LINKIN PARK

The third and final act on this warm summer evening on August 30, 2012 here at the Comfort Dental Amphitheatre in Englewood CO was Linkin Park, the alt-rock/nu metal/rap metal band from California.  They were what most people were waiting for based on the crowds response to their presence on stage, a large proportion of the audience singing along, word for word.

Linkin Park's tack, by comparison, was a punch in the gut to anyone still lathered up from Incubus. Theirs was a rock set with a capital R. When those guys came out, surrounded by drum risers and catwalk-type ramps, the fist pumping began and "Faint," with its familiar line, "I won't be ignored" came blasting through the amps. This is some of the most nihilistic pop music around. It's the soundtrack you hear in a war film, when Humvees go barreling into some desolate desert landscape. It's full-on and breathless, and, no, it won't be ignored.

Singer Chester Bennington and rapper Mike Shinoda co-front the group, blending rap and elements of slowed down metal. Their set, like Incubus's, was flawlessly executed. They played "Papercut," "Given Up," "With You" and "Somewhere I Belong" with the vigor of a gym rat on go-go juice. The word "dynamics" was not in the band's vocabulary last night. Linkin Park played new song "Victimized," another nihilistic jam. Strange how a band that has sold more than 50 million albums worldwide and are millionaires many times over could still be so pissed off.

Meanwhile, the adrenaline-crazed hits kept blasting out the speakers. "The Catalyst" was followed by "One Step Closer," during which giant flames shot up from the stage. Ten rows back, the heat was still intense. The show wound down, and Linkin Park reemerged for the obligatory encore, playing "Burn it Down" and a couple more tunes before wrapping it up for the evening.

Read it here:
http://blogs.westword.com/backbeat/2012/08/review_linkin_park_incubus_denver.php

Download it here
https://rapidshare.com/#!download|630p9|1691467528|LP%20ECO%20CDA%2020120830.rar|214461|0|0