Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington.
Co-headliners Linkin Park and 30 Seconds To Mars kicked off their Carnivores tour on August 8 in West Palm Beach. I caught the 2nd show this past Saturday at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida.
The opportunity to see one of my favorite bands live, 30 Seconds To Mars, is always something I look forward to. Add the legendary Linkin Park to the mix, and I felt doubly-ecstatic. How can anyone not be excited for that kind of line-up with a repertoire of amazing songs? I can’t leave AFI out of the mix. Although, I’m not all that familiar with the band, AFI held their own on that stage last night. I’ll be downloading plenty of their songs this weekend.
In a recent teleconference with Linkin Park, the band revealed the decision to tour with 30 Seconds To Mars was due mostly to fan requests! “It’s been a long time the fans have wanted to see us tour together,” explained Chester Bennington, lead vocalist for Linkin Park.
Chester went on to say how great of a band he thinks 30 Seconds To Mars is. One thing they have in common with Linkin Park, is that they love to throw themselves into their audience when playing live–both figuratively and literally!
Does anyone else think Jared Leto looks like Randy “Macho Man” Savage in this picture? “Ohh yeaaah!”
Jared Leto, frontman of 30STM, hit the stage wearing all white with noticeable polka-dot socks and pastel painted finger nails. My only guess for the fashion statement was to match the band’s latest album cover for Love Lust Faith + Dreams. If you’ve been to a 30 Seconds To Mars show before, you know how interactive Jared is with the crowd. You literally become part of his performance for each song!
The band played plenty of songs from their latest album, like “Do Or Die”, “City Of Angels” and “End Of All Days”. Jared danced around with fans he brought on stage, as well as taking off into the crowd fairly often to hold hands with some unsuspecting folks.
The energy of the night never died down from band-to-band, which is rare and awesome. Usually, there’s always one band in a line-up you could do without. Not this show!
Once Linkin Park hit the stage, the crowd went crazy hearing so many groundbreaking songs from the band, like “Numb”, “Crawling” and “One Step Closer”. We were just as eager to hear songs from their new album The Hunting Party. At the start of each song, you could actually hear fans scream with recognition, whether it was a track from 2000 or from last month.
It was really interesting to see some of the computerized instrumentation that goes into Linkin Park’s music. The jumbo-tron closed in on Mike Shinoda’s fingers as he played so many of the iconic electronic sounds for their hit songs.
If you need another good reason to check out the Carnivores tour this summer, well, consider it a charitable deed. $1 of each ticket sale benefits www.musicforrelief.org, Linkin Park’s foundation to support and raise awareness for the environment and natural disaster relief.
At Half Full, we love celebrities who use their fame toward good and send a positive message. Watching Linkin Park interact with their fans during, and especially at the end of the show, warmed my heart. They have such love for their fans and people in general. You don’t get to see that side with many rock stars.
Words just don’t do this show justice. Hopefully photos will! Check out the galleries from the Carnivores tour in Tampa!
Click the images to view the galleries for each band.
Linkin Park
30 Seconds To Mars
AFI
This article was written by Sandy Lo. Follow her on Twitter: @AuthorSandyLo.
The first show on the tour was nothing like you are describing, I have been the 3 other Linkin Park concerts over the years and this was the first that had a dead crowd and moments of utter silence. The old school music set the crowd off like expected but as soon as the new music started people just stood there many asking what is this? While maybe 10% of the crowd responded to the n e music favorably, the vast majority did not. I think the new music is good, but it is not the Linkin Park we all know and love. They stopped mid song on the 4th song and went into some old school and the crowd came back to life.
Hi Dan, thanks for the comment. I’m sure there were some folks at the Tampa show that were “dead” to the new music, but I could actually hear the crowd singing along across the venue to some of the new songs, especially, “Wastelands”. I am not a die-hard Linkin Park fan, but have always enjoyed their sound. I think they tried to bring back something with the new album and people either love it or hate it.
about how long was the complete show, including all 3 bands? I’m going tonight in NJ and was trying to get a feel of the concert length
Hi Lauren,
The show started late, not surprisingly. Nothing ever starts on time. I don’t remember the time it ended exactly, but I know it was probably around 11-11:30ish. Have fun!
Hey sandy how are you today?
jared leto < LP ?