This one was going to hurt. I bought the ticket halfhearted and more out of curiosity rather than excitement. 14 years ago I saw Linkin Park live in Bucharest, fronted by the wonderful Chester Bennington, the one who voiced my teenage anger. After Chester’s tragic passing, the emptiness left in my playlist by no more Linkin Park material was never replaced. Surprisingly, it was continued. Because years after, Linkin Park resurrected with a new singer. And I don’t see this as a replacement but as a continuation. You cannot replace something that doesn’t exist anymore, nor someone, but you can continue, you can build on top, or at least this is what I think Mike Shinoda & co did. Emily Armstrong, the band’s new female lead, helped them do that.

Now, back to the Stockholm show. I got bored during the opening acts but as the countdown was reaching its end, I started to feel nervous, excited and eager. Of course I had listened to the band’s new album, From Zero. Hearing them open to a sold out arena with The Emptiness Machine was an eye opener. They were really there, in front of us, playing live again. 9 years ago all my hopes of seeing LP live again were lost.

Emily was welcomed by the Stockholm crowd. Our reaction when she stepped on stage and started singing was warm and loud. The songs that the band wrote for her as lead vocals sound amazing. As for the ones that were written in Chester’s time… This was the painful part. Knowing every lyric I was singing along every song but I was hearing Chester’s voice in my head. For each and every one of them. It is impossible to hear them in a different way. The echo of his voice will live in me forever, even though now I am lucky enough to hear them live again sung by Emily. Mike Shinoda’s presence feels familiar and is the same as years ago. So are most of the other guys. Linkin Park was not only Chester’s project. Picking it up and taking it forward is a joy, especially when they didn’t look to find a similar voice as Chester’s but for someone who would do justice to the old songs and help form a new sound for the new ones. 

In Bucharest they didn’t play Crawling. My biggest regret when it comes to them is not having heard Chester sing that song live. They played it here. It gave me goosebumps. I finally heard it live. The crowd went wild. We screamed and sang along to old songs and new ones. We carried with us a memory and made new ones. We will never say goodbye to Chester but I am confident that more and more of us will say welcome to Emily. Or I hope more people will, because it would be a pity to silence the old songs forever. And it would also be a pity not to have new ones anymore.

Emily slays on the new songs. The musical chemistry the band has with her is tangible, and so is the respect between them. I like and appreciate the fact that she sings the old songs her way. She has such a powerful voice that she would probably learn to imitate Chester’s tone, but she doesn’t. What I’ve Done and One Step Closer got us screaming loudly again but not as loud as Numb nor as Heavy is the Crown. This one made me think that Emily really has a heavy crown to bear, yet she does that without bowing her head. 

The final part of the concert brought us Papercut, In the End and Faint, a set of three classics and a powerful closing to two hours of good music. It was pure energy, warmth and sparkles. It made it even harder to accept the fact that the concert was over. And it made me realise that my halfheartedness from when buying the ticket was long gone and replaced with the eagerness of seeing them again. I think this is the logical consequence of a good live gig and good music. And in the end the music is all that matters.