Audience members hugged as the lights went down for Linkin Park’s emotional return to New York City last night, just over seven years after Chester Bennington’s death. However, it is important to note that the band did not talk about grief and loss.
Instead, they blasted through two hours of hits to an at-capacity Barclays Center. It marks their first East Coast show with their new singer, Emily Armstrong, best known from being part of the LA-based rock band Dead Sara, which rose to prominence earlier in the 2000s with songs like “Weatherman” and “Anybody.” (She’s also sung for other rock powerhouses, such as Hole and Demi Lovato.)
Armstrong, who whipped about the stage with an electricity that was felt by everyone in the room, admitted that last time she performed in the NYC borough was to a room of 500 at Brooklyn Made. The crowd never would’ve known it with how she commanded this sold out, 17,000-cap arena as if she had been doing so for decades.
Photo by Ehud Lazin
What stands out about Emily Armstrong’s addition to the band is that she is not trying to be like the late, great, former frontman, Chester Bennington. She reimagined songs like “My December,” “Lost,” “Breaking The Habit,” and “Somewhere I Belong” with raspy depth. She is herself, even as she tackles beloved tracks and tributes.
Linkin Park has been celebrated for bringing a bit more vulnerability to the rise of nu-metal, and adding her voice, with its feminine depth and impassioned range, only adds something to their hits. It’s another level of complexity to the already complex catalog of LP, and fans are seeming to welcome that, especially on the riveting new single that she helped create firsthand, “The Emptiness Machine.” That said, Armstrong did not back down on the notably challenging screams on existing songs such as “Bleed It Out” or “Points of Authority.”
Photo by Ehud Lazin
Their stage was set in the center of the pit and the legendary Mike Shinoda performed to each corner of the audience throughout the night while the other original members remained stationary. He also threw in bits of his side projects, further elevating this exciting return.
Shinoda, as a creative force in-and-out of the band and co-vocalist alongside Bennington since the beginning, beamed that “this isn’t bad for a second show” as they launched into early catalog favorites like “A Place For My Head,” “Crawling,” and “One Step Closer.” He has always been a driving force for Linkin Park, and this era of the band is no exception; Shinoda shines.
Photo by Ehud Lazin
Like many audience members, Armstrong was a teenager when Linkin Park’s breakout album Hybrid Theory was released in 2000. Although she is on stage with the band and the new front-person, she’s one of us – a longtime fan. Throughout the show, she stomped across the stage with her microphone lifted out toward the crowd for the room of her peers to “sing as loud as you can.”
The founding members – Shinoda, Brad Delson, Phoenix, and Joe Hahn – nervously smiled at each other throughout the show. They’re professionals, though, and rockers who are part of an iconic group that is in the middle of being welcomed back to the mainstream. The graciousness was there all night. They expressed their gratitude for the audience’s live support and for giving their new song, “The Emptiness Machine,” a chance. (The single is currently No. 1 on the Billboard Rock & Alternative Airplay chart.)
It’s clear that they’re thrilled to be back, honoring their catalog and Chester Bennington’s legacy, Emily Armstrong and her voice in tow, with new music out and more on the way, and (maybe most importantly) a live show and world tour that rips from start to finish.
