Linkin Park, The Art @ AISArena, Canberra (16/12/2010)

Fri 17th Dec, 2010 in Gig Reviews

It was a massive night of rock at the AIS Arena on Thursday night with international act Linkin Park visiting us on what was their last Australian date of their A Thousand Suns: World Tour.

It was a fairly big crowd for a gig that seemed to just pop up out of the blue. To the avid fan I’m sure they had been screening websites for months. Fans young and old came out to show support for their favourite rock band.

Supporting Linkin Park on their tour downunder was Sydney band, The Art. These guys have a massive energy live. Being a support band is always hard, but they were relentless with their sound. Azaria sharing vocals with Kara Jayne, these two are the pigeon pair when it comes to vocal delivery. At times you find yourself not actually knowing which out of the two is singing, not that that is a bad thing. They really do have a presence on stage – catch them at a gig if your haven’t encountered them live yet.

Linkin Park’s set was amazing! Massive projected screen, with digital images as well as a live camera that roved around catching the crowd (of course the band) and projecting it up there for all to see.

Chester Bennington’s vocals really are unrivalled, a master of his instrument. The control he has on his voice evident with every scream, every melody that comes from his mouth. The crowd singing along with his every word, his sounds the backbone to every Linkin Park song made.

Not taking away from Mike Shinoda’s rapping; it also being the heart and soul to all Linkin Park songs. The energy Linkin Park has on stage is intoxicating.

The setlist started with a lot of new work from the A Thousand Suns album. Given that the majority of the crowd look past their teens, it was no surprise that when hits like Crawling, In the End and One Step Closer were played, the crowd pumped up to 100 and went ballistic! The Catalyst, the band’s single from the current album also went down a treat.

There was some dead spots in the setlist but the massive highs from the popular and well known songs cancelled them out for sure.

Canberra always welcomes and enjoys any international act gracing our capital and it is great to see the continued support for artists that are willing to come here. Linkin Park will go home with some great memories from Australia and we hope that they return sooner rather than later.