Linkin Park brought their From Zero Tour to North America Saturday night (4/26) with a sold out show at the Moody Center in Austin.
The re-tooled band performed a slew of new tunes along with familiar hits like like "In the End" and "Numb;" and even gave the Texans a treat with a live debut of "Up From The Bottom" off the From Zero LP.
All told, 27 tracks were played over five studio albums, a soundtrack, and they also busted out a Fort Minor song from Mike Shinoda's side project.
This is the first full tour for the nu metal outfit since 2017 following the passing of singer Chester Bennington.
They took a creative approach in replacing him by tapping Emily Armstrong, formerly of Dead Sara who adds a different element to the vibe which audiences and critics have embraced.
Drummer Rob Bourdon and lead guitarist Brad Delson are not part of the touring lineup. Alex Feder, who played for eight years with Enrique Iglesias will fill in for Delson on the the 72-date world tour.
Fans will be seeing and hearing drummer Colin Brittain on the tour. Brittain spent time with Papa Roach, 5 Seconds of Summer and can also play guitar, write songs, produce and add to the background vocals.
It never hurts to have a Swiss Army knife as you travel the world.
The two-hour show was divided up into four acts and a four-song encore.
Act One concluded with Shinoda acknowledging the audience, including those behind the stage, which is always classy. Then they broke into "Emptiness Machine" from the new album that was released last November.
Next month the group will release a deluxe version of Zero World which promises bonus tracks like "Up From The Bottom," as well five live cuts from their mini tour in 2024 that found them bouncing from Europe to Asia to South America and the US.
The liner notes of Zero World Deluxe explain that “'Up From the Bottom' was created in between tours this year, infused with the electricity of those first shows back after a long hiatus."
Emily's presence is not only a game-changer for Linkin Park, it's a rarity in rock. While some singers who fans thought were irreplaceable like Freddie Mercury and Bon Scott, found worthy replacements, one would be hard pressed to find a situation where a female vocalist took over for a man.
The closest example would probably be Skid Row, who invited Lzzy Hale (of Halestorm) to fill in last May when frontman Erik Grönwall left the group. Despite fans loving Lzzy in the role, she only played with the rockers for four dates.
It was a little more prevalent in the punk world where Penelope Houston (The Avengers), Beki Bondage (Vice Squad), Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill), Wendy O. Williams (Plasmatics), and Brody Dalle (The Distillers) each replaced men as lead singers, redefining their bands' sounds.
Linkin Park have a half dozen more arena dates in front of them for this leg. Then they jet over to Europe for a spell before coming back to North America.
See Emily play with the rest of LP by snagging your tickets on their website.
