The show saw Linkin Park play live for the first time since Bennington’s death
October 31, 2017
The event that the loudest names on the alternative rock scene had been preparing for over the past month took place last Friday, October 27. Linkin Park and many other bands came together for a tribute concert in honor of Chester Bennington, who passed away in July. The concert aired live on YouTube, but if you’ve missed it, you can now stream it below.
Bennington’s life and Linkin Park’s music legacy were celebrated by members of Blink-182, System Of A Down, Korn, Bring Me The Horizon, Avenged Sevenfold, ONE OK ROCK, Machine Gun Kelly and more.
To begin with, Bring Me The Horizon’s Oli Sykes delivered an extremely emotional performance of fans’ favorite ‘Crawling’. The singer had obviously taken the task very seriously and perfected his vocals on the song to the extent that it often felt as if it was Chester singing himself. However, while watching the stream fans suspected Sykes in lip sync, especially when he pointed his mic at the crowd to let them sing along, while his voice was going on “by itself”.
As it turns out, at the show Sykes sang live but the livestream had pre-recorded vocals from the rehearsal a day before. So it’s not surprising, the performance sounds so smooth in the stream. See Sykes’ explanation in Twitter below:
Some1 fucked up hard n used my rehearsal take from the night before on the live stream… no lip sync, here’s the real deal
— Oliver Sykes (@olobersyko) October 28, 2017
‘Crawling’ was followed by ‘Papercut’, where Mike Shinoda was joined by Machine Gun Kelly. The rap parts by Machine Gun Kelly, unfortunately, weren’t loud enough, just like on the next song, ‘One Step Closer’, when Korn’s Jonathan Davis took hold of the mic. Korn’s frontman must have been a bit nervous singing at the tribute to his good friend, as he forgot the lyrics before the first chorus.
A definite highlight of the night was A Day to Remember frontman’s performance of ‘A Place For My Head’. Jeremy McKinnon nailed Bennington’s screamed parts hands down, and so did Sum 41’s Deryck Whibley on the shortened version of Linkin Park’s ‘The Catalyst’ a few songs later. Curiously, the lyrical piano-led ‘What I’ve Done’, rendered by Blink-182, suddenly took an unexpected punk turn at the end, showing the song from an entirely different angle.
It’s the first time the rest of Linkin Park have performed without Bennington since his death. When the group found out about their singer’s suicide, they canceled their scheduled U.S. tour and planned Japan shows. Hats off to Mike Shinoda who was the guitarist, singer and host of the entire tribute show. Not only did he execute these duties brilliantly, he also managed to deliver the band’s biggest hit, ‘In The End’, by himself, with the help of the audience only. “It’s our favorite guest of the whole night. It’s you guys”, Shinoda said, opening the fans’ favorite. A truly magical moment in the show.
The tribute show took place the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. All the profits for the show went to One More Light Fund in memory of Chester, run by the charity organization Music For Relief. Check the setlist and the order of the tribute speeches under the streamed video below.
Whose performance was your favorite in the tribute show? Which sounded as good as the original? Let us know in the comments below, and join AlteRock Facebook and Twitter to stay tuned for rock and metal news.
Chester Bennington Tribute Show Setlist:
00:15:38 Robot Boy (Intro, Synth Bridge, and Ending Instrumental Only)
00:17:10 Iridescent/The Messenger (Mashup; w/ Jon Green)
00:18:26 Iridescent (w/ Jon Green)
00:21:20 Roads Untraveled (Live Debut; w/ Jon Green)
00:24:55 CHESTER AUDIO/VIDEO MOMENT
00:25:40 Numb (Instrumental)
00:31:18 Shadow Of The Day (w/ With Or Without You; w/ Ryan Key)
00:37:26 Leave Out All The Rest (w/ Gavin Rossdale)
00:42:40 Somewhere I Belong (w/ Taka)
00:46:23 UNICORNS AND LOLIPOPS VIDEO
00:49:09 Castle Of Glass (w/ Dreamcar & Alanis Morissette)
00:54:00 Rest by Alanis Morissette
00:59:25 VIDEO MOMENT
01:03:40 Nobody Can Save Me (w/ Steven McKellar & Jon Green)
01:09:18 Battle Symphony (False Start; w/ Jon Green)
01:14:18 Sharp Edges (w/ Ilsey Juber)
01:17:45 Talking To Myself (w/ All Along The Watchtower; w/ Ilsey Juber)
01:23:55 Heavy (w/ Kiiara & Julia Michaels)
01:28:13 One More Light
01:35:46 Looking For An Answer (Live Debut)
01:39:51 Waiting For The End Piano (w/ Sydney Sierota & Steven McKellar)
01:46:50 HYBRID VIDEO
01:49:06 Crawling (w/ Oli Sykes & Zedd)
01:52:55 Papercut (w/ Machine Gun Kelly)
01:56:23 One Step Closer (w/ Jonathan Davis, Ryan Shuck & Amir Derakh)
02:00:10 A Place For My Head (w/ Jeremy McKinnon)
02:05:45 Rebellion w/ Dron Malakian, Shavo Odadjian & Frank Zummo
02:11:03 The Catalyst Shortened (w/ Deryck Whibley, Frank Zummo & Jon Green)
02:16:07 VIDEO GREETINGS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
02:19:42 I Miss You by Blink-182
02:24:35 What I’ve Done (w/ Blink-182)
02:29:09 In The End
—————————————————-
02:35:05 TALINDA BENNINGTON SPEECH
02:42:00 CHESTER VIDEO “LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR”
02:44:51 Iridescent Shortened (Bridge Only)
02:47:34 New Divide Play Along w/ Pre-Recorded Performance
02:52:07 A Light That Never Comes (w/ Steve Aoki, Bebe Rexha & Frank Zummo)
02:57:18 Burn It Down (w/ M. Shadows)
03:01:14 Faint (w/ M. Shadows & Synyster Gates)
03:05:16 Bleed It Out
