vol. 5 Episode 35.5

Linkin Park with opening acts AFI and 30 Seconds To Mars at the Grand Stand in the Minnesota State Fair in St. Paul MN on August 26^th, 2014

I pre-ordered tickets, as I always do, to the concert as soon as they went on sale. As I mentioned in past posts, this would be the first concert that I will take my thirteen year old son to. We, the family (my wife, my two children and myself), spent the day at the fair leading up to the concert and would meet up with my father-in-law for the concert. We had a great time at the fair chasing down all the foods that we wanted to eat and seeing the sights with the toddler and teenager. My favorites that I get are honey ice-cream with sunflower seeds, deep fried Twinkie and fried cheese curds. I also took the toddler down the giant green and yellow slide for the first time. It always freaks me out but the toddler didn’t seem to mind, it didn’t even faze him. We did find the Linkin Park tour bus and took pictures of us standing next to it.

The concert promptly started at 6:30 with AFI on the stage. Every concert I have ever been to, the doors open at the time on the ticket and the first act doesn’t start until an hour later. I did hear music at the 6:30 mark but just thought that it was some other music to satisfy the people coming to the concert. Apparently it was AFI starting to play. I wasn’t mad about missing them play because we were there to see Linkin Park any way. After AFI was finished with their set we met up with my father-in-law and said good-bye to my wife and toddler.

We entered the grand stand just after 30 Seconds To Mars started their set. I of course mistakenly thought that they were AFI but later during their set found out that they were 30 Seconds To Mars. I was actually happy about this because this meant that I didn’t have to sit through an opening act that I didn’t know or have any interest in. I know that they are pretty popular and have heard some of their music but I don’t have any interest in them or the music they make. The 30 Seconds To Mars set wasn’t that great though. I am not all that familiar with their music but what they played was not inspiring in anyway. The songs that I do remember were set up for the arena rock style. The crowd was able to sing and sing in tune but I want to hear some good music not the crowd singing your songs. The song that I didn’t like the most was near the end of the set. The lead singer said it was from their new album, I can’t remember the title of the song but it was basically the crowd singing with the lead singer repeating the same two lines after the crowd singing. It was so boring for me.

We found our seats, they were close to the middle but three rows from the top. It was sad to look down at the crowd and the artist on the stage and they seemed like tiny little ants. I am so use to going to the smaller venues and being able to touch the artists if I wanted to. They even had the jumbo-trons (giant LED screens now) up to allow people in our seats to see the artists playing and singing.

I was in such a rush to get in that I didn’t see the merch booths until we found our seats. I told my son that we would stop by after the concert. Unfortunately, the merch booths closed just before the concert ended and we didn’t get to go and see what they had for sale.

During the set up for the Linkin Park set my son nearly fell asleep waiting. It was about a half hour set up. I thought that this didn’t bode well for him staying up to watch his favorite band. I didn’t understand how he could be tired with his favorite band about to take the stage. Now, I haven’t seen my favorite band play live ever but I have seen the close second and third play and I was nearly bananas being able to see them live and talking to them in person. It could possibly put a damper on the situation being at the top of the stands and not being able to see the members up close. We could still see the jumbotrons clearly.

They opened up the set with the hard hitting single, Guilty All The Same, from the new album.  It sounded very similar to the studio recording with the exception that Rakim was not a part of the tour. The song was super hard especially in the drums. The hits were so loud and coming from the low end of the sounds. It may have been that there was an effect on the drums for this track that gave it that sound. It was a great rendition.

I also liked the Blackout intro that was played. I am not sure if they intended to play the whole song but the intro was very cool to hear. It was like it was just a impromptu section played to give the group some time to set up for the next song though. I didn’t know it was a part of Blackout until I came home and had a chance to figure out the set list.

I also liked the way that they did Robot Boy. It wasn’t the full song but instead was basically the opening of the song before the lyrics come in. I have always liked the music more than the lyrics in most music. Instead of the lyrics there was a very cool keyboard solo that lead into Joe Hahns’ DJ solo. This was a very cool electronic driven solo that progressively got more drum oriented and hard hitting before it faded into Numb.

I was very surprised that there were six songs in the Encore. I was even more surprised that they played New Divide as this is a track from the Transformers soundtrack. Most bands don’t play their B-sides are rare tracks. So this was a pleasant surprise. I an not necessarily a big fan of the track but the crowd recognized it right away and sang along.

The last track is my sons’ favorite track from the group ever, Bleed It Out. It is from Minutes to Midnight and was hilarious to hear him at the age of seven sing this song along with the lead singer. He doesn’t sing it so much now but every time I hear the song I think of him at that age singing along with the music. When the group started singing the song at the concert I expected him to be standing up right next to me to sing the song with the crowd. I was so disappointed to look over and then down to seem him sitting in the seat. I bumped him and said, “Come on, stand up, this is your song!” He begrudgingly stood up but had his head tipped down with his eye half open.

I probably won’t be taking him to any concerts any time soon because of the way he acted. I don’t see why he was so tired because he is usually happy to stay up and play video games or watch movies way past his bed time especially during the summer.

Either way, the concert was very good even if we had nosebleed seats. I probably would not go and see them again though because I like the smaller venues. I would say that if my favorite band came to town I would get tickets what ever venue it was. I would probably pay a bit more to see them too. This concert was more for my son than it was for me though.

Set List:

Guilty All The Same

Given Up

With You

One Step Closer

Blackout intro

Papercut

Rebellion

Runaway/Wastelands

Castle of Glass

Leave Out All The Rest/Shadow Of The Day/Iridescent

Robot Boy

Joe Hahn Solo

Numb

Waiting For The End

Final Masquerade

Skin To Bone/Remember The Name (Fort Minor)/Lying From You

Somewhere I Belong

In The End

Faint

Encore:

Burn It Down

Lost In The Echo

New Divide

Until It’s Gone

What I’ve Done

Bleed It Out

Thank you City Pages and Adam Degross for the images. If you want a different perspective on the concert you can check out the City Pages review although their set list is a bit off.