The Best Linkin Park Experience All At Once

Recalling my memory back to 3 months ago, my very Linkin Park week started from August 13 to August 15, 2013, including the Music For Relief volunteer day (Day 1), LPU Meetups at Hard Rock Cafe (Day 2) and summit+show (Day 3). It was by far the best Linkin Park experience I have had.

Day 1: Music For Relief volunteer day (August 13)

It was a day at which typhoon signal no.3 was issued. That week in Hong Kong was affected by Typhoon Utor and the weather wasn’t really good as we had the volunteer day, but since the Observatory didn’t issue a higher typhoon signal, the event was still going on. It was also the day that we first met Lorenzo too!

The event took place at Mui Wo, it’s another island where we needed to take an about 40-min ferry ride to. We arrived at Mui Wo and we went straight ahead to Ark Eden. What we did for the day was tree planting. Personally, I think that was a really good exercise as we were like hiking to the top of the valley so that we’d have enough space to find and plant the trees.

That few hours was tough since it kept raining, and it was quite windy. We were experiencing the power of the typhoon. We did the planting for about 2 hours, and we went back to Ark Eden and had lunch. We were dismissed at the pier, where we had gathered in the morning, in mid-afternoon.

After the event, me and my friends (Ada, Daniel, Zona and Pac) took Lorenzo and Alexey (an LPU member from Russia) to visit some places in Hong Kong. We took them for another ferry ride to Tsim Sha Shui and then we took the MTR (it’s like the underground in the UK) to Mongkok. We hung out for a few hours and it was very special to us. We were so glad to take Lorenzo and Alexey to experience some of our local culture. If you’re a lpu member, you can check out some photos taken by Lorenzo on lpunderground.com (http://lpunderground.com/media/photos/45393).

Day 2: LPU Meetups at Hard Rock Cafe (August 14)

It was a day after the storm. The night before the Observatory issued a higher typhoon signal to typhoon signal no.8 until early afternoon. I was afraid that the meetup would get cancelled and also worried if LP had arrived at Hong Kong safely as the band was in Manila where Typhoon Utor had hit first. Luckily, as we got the news from some LP fans in Manila, the band had arrived here before the storm and typhoon signal no.8 was taken off in early afternoon. The meetups didn’t need to be cancelled.

The meetup was amazing. We got to hang out with lots of LPU members from all over the world, having some good food from Hard Rock Cafe, bought the nice LP x HRC T-shirts and enjoyed some exclusives LPU videos together. We also signed a flag we made for the summit and gave it to Lorenzo as a gift to welcome him to the LPU family (Adam has one too)!

You can check out the photos from the meetup on lpunderground.com: http://lpunderground.com/media/photos/45363 (sadly I missed the photo booth time. I hope, if I have the chance to attend another lpu meetup, I will not miss the chance again).

Day 3: LPU Summit + Show Night

BIG DAY! It was the day that I had anticipated for years and months. I couldn’t believe I had the chance to attend this big event by the LPU. I was so excited and I was almost sleepless before the day, I decided to wake up early as I had to reply some questions from my LP fan page (facebook.com/linkinparkhk) before I left home. I arrived at the Asiaworld-Expo (the concert venue) with my friend Ada before the gathering time with our friends. We waited for about an hour in the queue for the summit. The amazing summit started at about 1pm local time as we went in.

The place where we had the auction, art wall, raffles and photo booth was the same place where the LPU meet and greet was held from the last 2 times (2007, 2011) LP was touring in Hong Kong. I couldn’t believe this was really happening. I was holding a summit pass and feeling so unreal but also feeling so happy and excited and I was so sure the day was gonna be awesome.

We caught up with Lorenzo again and we took a photo with him (the photo below)

Lorenzo was super busy during the day and he’s doing great! Throughout the day the summit was live-streamed, if you’re interested, you can check out the recorded videos on LPU’s ustream channel (http://www.ustream.tv/channel/lpuhq). 

And of course, we had a very good time during the summit 🙂

After lunch, it was about time to pick the raffle and auction winners and having the tour crew Q+A session. I wasn’t lucky enough to win the raffle, but my friend Wendy won an auction item and a raffle, she was lucky that day. It was great to have the Q+A session with the tour crew because they are usually behind the curtain. It was a good opportunity to get to know more about the touring and the experiences from the crew. The Linkin Park crew, from my point of view, is a dream team, always the best.

The backstage tour and going-on-stage sessions both happened simultaneously as we had chosen which session we would participate in when we were getting inside. Me and some of my friends chose the going-on-stage session. I had seen shows at Asiaworld-Expo Arena for a couple of times, and this was the very first time I could go on stage, see the view from the stage and imagine that it was the view of the band seeing us in the crowd – it was amazing.

I managed to take a photo with Mike’s keyboard even though I don’t know how to play it. However, I know how to play drums so I tried Rob’s drum kit. It was super cool. I wish I was taller so I could play his drum kit all round because his kit was huge to me, haa. By the time the band summit was about to start, the summit goers gathered at the standing zones in the arena. We saw Lorenzo and we took a photo again (the photo was taken by the “leng jai” himself *means handsome guy in Cantonese + how we called Lorenzo throughout the week*)

The band summit started with soundcheck first. The acoustic session was cancelled since it was running a bit out of schedule. The band soundchecked Victimized/Qwerty and The Catalyst. I recorded the Victimized/Qwerty part and I’ve put up the videos few months ago, you can check out the links below:

It was the very first time I saw a band doing soundcheck, so it was very interesting to see this as there was no audience except for us here in the empty arena. After the soundcheck, the band did a short Q+A session with us, which you can also see in the recorded videos at LPU’s ustream channel. The summit ended with the meet and greet session. This was the 2nd time I met the band at the m&g. The 1st time was in 2011 when they toured in Hong Kong, I was almost completely empty-minded the last time I met them but this time was better. I was so happy that I could meet them again, this band changed my life 7 years ago and I’ll always be grateful for being a fan of them.

The summit ended at around 7pm. The show started at around 8.30pm and began with Tinfoil intro + Faint coming afterwards. The opening was similar to the last time LP performed in Hong Kong back in 2011, with The Requiem intro + Faint. The setlist for the night was the best I’ve seen live so far, in my opinion. A balanced setlist with plenty of old and new songs. I could feel the energy in the crowd making the band put as much energy into it as we did.

Mike gave a shoutout to the LPU during the show. I couldn’t be more happier because I love this big family so much and LPU is the community that made me know the LPUers all over the world and I will always be supportive towards the LPU and LP.
There were a few highlights during the show:

1 – Chester went to the crowd during the outro of Waiting For The End
2 – The crowd sang along loudly during the LOATR/SOTD/Iridescent medley
3 – Mike went to the crowd during In The End
4 – Mike did a Reading My Eyes rapping verse during Bleed It Out

Full setlist of the night: 
http://lplive.net/shows/20130815.php

Every time I’ve seen Linkin Park live, I sang out loud for almost every song they’ve played and it was always the best feeling ever. It’s more than compared to other bands I’ve seen live, as you’re seeing the LP show with your friends who also love LP as much as you do and you’re enjoying the best moment together. The show ended nicely and everyone was very happy. I stayed at the venue for a bit and chatted with some LPUers about how we felt at the show.
Especially the summit in Hong Kong, to which the LPUers flew across the pond to come here is truly international. You could feel the unity and how amazing it was even though we had different cultures, speaking different languages etc. It was very special and unforgettable indeed. 

When I was on the way back home, I was thinking about when my next time to see LP live again would be, as you know, it’s never enough to see your favorite band live. Hopefully it will not take too long. The last time only took 2 years of waiting. I’m also looking forward to travel to other countries to experience Linkin Park live and meet more LP fans. I’m sure it’s gonna be very good and awesome. Looking forward to my next Linkin Park adventure!

Contacts:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/xlarisaa
Tumblr: http://xasiralx.tumblr.com
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/larisa0308
Linkin Park HK Facebook/Twitter: linkinparkhk

Related Images: