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The temperatures may have been in the negatives last Tuesday night, but inside the Qwest Center fans easily warmed up to Linkin Park and their opening acts.
Linkin Park opened its U.S. tour in Omaha Tuesday, supporting their latest album, the Rick Rubin-produced "Minutes to Midnight."
The album has sold more than two million copies in the United States since its release in May 2007.
The venue was opened by the poetical lyrics of Craig Owens from Chiodos' new album "Bone Palace Ballet." After an hour long set, the reins were handed over to the second opening act, Coheed and Cambria.
Claudio Sanchez, the band's lead singer, took the stage with a guitar reminiscent of Prince's symbol shaped guitar. Sanchez did not disappoint.
Besides laying out some killer riffs, in true Hendrix fashion, Sanchez played the guitar behind his back, with his mouth and in several other contortionist-like positions.
After Coheed and Cambria, the main attraction took the stage. In an earlier interview with Linkin Park's Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda, the dynamic duo had promised not to disappoint. They held true to their word.
Unlike many bands that play the same songs every night, Linkin Park plans to change the set list every concert. They played songs from the full gambit of albums, and some songs that they had never played in a concert before.
"Having so many songs now, we're definitely no longer in the position that we used to be in with 'Hybrid Theory' where we had virtually 40 minutes of material, and we were asked to play headline sets, and we didn't even have enough songs to fill one out," Shinoda said. "Now we've got all these songs, and we can kind of pick and choose, and fans want to hear different things at different times."
The Qwest Center was packed with awaiting fans as Linkin Park rose from the depths of the arena to the stage with Shinoda's rap-metal rhymes penetrating the air.
Even the gigantic high tech multi-million megawatt sound system couldn't drown out the thousands of rabid fans filling the nearly sold-out Qwest Center, screaming and singing as they caught Linkin Park's return in their first U.S. concert of the tour.
Unleashing guitar fury and growling raps Shinoda and Bennington laid down a solid foundation to start their U.S. tour. The mosh pit exploded into a violent fury with every new song.
It seemed that fans had been saving their energy for Linkin Park to take the stage for their opportunity to crash and bump and body surf; and with the band now on stage, they had their chance and they seized it with vigor.
The entire set was not all nu-metal hard core head banging.
Bennington's soft voice and Shinoda's keyboard skills were brought out several times throughout the concert, with cell phones and lighters waving, filling the arena with a luminescent glow.
After three encores, the band ended the show with Bleed It Out. I have been to several Linkin Park shows throughout the years, and all of the band members seem to get better and better.
The band truly appreciates its fans, and judging from the number of fans in attendance, it pays off.
Call it nu-metal, punk, rap, hard-core, or what you will, but when it comes down to it, it's just a band putting it all out there for their fans and loving every second of it.
Reach reviewer Jeremy Mathrole at Jeremy.Mathrole@usd.edu
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