I’m probably not the best at writing gig reviews – I know, great way to start one – but I sure love to tell a story, and trust me, this is definitely a good one worth tagging along with.
This is the story of a few thousand friends coming together from all over the world to scream the loudest about their love and (happy) pride to a certain band. (I know, sneaky. Love you, my queers.)
Round 2 for Linkin Park in Europe on their From Zero tour, and honestly, there is no better feeling than finally going home after a long time. What am I on, you ask? Well, high as fuck on the joy I experienced the past few days, for starters – and always way too much caffeine – because sometimes, when you’re very lucky, home is not a place. Not exactly.
The days and nights in Hamburg, Germany, felt much like this tour: a never-ending party. I’m probably still a bit delirious about it all, or that might just be the exhaustion talking, but bear with me because my heart is so full right now it’s well worth a few words.
Music will bring you to places you never suspected if you let it. Sometimes all it takes is a little leap of faith that the impossible can happen. More than the places, more than the shows, you can be sure that if you take the chance, it will bring you to the right people. Your people. And that’s what makes home, well, home.
Hamburg felt like a family reunion without the weird uncle and the judgemental siblings. The only thing louder than those two brilliant nights at Volksparkstadion was our joy of being all together to experience it. We made Oomfchella happen big time, guys, with people from all over the world. Countries stopped mattering. Time zones stopped mattering. Half the people around you speak a different language, yet somehow everyone understands exactly what’s happening.
It sounds insane for people outside of the fandoms’ world, but it’s the most normal thing in the world to do when you’re a music fan. Especially when it comes to Linkin Park. Beyond the records, beyond the shows, beyond all the success, they built a place where people could belong. A place where the weird kids, the loud kids, the anxious kids and the broken kids all found each other. And guess what? We grew up. And we have incomes to spend. So why miss the one thing that makes us all so happy?
Add to that the realisation of living days that could have never happened, for so many reasons, and this whole trip turned absolutely magical.
Alright, back to the music before I get too sappy – you know it’s coming eventually, but let’s pretend for a minute I can hold my shit together.
Night One: Main Stage, Front Row
I’m holding onto that barrier to make sure it’s not some weird-ass dream. I’m here with my people, running on no sleep and no food, probably dehydrated and already aching everywhere, but it’s all sinking in. We’re back where we belong. We’re home again.
And if that wasn’t enough to make it real, PVRIS started playing on the pre-show playlist, and the urge to double back from the bar just to yell “Take My Nirvana” to my friends sure did. Because that’s how it all works. Music is cool, but music shared with your peers is so much cooler.
Speaking of cool music, Phantogram opened the night with a brilliant set. I was really looking forward to seeing these guys live, and they sure didn’t disappoint; Sarah’s live vocals were just incredible. Maybe, just maybe, I was having a whole party on my own at that barrier, but here’s my piece of advice: let people look at you weird. Just have your fun no matter what. Support the openers with all you have because it’s not easy to play for a crowd that isn’t explicitly there for you. So don’t give a fuck, take the joy, and if you’re lucky, you’ll earn a few smiles from the pretty blonde girl on stage too, which is always a win.
I won’t write too long about Clipse, who were, let’s be honest, absolutely incredible if you’re into that kind of music. The production of their set was definitely perfect. That being said, I’m not sure we were the best crowd for it, and the fact that so many of us aren’t native English speakers made it hard to follow. Keys open doors, though. That one we certainly got, and it might even have become the unwanted anthem of the trip – trauma 2.0 unlocked, thank you, Linkin Park. Again.
The hardest minutes started after they left the stage. The anticipation is always the best part when you look back at the whole thing, but definitely the worst to go through when you’re actually there. Some fighting their jet lag, others fighting their bladders – that’s when that peculiar thought crosses your mind: why the hell do I do this? Why on earth do I spend so much money to SUFFER?
Oh wait. That’s why. The countdown is on – and I’d like a hamburger too, pretty please.
I never thought I’d ever be happy to see a countdown again in my entire life after the whole comeback thing they pulled on us, but I guess we healed pretty swiftly from that PTSD because we couldn’t cheer loudly enough for it.
SHOWTIME.
LFG or whatever.
We’re all ready to lose our shit; we know what’s coming next. Except we don’t. Lying From You?! What the fuck. First song, and they’re already breaking our brains – oh boy, this is gonna go well.
I gesture to Alex that they’re all insane, and he looks so very proud of that fact, and soon enough I understand why. The setlist for the first night was just all over the place, and part of my brain was screaming as loud as Emily to make it make sense until I just let go and went with the flow. Because it works. Of course, it always works.
I won’t get into specifics after that because you know how it goes. They sound so good, they rock so hard, they make us happier than the birth of our firstborn child, yada yada something. It’s all a blur of dissociating into pure bliss and absolute joy. Like a soul-level thing. They just crack you open and pour ALL the light in. Fuck, I love live music.
And I sure love this band. Add in all the extra laughs in between: Mike reminding people that he’s basically covering his own song with Where’d You Go. Alex running away from Dave like his life depends on it (he came so far, definitely learnt a lot from last year when he’d get his guitar untuned by our favourite dad). And of course, Emily being, well, Emily.
This woman. I swear to God.
Oh. There we are. You knew this part was coming.
Welcome to the part of the review where the talented, tall, and gorgeous blonde turns my 40-year-old arse into a 13-year-old fangirl. I like to call it ‘The Emily Effect’. She’s just that girl, y’all.
I’ve been lucky enough to see this tour enough times to say without a shadow of a doubt that Emily is 100% the best frontwoman of her generation. (I actually knew that the very first time, but I’ll say it again for decorum). She just sounded incredible. Her high notes piercing right through your skin, and that perfect grit leaving you craving more. I’m not gonna say anything about the screaming, just in case there are minors reading these lines.
Jokes aside, my last gig was in Paris last year at the very end of the leg. She already sounded crazy good then, but I couldn’t help but notice the wonders a rested voice can do. Just blown away in every way.
And if that wasn’t enough to make me reconsider all my life choices, seeing her steal everyone’s job (just because she can) brought me one step closer to the edge – I know, I’m a shit comedian.
First on keys for Stained, vibing like she’s been playing that song her whole life. And then, obviously, the one thing that sent us all crashing out BAD and broke the internet during the Stockholm show: Emily on drums, people. That’s an experience you wanna live through, I’m telling you. Not only is she killing it, but the joy on her face is everything you ever needed in your life. Be proud of me, I survived and lived to tell the tale – but that’s all I’ll actually tell because I’m still trying to dig myself out of that grave. Ma’am, thank you for everything.
@rockmycoffee Is there something this woman CAN’T do?! WTF 🔥 Linkin Park – Hamburg N1 #linkinpark #fyp #emilyarmstrong #livemusic #fromzero ♬ original sound – Rock My Coffee
Aye. All out of my system, we’re good. Moving on.
Some shows take longer to recover from than others. As if the rest weren’t enough, I got to cross the forgotten stepchild, Unshatter, off my personal list. What a joy to finally hear this one live. It weirdly kept following us all over Hamburg for some reason, almost as if they were trying to make a point of promoting something. Ha. Ooooh.
The return of Breaking the Habit was absolute ecstasy – it’s one of those songs that act like a time machine. The intro starts, and you can hear little pieces of your life preserved inside that sound: the teenager listening on repeat in a dark bedroom, the young adult trying to figure this crazy thing called life out and the lower-back-already-aching grown ass you are in the pit of Hamburg not only being reminded of who you were but also how far you’ve come. I love when that happens. I love that we’re still here.
I was also VERY thankful for it just to avoid turning into a puddle of tears, which the full performance of Lost always triggers.
Incredible save for my feelings. Or so I thought.
They sneakily followed it up with Good Things Go, and that’s the kind of moment you’re really glad to have someone around to hug you for 3 minutes and 29 seconds of absolute meltdown (thank you boo, I love u).
Don’t ask about the rest. My brain is still trying to play catch-up and buffering like a shit-ass livestream back in the 2010s. Act IV to the end of the encore is just a blur. A blur of happiness, singalongs, jumps, shouts, and tears of joy. Yeah. Fun times, Hamburg.
And then there’s the best crew that takes better care of us than our own mother.
Fun times need a breather, and that’s exactly what we got from the LPU event in between those two shows (selected or not, for that matter). Massive shoutout to the whole team, seriously; the vibes were exactly what we all needed to recover and get ready for more. Pristine atmosphere, 10/10 pizzas, and I’ll never look at my friends the same way after seeing them unleash their inner rockstars at karaoke. What a blast. And a folder full of videos to annoy them forever. Absolute win.
We ended up at the beach that night, or whatever that thing was. Don’t ask me about anything else, I crashed out on my overload of emotion with an early night, ready for some more.
Copy, paste, queue, stretch and hydrate – ready to do it all over again. Except it’s never the same, not really, and that’s the beauty of following a band around.
Night Two felt different before it even started. There was something in the air that felt electric, we had survived night 1, and we knew we would make it through again. Rain started, and yet, it somehow made everything brighter – terrible for the hair, excellent for the vibes – and it sure wasn’t enough to prevent that crowd from literally igniting the moment the band took the stage. Girls just wanna have fun? YOU BET. The only thing pouring down on Volksparkstadion was our willingness to rock.
It was a collective effort, though, to go absolutely bonkers on a setlist that gave us no time to rest. No more old and new, only Linkin Park, and that felt amazing. Points of Authority, Cut The Bridge, Casualty, and, of course, the sublime and oh-so-loved From The Inside.
Note for later: Don’t be a dumbass and eventually stop jumping, or you might end up still limping from a strained muscle 5 days later. (Might be inspired by actual events, but you’ll never know.)
All worth it a thousand times.
What a crowd, what a band.
As a Linkin Park fan, I had to go investigate what that weird love affair they have with Germany was all about, and I got it loud and clear. Don’t miss out on this next tour, trust me.
In the end, it’s all that matters…
Brilliant days, even better nights, all surrounded by best friends you never met and a heart so full to the brim with love and joy for that band that you have no idea how to handle tomorrow. But who cares about tomorrow when you’re living those moments? And as our hoarse voices united once more on In The End in a shady bar at 2 in the morning, all I could think about was that I can’t wait to do it all over again.
Linkin Park gigs will forever be the thin line between dreams and reality. Pure bliss. Absolute joy. And of course, infinite love. Ha. Happiness is choking on confetti at a Linkin Park concert or something.
Wanna know the best part of it all? There are no goodbyes when you get home, just a mere « I’ll see you around soon. » My heart is so full right now that I’m not even sad it’s over. Because I know next time will happen, and it will be even better.
So to all my 67ers, thanks for making this trip unforgettable, and always remember that keys open doors.
To everyone else: take the leap, jump on that plane, buy the ticket – because you might well find some of the best days of your life.
And to this band, simply, thank you – for there is nothing more important to say.
Next stop: Lyon ! Honey, I’m coming home, wait what no no, literally, leave the damn door open, what, yeah the keys open doors I know but –
