Note from Richard, it’s been an entire year since the show happened, and I decided to post this one up from the archives. It’s been formatted slightly to avoid a tl;dr, but mostly this has been unedited from what I wrote a year ago. Enjoy!
The travel from my relative’s house to the train station to the city surprisingly went by fast; I had arrived an hour early. I went to the already formed line circling the venue and had found my friends Raquel and Kelly whom I met the last time I went to see Linkin Park in New York. Thankfully I had found friends in the line and was sad when I had to leave to find the group but we had made plans to meet up for dinner after the show. After wandering for a few minutes, I found the group leader, John who explained what was to go down that night. What he revealed next got me more excited; the show was to be filmed for a tv special to air on Fuse. Then more volunteers showed up, I was introduced to Carlos, Scott and Michael and after about ten minutes Linkin Park’s tour manager Hugo showed up and lead us inside the venue through the employee entrance.
We all had to be searched, I was searched twice with a metal detector then had to be patted down twice then asked us for ID. Wow talk about Fort Knox security, but after that we proceeded to go to a huge elevator that took us backstage! What a treat, I saw the supporting band’s equipment and then saw the guitarist from Linkin Park’s trademark red PRS Hybrid Theory soldier guitar. Such a surreal moment for me, then what happened next caught me off guard, I saw the lead singer of Linkin Park walking around accompanied by someone I did not know, he looked deep in conversation so I didn’t bother him but wow the doors hadn’t opened yet but this was already turning out to be the best show I had gone to. We walked passed their dressing rooms and saw that they had posted the setlist of songs they were to perform on the wall. I caught a quick glimpse of it and smiled when I saw From The Inside (my favorite Linkin Park song) and One Step Closer closing the show.
After leaving backstage we set up the booth in the lobby of the venue, we were briefed on the purpose of the organization, also were given Music For Relief shirts and bandannas to represent the cause. I was giving the duty of handing out earplugs that had the Music For Relief logo on it while simultaneously leading people to the booth. After three hours of promoting, collecting donations, and passing out flyers and earplugs, we ended up collecting $1300 in donations. Hugo came out, congratulated us and told us that we had collected the most on the tour so far. We took a group photo with Hugo, collected each other’s contact information to stay in touch then packed up everything in the boxes.
Once everything was packed up, Hugo proceeded to lead us down to the entrance of the standing area right in front of the stage! What none of us expected was Madison Square Garden’s strict security had their own policies that overruled Hugo’s all access pass. We were so close to being in the pit, Hugo went into action and was arguing with the security for about ten minutes and during those ten minutes the house lights went out and the intro had started! The eerie instrumental of “The Requiem” and the light show that accompanied it illuminated & hypnotized the crowd that even I forgot the predicament that was taking place. Hugo then came tapped us on the shoulder and apologized that he couldn’t get us into the pit, but had got us great seats in the first rows on the side.
Given Up
No More Sorrow
While we were making our way to the seats the band had then launched into their hit “Faint”, we literally stopped midway and enjoyed the song, then once they were done we rushed to the seats. The view was actually great and felt nice not to worry about a crowd surfer landing on your head. The next ninety minutes felt like one moment as the band went through and played all their hits such as What I’ve Done, From The Inside, Lying From You, Waiting For The End, The Catalyst, In The End, New Divide and Crawling to name a few. Then Mike Shinoda thanked the crowd and informed us that it would be their last song and if we had any energy left to use it right now. Then the riff to One Step Closer began and you could hear every single person cheering, I had looked at the pit to see a huge circle pit going, the likes I had never seen. Once the bridge began, Chester Bennington along with everyone in the venue screamed the epic “Shut Up When I’m Talking to You!”. I had gone to three Linkin Park shows in the past by far that was the loudest sing-along to One Step Closer I had heard.
Jornada Del Muerto / Waiting For The End
Blackout
Then once the band was close to finishing the song, they did an amazing outro with Chester coming to our side of the stage, pointed at our side and let out one final “Shut Up When I’m Talking To You”. The crowd was so loud, I literally felt chills go down my spine. Chester then took center stage and said “Thank you New York City. You guys are the best people in the world. The greatest city with the greatest crowds, God bless you all!”. I was so blown away by the performance and didn’t grasp anything until I reached my relatives house and they asked me how the show went. I replied, “Unbelieveable.” And it was true, who wouldn’t be happy to see their favorite band in the most famous venue in the world? I’ve seen many bands live over the years but Linkin Park will always be my favorite band to see live.
One Step Closer
Linkin Park Is:
- Mike Shinoda (Vocals/Keyboard/Guitar)
- Chester Bennington (Vocals)
- Rob Bourdon (Drums)
- Dave “Phoenix” Farrell (Bass)
- Brad Delson (Guitars)
- Joseph Hahn (Turntables)
linkinpark.com
RichardThinks.Org 
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