February 24, 2008
London Free Press

It wasn't just any walk in the park at the jammed John Labatt Centre last night.

U.S. rock band Linkin Park, showing off hits new and old, and 9,800 young and energetic fans were linked as the concert rolled on past the hour-plus mark.

Lead vocalist Chester Bennington and his bandmates, including MC and multi-instrumentalist Mike Shinoda, hit the stage with a raging No More Sorrow. The opening shot was an alert that there would be new material to go with the older songs. The fans cheered both Linkin brands, with the loudest cheers early on for the arrival of Numb, an older hit.

The touring set has plenty of ramps and entrances for the band members to stroll and race around. Overhead, mobile screens provided a flow of images that were a lot more hit and miss than the music. Video screens helped to get the band's faces to the back of the arena.

No More Sorrow is a song from Minutes to Midnight, the band's recent album that keeps it moving on from the 20-million-plus selling debut, the nu-metal classic Hybrid Theory from 2000.

Last night Linkin Park visited Midnight for its opening tracks Wake and Give Up, Leave Out All the Rest and a spectacular take on its big, U2 styled epic Shadow of the Day. Old school lighters and the cellphones requested by the band were aloft for any slow song, a sign of nu-metal love (lighters) and newer love (the phones).

Midnight's Bleed it Out and a huge ovation led to the extended encores -- which seemed to confuse some fans into departing early -- and more cheering with Faint, a classic, arriving as a late cruncher.

"You guys have been rad. . . . Can you turn it up a notch?" Shinoda asked at one point. Of course, the fans could -- and they did.

It didn't hurt the Linkin cause that a Canadian flag appeared in Bennington's hands at one point when he and Shinoda were prepping for a ballad.

"We'll decorate the keyboard in a minute," Bennington said as the flag was -- quite respectfully -- taken to the back of the stage.

There was respect like that in other ways.

"Make some noise for the guys behind the scenes," Bennington urged, saying the touring crew had been working flat-out for days.

Not many bands pause to point the applause back stage like that.

Another sign of respect was shown in the way the band handled the format.

The seating format for last night's show had hundreds of fans behind the stage. A similar arrangement was used at the Pearl Jam concert here a few years ago. Unless a concert is truly set up "in the round," it's not ideal -- and it would be interesting to hear how many fans like the backs of bands.

The black-clad Bennington, who was in full and amazing bellow from the start, made sure the fans at the back had a good look at him early in the set. Other members made trips to the back, too -- working to keep everyone in the game as much as possible.

Bennington, DJ Joe Hahn, Shinoda, and their bandmates are concerned about more than changing their music.

Thousands of fans were still lined up outside the arena when the openers, young Michigan band Chiodos, were playing.

Too bad. Any band with the smarts to finish an opening set with a song called Is It Progression When a Cannibal Uses a Fork? deserves a better shot.

"Thank you for being respectful and hanging out with us," Chiodos's singer Craig Owens said early in the band's set, sounding a little tentative.

No need for that. Chiodos will be back in London in "Ap-rull" with Protest the Hero, he said.

Those details will be confirmed later. What is certain now is that the young band -- a baby, Owens said -- earned that respect.

New York State rockers Coheed and Cambria were also on the bill.

A Linkin Park initiative, to make last night's concert as green as possible in terms of environmentally friendly transport, was also a success. Linkin Park had asked each city on its tour to come up with ways to help the environmentally conscious rockers lessen pollution.

Last night, fans who car-pooled were given free spots in the downtown London arena's south parking lot and the dozens of spaces set aside for them were filled, a centre official said. Global Spectrum, London Transit and the city also teamed in a promotion to offer free bus rides to the concert. The band's own touring vehicles run on biodiesel.

Bullfrog Power, an organization billed as Ontario's first 100 per cent green electricity retailer, powered the concert.

It must be said there were moments when at least one of the screens had a power glitch of some sort.

Still, the cheers after 11 p.m. last night showed the link between band and fans was strong as ever.