Crowd-Pleasers Galore!
Linkin Park are renowned for both their cheesy samples and their heart-warming live sets. Whilst they can't compete with many of the bands at Download on talent, the band do have something about them that causes some of the grumpiest rockers to sing along. The band open on "One Step Closer", one of their most recognisable tracks from Hybrid Theory and a crowd pleaser for those who have gathered tonight to see them perform live.
Unlike My Chemical Romance, Linkin Park also seem to draw slightly more of a crowd but still suffer from the crowd departing once Velvet Revolver and the godly Slash are chased off stage. However, perhaps the reason for Linkin Park's fairly polite reception is because they opted to play a set list of their hits rather than ploughing through several new tracks.
Despite the result being painful at times, Linkin Park put their all into the headline set tonight and Mike Shinoda is surprisingly quiet. Perhaps with the new album revealing a slightly more mature side to the band they have tried to raise their older music to a new level by cutting a little of the rap. What they lack in talent Linkin Park make up for with catchy songs and a pleasant stage manner.
Lead singer Chester Bennington admitted just before launching into "Somewhere I Belong" that the band wanted to see Motley Crue's set on the second stage. The crowd gathered doesn't seem to care what the band wants, so long as the hits keep rolling thick and fast, which they thankfully do. "No More Sorrow" fits in well with popular songs "Papercut", "Crawling" and "Pushing Me Away" that are all sampled and sound only slightly rougher than the album recordings, mainly due to Chester's voice sounding slightly worse for wear tonight.
Also played were 'No More Sorrow', 'Leave Out All The Rest' and 'What I've Done', all standing out as the new sound of Linkin Park. True, they don't get the crowd singing along quite so loudly, but the songs are a step in the right direction for the band. 'What I've Done' in particular goes down well with guitars that sound a little more natural, if a little less rock.
Linkin Park received a large amount of criticism after their last show at Download in 2004, but with My Chemical Romance to pick up the shouts of "Not worthy!" as well as the bottles being thrown, it seems Linkin Park have been let off the hook somewhat with most people rolling their eyes and accepting the band as headliners. True there are many other bands who should have played on the main stage this weekend, but Linkin Park gave it their all and a large amount of the people who watched them trotted back to their campsites happily.