able to take pictures from in front of the stage. Sounded pretty dope to but sadly I didn’t win a thing.

After that I went to check out all auction items the guys had brought over to raise money for Music for Relief. Some really really cool things were places there like DC Shoes which Mike designed, or Brad’s guitar from the “Iridescent” Video shoot. Sadly I didn’t had any money to bid on any of these things but other people did and I’m sure they guys raised a bunch of money.

Other then the silent bidding you could also write your own little message of hope for the people in Japan. Linkin Park will be playing there in a few months and their idea was to show this message on stage before the show, which is a really great idea in my eyes. I wrote two messages, one even got photographed by Mark Fiore who was busy filming and making videos through the whole event. Really nice guy.

Around 1.30AM we all got grouped up for our activities, and I was really excited to enter the stage and see where my favorite band was standing every night, how the feeling must be like and… to see their gear up close. We could check everything out, even play around a little bit, which was so much fun. I’m really impressed and I loved to have the opportunity to see this side of the stage too.

Between all those tours and events you had time to catch up with all the fellow LPUers because everything took time and you had to wait quite a bit. After everyone was back from their tours whether it was the backstage tour with one of the Roadies, or the Stage tour we had to sit down in front of the stage and Hugo asked us some questions and told us what would happen next. The M&G was close. Everyone got more excited to actually meet the band and you feel how everyone got a little giddy inside and on the outside too. I was nervous myself but I tried to calm myself but I still was nervous as hell. I’ve met the guys before and I kinda knew what to expect but you can never know. Anyways I was walking around a bit, before the guys came in, talked to some people so I ended up being really close to the first people who got to go and meet the guys first and before I knew it I stood right in front of Chester. We could talk to all of them, ask them questions and so on and all of them were really nice, in a good mood and smiling, especially Joe seemed to be in a very cheerful mood, which isn’t something that happens every day, well, at least not like that. Joe is usually kinda quiet but he was talking with Brad, smiling – really nice.

The fifth in line was Mike, whom I had brought something special to sign. He wanted to grab my Minutes to Midnight CD and I looked at him and said, “Nooo, sign this for me please” and handed him the Mike Shinoda Clan shirt we have made on last second, which he signed. I was about to say, “You didn’t even look” but then he did and smiled and looked at me before he said, “Oh the Clan, nice to meet you” and offered me his hand which I gladly took. This made my whole day. Last one on line was Brad whom had watched my “Conversation” with Mike and seemed confused but signed my MTM and smiled.
After that we had to move back where we were sitting before but everyone tried to make pictures of the band and wanted to watch them, it was a little crazy so I decided to move to the back and wait.

After everyone got their stuff signed, and the pictures with the “Picture with the Band” – Winners were made, plus a picture with the band and ALL of us – then the Q&A session began. I sat in second row and tried to make some good pictures and just watch the guys while people around me asked them their questions. To my surprise some of them were really good and the band answered all of them, ok, most of them. A lot of joked were made and they seemed pretty relaxed.
The last question asked was about if they would ever consider doing an Unplugged Concert which Brad took as invitation and lead right into the acoustic set of the day. At first Mike and Chester performed a quiet good version of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” – and I have to say, Chester blew me away. I mean I always knew this guy knows how to sing but this was – WOW. The color and tune, volume of his voice is incredible. He took my breath away – both of them. Following Chester and Brad performed “The Messenger” which really touched me and made a dream come true to hear it like that. In the middle of the song Chester struggled a bit and we picked up the song and finished it together with him – a really great moment and the whole atmosphere was incredible.

After that the guys said their goodbyes, Mike made his backstage tour with those who won in the raffle thingie and the rest of us could stay at the stage or go and buy something on the merch booth – we were free so to speak.

It was a great event, I had lots of fun and I hope they’ll come back soon and make another Summit! Huge “Thank you” to the guys, especially Mike Shinoda and everyone on the LPU who made all this happen. It was on the best days in my life.

Adie Note: Thanks so much for that great review, Tensh_iie! For those of you who don’t know, Tensh_iie is part of the German translation team of the Mike Shinoda Clan. Make sure to check their website, cause it’s the best and most updated fansite out there.

Here are tons of pictures from the summit and concert in Hamburg. Big thanks again to Tensh_iie and also to MillaLPBSB30STM who was so nice to let me browse and steal from her Facebook Gallery! Check out the cool pictures from the tour bus! 😀

Also check out this YouTube account, cause Maatzelicious is uploading the whole backstage tour with Mike in only three parts! Two are already online so take a look!