From Jasparina

May 2004 - The News

When Linkin Park gave Singapore a miss and went to Malaysia last year for a concert, I just knew that they would come here, it's just a matter of time. Due to family and personal commitments I couldn't go even though KL is just 3 hours away by car and 45 minutes by plane. Urgh! imagine the torture and the heartache, so near and yet so far. So when the news broke out that they're coming, it's like my prayers were answered! I'm going to see Linkin Park 'live'! I'm going to a rock concert again! something that I miss dearly.

In the midst of excitement and all, it suddenly dawned on me that I'm an LPU member, I might get the chance to meet the band!!! and I nearly fainted! LOL!! and so for weeks I wrecked my brains to think of something for the band to sign, the Hybrid Theory CD? it's a classic but too much graphics you won't be able to see the signatures, how about the Reanimation DVD Audio? that's another classic and brilliant album in my opinion but too colorful and too much graphics too. How about posters and pictures? nah! too common. I wanted something different and something simple so I made this little poster consists of one of the LP banners and the soldier image, made sure there's room for the guys to sign, colorized the image and voila! this is what I used for the meet and greet.

June 22, 2004 - The Meet & Greet

Waiting for the meet and greet was torture, I went early and waited for over an hour before we were let in. Before I continue I would like to apologise to my fellow LPU members from the LPU forum board for not introducing myself, didn't mean to be rude but you guys seemed so excited and happy I didn't want to interupt, besides I'm a shy person lah! :-) Everyone was wearing either black or your LPU shirt on that day so if you had noticed someone wearing jeans with a purple blouse, that's me :-).

Now back to the m&g session, while waiting for the band to get ready, Mark Fiore came out to greet us, what a sweet guy, he talked to some of the fans, answered their questions and took pictures. At one point he even recorded messages from the fans even though he said he had already recorded someone for the next LP newscaster. When the band was finally ready we were let in four at a time, as I waited for my turn I observed the guys and took some pictures, surprisingly they were not as big as I thought. It was so surreal, I couldn't believe I'm in the same room with Linkin Park!! breathing the same air! I kept telling myself to stay calm. At first I noticed Chester looked all so serious and Joe looked a lil' bored and thought oh no the guys are not in a good mood, but then Chester started joking with the security guy saying he didn't get arrested the night before or something, hmm....., I couldn't hear what else was said and then they were all smiling and laughing.

Brad was first, he looked great even with the afro hairstyle. I placed my little poster on the table, the security guy standing next to him were a bit curious about it and touched it, he didn't say anything but I think he was wondering if it's a photograph or something because it looked different. Anyway, Brad signed it and I shook his hand and thanked him, he looked at me and smiled. I wanted to say something else but the girl in front of me was trying to take a picture of Brad and her camera didn't work and Brad didn't look too happy about it although he was patient about it. The security guy took the camera and tried it and it still wouldn't work and that kinda stopped the flow for awhile so I waited for her. She gave up and we moved on to Mike.

Mike was very friendly, always tried to talk to the fans, he said hi to me and I said hi back, he signed the poster, I was hoping he would say something because the soldier image was his creation and I had lptimes.com address on it (shameless plug) :-) but he didn't say anything, doh! so I thanked him, shook his hand and moved on to Phoenix. At this point, the girl in front of me forgot to give Mike her gift, a small paper fan, so she turned back to Mike and gave it to him and said it's for him to keep him cool in Singapore, Mike thanked her and as she moved on to Phoenix and as I waited for her, Mike had already signed my poster so he played with the fan, he looked at me and started fanning me LOL! .

Phoenix was friendly too, he asked the girl where she got the t-shirt she was wearing from and she said from Peninsula, in my heart I said 'oh sweetie why do you say that, Phoenix doesn't know where Peninsula is, just say here in Singapore', then Phoenix said it was one of the original designs or something like that, I wasn't paying attention to her t-shirt so I couldn't tell which design. Then it was my turn, Phoenix said hi, I said hello, he thanked me for coming, I nodded and smiled and shook his hand, he signed my poster and slide it to Joe.

The girl in front of me was having problem again with her camera when she tried to take a pic of Joe, I didn't want to hurry her and make her more upset and nervous so I waited, at this time Joe had already signed my poster and slide it to Rob and there was no one else in front of us, I wanted to say hi to Joe and shake his hands but I didn't want to keep Rob and Chester waiting so I moved on.

Rob was adorable, the shy and quiet one, every band has the quiet one in the group. I feel very protective everytime I see him, maybe because he's the youngest in the band and the mother instinct in me wanted to jump at him and hug him and squeeze him LOL! he signed my poster and I said 'thanks Rob', he didn't say anything just a little nod and a smile and he extended his hand (or was it me who extended my hand) and shook my hand and slide the poster to Chester.

Chester was so sweet, he was smaller than I thought and looked slimmer than during the US Meteora tour. I said 'hi Chaz' and he said hello and he signed my poster. At this point the girl who was in front of me was still with Joe so for a minute I had Chester to myself. Before m&g I had planned to ask him about little Draven if there's a chance. Us being parents I thought it's something that we could talk about, I wanted to know if little Draven has started talking yet but somehow I couldn't find the courage to open my mouth (banging head against the monitor, stupid! stupid! stupid!). I was afraid that something else would come out and I would look like an idiot so I just smiled and thanked him. Then I had my camera up to take his picture, he looked up and gave me this sweetest smile (I think for a moment there I'd died and gone to heaven), I said 'thanks Chaz', he said 'thank you' and I shook his hand, his hand shake is a firm grip and so is mine so we were more like squeezing each other's hands LOL!!

As I walked out the room I was screaming inside I could hardly breathe, my first m&g and I survived!! It's funny, the day I heard that they're coming, all I thought about was the meet&greet not the concert LOL! I'm glad it went very well, I was nervous like hell but I managed to stay calm, I didn't faint or drop dead or anything, thank God! LOL!! Even though we didn't talk much, just standing infront of them, being there in the same room and feeling their presence was one of the most beautiful experience I've ever had.

One thing I regret about the m&g though is that I forgot to check Chester's flame tattoo on his arms, something I kept reminding myself to do but forgot. Now, I'm not a tattoo person, personally I don't understand why someone would hurt their body like that but his flame tattoo on his arms is the coolest tattoo I've ever seen since Sebastian Bach's (Skid Row) 'Youth Gone Wild' tattoo. But one thing I'm very happy about the m&g is that I made eye contact with each member (except with Joe), something that I kept reminding myself to do before the m&g because I know everything would happen so fast and I want to remember that moment, so thank you Brad, Mike, Phoenix, Joe, Rob and Chester.

Note: none of the pictures I took turn out at all, they are all dark :-( but check out Dusk's pictures, I swear to God those are the same expression I got from the guys when I took their pic, except for Phoenix, he didn't raise his hand for me.

June 22, 2004 - The Concert

I haven't been to a rock concert since Pearl Jam came to town in 1995, that's almost ten years and I was just dying to go to another, nothing beats the energy given and taken during a rock concert and I want to feel that energy and that emotions again. I can still remember the concerts I've been to (Metallica, Pearl Jam, Deep Purple, Bon Jovi, Scorpions, etc) like it was yesterday. You have to know that Singapore is a small country and there weren't that many concerts being held here until the mid '90s. My first rock concert, believe it or not, was by Richard Marx, still got the ticket lol!

The LP concert at the Padang was my first open air concert, well Richard Marx and Deep Purple concerts were held at the National Stadium back in the '90s but we were all sitting on the stand while the stage was down on the field so I guess that don't count because we were so far away from the stage. I had chills going into the Padang on Tuesday night, for the first time in my life I got to feel what it's like to be in a big, open air concert, hey it's not Donington, or Reading or Lollapalooza or Ozzfest but it sure felt like a rock festival.

When opening act, Korean band called Pia, took the stage at about 8:30 pm I was too tired to watch, I had been standing since 5 pm, my legs hurt and my back ache so I bought a bottle of water, sat on the ground and just enjoy the music. They were good actually.

LP didn't come on until around 9:30 pm. Having listened to the Rock Am Ring concert for like a hundredth time, it kinda took the element of surprise out of the show. The moment Rob hit his drum intro to 'Don't Stay' I knew we would have the same set list as the RaR show.

The day I discovered Linkin Park was when I heard 'Crawling' on the radio. Back then the song was not on the radio station's playlist so it wasn't played regularly, it was being played during a chart show called the UK Top 20. I remember the first time I heard it I was captivated by Chester's voice. Bought Hybrid Theory and was completely blown away! I've never heard someone sing like that before, screaming and growling one minute and then singing so beautifully the next, it's incredible! From that point on I thought there is no way this guy will be able to sing the way he does 'live' until I saw some of LP's live shows like the Rock 'N Hall of Fame, House of Blues and the Docklands show. I couldn't believe he could sing with ease and it just confirmed my suspicion, Chester is not human LOL!

Ever since I became a fan I wanted so bad to see LP perform 'live' in the flesh. To me the best artistes in the world are people who not only write their own songs and make it believable but who can also play them 'live'. I judge a band by their live performance, some bands sound good on the album but suck in 'live' concerts, some bands sound way much better 'live' than on the album, like Metallica. So seeing Linkin Park 'live' just confirmed my opinion that they are one of the greatest rock bands in the world.

Back to the concert, got sidetracked a lil' bit there, sorry about that, like I said, it's the same set list as the Rock am Ring show. Songs like 'With You', 'Points of Authority', 'Faint', 'A Place For My Head' and 'One Step Closer' just sound better 'live'. The 'Step Up'/'Nobody's Listening'/'Going Down' medley was a nice addition and I really liked the little intro to each songs, made you guess what song they're gonna do next, even though I already knew, it still sounded exciting.

I'm not gonna elaborate on how awesome the band sounded 'live', we know that already. Chester was incredible, although I couldn't see much what's happening on the stage, just listening to his voice, every scream, every growl, just sent shivers to my spine. To hear 'live' that different notes in his voice was mind boggling, I'm still at awe on how he could do it night after night after night. He didn't disappoint me, he has officially become one of the greatest singers in my book.

One funny moment happened during the concert, Chester forgot the first line to 'Numb' LOL, he must have performed it a hundred times and that night he messed up. Instead of singing "I'm tired of being what you want me to be', he sang 'Don't know what you're expecting of me'. Realizing his mistakes he stopped and even motioned to the band to start over but the fans had already sing it for him so he just laughed and continued from there. After 'Numb', Chester announced that a member of the touring staff named Janet is leaving the band and that that night was the last concert for her and he asked the fans to sing 'Happy Birthday' to her and sang we did. Mike said 'Bye Janet' and Chester kissed her right temple, so sweet.

During 'In The End', just like the RaR show, Mike tried to get the fans to sing the second part on cue but failed, the fans continued to sing anyway and he said he had to give it a shot and then just laughed and let the fans sing. Mike can be such a dork sometimes, LOL!

During 'A Place For My Head', as predicted, Mike picked someone from the audience to lead the second part of the song, lucky son of a gun. After that Mike brought out his cam corder to record the crowd, 'something for the people back home', he said.

One of the highlights, or I should say the highlight of the show was seeing them perform Nine Inch Nails' 'Wish'. I've heard it before from the RaR show and it's the song I looked forward to listen to. That is one headbanging song and in my opinion LP should do more heavy song like that. Rob was excellent in that song. Please LP, write more heavy stuff in the next album.

Another highlight was 'Breaking The Habit'. I've heard the live version many times before but seeing Mike on the piano and hearing just Chester's voice was just awesome! I used to skip 'Breaking The Habit' when I first bought Meteora because it's different but it grew on me and now I think it's one of the most beautiful songs ever written.

During 'One Step Closer' Pia came on stage to join LP to sing the 'shut up' part, I expected that since it's the last gig of the tour. It reminded me of the Docklands show and how cool it was to see Puddle of Mud and Adema joining LP to scream 'shut up', that has got to be the moment Pia will remember for the rest of their lives. (Correction: Like I said, being a short person I couldn't see the stage, after viewing the concert footage of OSC, it was actually just Yohan, the lead singer who joined LP for this song)

Overall, LP gave us one night to remember, I didn't feel the 'business as usual' vibe from the band, there were lots of interaction with the fans and among the band members themselves. Mike and Chester were at their best, as usual, not one single bad note from them. At one point they were joking and laughing, swapping microphones, if I remember correctly Mike mistakenly took Chester's mic and Chester grabbed it back and said, 'that's mine (points to the other mic), that's yours' or something like that. Since I'm short I couldn't see the stage much, Brad and Phoenix seemed invisible to me, I could only see Joe and Rob clearly because their stage were raised up high. I had to rely on the giant screens at the sides to see what happened on stage.

The only thing I regret about the concert is that they didn't play 'High Voltage', I would kill to hear that song 'live'. I love the part when Chester sings 'Sometimes I feel like a Prophet, misunderstood under the gun, like a new disease', I have no idea what it means but every time I hear it I will be in some kind of trance I can't explain it. Maybe it's the voice. I knew I wouldn't be hearing it because they dropped the song off their list for the European and Asian tour, I was hoping but they didn't play it [sob :-(]. Another song that I was hoping to hear was 'Figure .09', I think I would have an orgasm if I hear Chester screams 'Get away from me' LMAO, I just love that part of the song.

As for the fans, some reports from the papers said they were quiet but not to me, not from where I was standing. I was standing way at the back, I chose to because I'd learned a lesson from my experience at the Pearl Jam concert. I didn't know what to expect and PJ being the biggest band at the time and my absolute favourite, I bought front row seat and when the lights went out, the fans rushed to the stage and all hell broke loose. I was pushed and nearly trampled to death and that really taught me a lesson, no matter what, never buy inner circle tickets or be in the mosh pit area. Anyway, back to LP, it's amazing to see the different age groups attending the concert. From where I stood I saw teens jumping and bouncing and then there were parents with kids, yes kids, bopping their heads. I saw a father holding his son on his shoulder throughout the show!! and enjoying themselves. It really moved me to see how LP's music bring people together. At that moment I wished my son and my brothers were with me. My whole family are LP fans but the ticket price is too expensive and since Mommy is an LPU member and got the m&g pass, Mommy gets to go :-) But my son and one of my brothers were outside the venue that night together with about 1000 people. My son called on my cellphone and said that they could actually see the giant screen from outside and hear the music just as loud!, so in a way they got to see the concert for free!

I said it before and I'll say it again, nothing beats the energy given and taken in a rock concert. Metallica had the fans headbaging through out the show, Pearl Jam had us pogo-ing and Linkin Park had us jumping and bouncing, what a night! To the fans living in New Zealand, India, China or South Africa, don't give up hope, if LP can come to a tiny island like Singapore, they can come to see you, hopefully some day.

Although it's not the best concert I've seen so far, (sorry guys, that title still belongs to Metallica :-) Linkin Park has become one of the bands who I would pledge my loyalty to, whom I would go through thick and thin with no matter what. I've heard fans said that once you've met the band in person and seen them 'live' you will feel like you've become closer to them. It's true, after meeting the guys in person and see them play, you truly see and feel the sacrifice they've made for their fans and truly understand and appreciate them more. They will always have a special place in my heart.

Alright, I think I've babbled enough, sorry about that, didn't mean to write a book :-) so in closing, on behalf of all the South-East Asian fans, I want to say thank you Brad, Mike, Phoenix, Joe, Rob and Chester, thanks again for including Singapore and the South-East Asian countries on your tour list. Thanks for taking the time to come here and play and meet us. We really, truly appreciate your hard work, your time and above all your sacrifice. From the bottom of our hearts we salute you, we thank you and hopefully we'll see you again.

Jasparina
Webmaster
www.lptimes.com

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