Linkin Park fan Débora Pereira reviewed their incredible performance at Rock in Rio Lisbon this year. Even before the show, she and her friends prepared some stuff to support Music for Relief and get the Portuguese fan community together. Check out what she has to tell us:

Me and Inês Louro went through a lot of trouble these last months. Something that started as a group of 6 people who wanted to make a difference this year: Me, Inês Louro, Inês Carvalho, Cátia Marques, João Santiago, Cláudia Lupin.

1. MFR
   We’ve reached Rock in Rio asking for space and authorization so we could volunteer for MFR but they wouldn’t allow us. (2 years ago MFR had the same problem).
   So we’ve decided to:

– design some tshirts (Inês Carvalho did an awesome job), printing them, promoting&selling them (we sold around 60)
– print some bracelets celebrating LP in Portugal & selling them
We don’t have numbers yet, but we hope to have them soon and manage the MFR donation.
These have been crazy weeks!

Check out the t-shirts HERE and the bracelets HERE.

1. MEET & GREETS
   I reached RIR trying to explain some problems with previous meet&greets in order to avoid them this year. They were quite considerate.

2. FANS
   We didn’t know there would be Meetups so we scheduled our own “summit” – we have organized a group who had lunch on Friday and stayed together for the meet&greet.
    

3. Listening Party
   We were getting our troops together to join LPFanCorner for the listening party for the new album.

The Show

I don’t think a song by song review will add much to the feelings we have experienced last night. You can watch all the recordings already available.
When you look at the setlist I bet you think: “Short? Really? ohhh”
But let me tell you guys that we never felt it was too short. The mix drums/guitars/scratch/bass/voice just fed us with huge power into those intros and short versions. Personally the one song I missed was Blackout. BUT THAT WAS JUST FINE!
The crowd went crazy whenever a song begun. And sometimes we couldn’t even hear the voices (Mike or Chester). People wanted old LP, they wanted HT and Meteora but they got so much more than that!
I talked to a lot of kids, skeptical about the new sound but they were blown away by the energy of LINKIN PARK during the show. Even the new version of Castle of Glass won them over!!
The first 10 seconds of the experience had us looking at each other wondering what the hell was going on! But then it got into us and made us dance and jump as if it was another “old style LP”.
What I mean is: the new sound was accepted. NO skeptical fans there last night!!

The solos were amazing: Brad, Rob and Joe made sure they defended their positions of GREAT music/rhythm makers! “Quality” is the best word I find to define those solos. About the medleys: they are always perfect!
Let’s skip a few songs and hit Mike’s Hip Hop medley: he turns his hat and becomes another person!! LOL, we got attached to these guys and trust in everything they do. I am not an EDM fan, I am not a hip-hop fan but Remember the Name is awesome and listening to it live was SO FANTASTIC! The fans loved it. Everybody who knew about Arizona’s setlist was afraid not to have it.
And Mike was happy! He looked so happy-nerd playing his instruments and buttons! Numb came in Jay-Z style. Let’s face it: if our rockstars are happy, their work is so much better when performing live. AND THESE GUYS WERE HAPPY!

“In the end” & “Faint” were magic moments like always! By the end of the third act: we had already been taken to another world. And we knew the encore was yet to come!
I thought to myself: have some water, breathe and get ready to sing a little more.
And a new song came along: Until it’s Gone sounds amazing with Chester’s voice. I am biased because I truly adore/admire that man. BUT the interesting part was that Brad was giving us No More Sorrow on the guitar right in the beginning!! My mind was confused for brief moments! A satisfying confusion though.
We had Steve Aoki on stage just saying Hi because there was no room for his cakes, I mean, tables 🙂
And it went on… until the end… with a drum solo on Bleed It Out. The drumstick flew out from Rob’s hands but it was so good that no one noticed! Besides Mike made us sing “Lift me up, Let me go” from The Catalyst.
And again: I was pleasantly surprised!

Technical note: sometimes Mike’s mic was off. That was weird but didn’t compromise his performance.
Human/Personal Note: we can tell the difference over the years. Chester Bennington is officially Linkin Park’s frontman. He has the stage for himself and he conquers it. If once he needed Mike to feel confident in front of the crowd, (long time ago!!) now we see a strong personality taking over the stage and the crowd. He dances, he manages the public’s emotions, he jumps, he grabs the sides with his spirit.
Joe and Rob had their own space inside these “boxes” made of LEDs.
Final Note: if they weren’t making such great music, they wouldn’t be LINKIN PARK.

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