Linkin Park will release a concert album titled One More Light Live on Dec 15th. Recorded on the band’s “One More Light” world tour, it features 16 songs, including “Crawling,” “Numb,” “What I’ve Done,” “Heavy” and the title track from the group’s latest studio album, One More Light. The live set will arrive five months after the passing of singer Chester Bennington, who died on July 20th at his Los Angeles area home after committing suicide at the age of 41.
The band said in a statement, “We dedicate this live album to our brother Chester who poured his heart and soul into One More Light. After we finished recording the album, we joked with Chester that — since he had delivered so many stunning performances in the studio — he had set the bar extra high to produce that alchemy on stage each night. Not surprisingly, he welcomed the challenge.” They added, “The shows we played together during the early summer of 2017 were extraordinary. Chester shared with us that he felt this was the best tour we had ever done. The camaraderie and joy we experienced on stage reflected our deep connection with each other, with our fans, and with the music.”
The band concluded, “For those of you who attended this tour in person, we thank you. For those who could not, we hope this live album gives you a glimpse into how magical these shows were for the six of us.”
Bennington himself told us a while back that he always wanted to give fans a different experience when they came to see the group: “There’s one of two ways that bands get perceived when they’re seen live. I think that one way is ‘Wow, that is something like they do on the record.’ And it can be disappointing. And the other is the music is actually a little better or different than I thought it was. And I like it more. And I think that’s the way people view what we do live.”
Linkin Park paid tribute to Bennington on Oct 27th with an emotional three-hour show that featured numerous guests joining the band onstage at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Among the artists who performed with the band were Bush‘s Gavin Rossdale, Jonathan Davis of Korn, Alanis Morissette, the instrumental members of No Doubt, Oli Sykes of Bring Me The Horizon, Blink-182, M. Shadows and Synyster Gates of Avenged Sevenfold and many more.
The track list for One More Light Live is: “Talking To Myself,” “Burn It Down,” “Battle Symphony,” “New Divide,” “Invisible,” “Nobody Can Save Me,” “One More Light,” “Crawling,” “Leave Out All The Rest,” “Good Goodbye (featuring Stormzy),” “What I’ve Done,” “In The End,” “Sharp Edges,” “Numb,” “Heavy” and “Bleed It Out.”
Linkin Park has yet to announce whether the band intends to continue without Bennington.
Billboard and The Pulse Of Radio reporting A Perfect Circle guitarist Billy Howerdel has addressed the controversy over the band’s strict “no photos or videos” policy at its concerts, which resulted in the ejection of some 60 fans at a recent show in Reading, Pennsylvania. Howerdel told Billboard that the policy has been a longstanding one for singer Maynard James Keenan and explained some of the reasons behind it: “The most important nowadays is just to reconnect. To actually be present is really tough for people nowadays. Everything is so immediate, and I think if you look at that as a mentality in general, it starts coming into the show. First and foremost is it’s just rude to the people around you.”
Howerdel added, “I think at the end of the day it’s time to just disconnect for a second. The videos that you take and for your own benefit, you put online — they look like s**t and they sound like s**t. We’d rather you communicate this orally; let people know what you saw and how you felt. It’s much more powerful than giving a bad representation.”
Keenan has practiced the same policy with his other bands, Tool and Puscifer, recently telling a fan online, “No. Recording. Of. Any. Kind. For. 25. Years. Guided experience. Unplug and enjoy the ride.”
Meanwhile, the band released their music video for “The Doomed” this morning. The video, which was directed by Jeremy Danger and Travis Shinn, arrives as the band is in the final two weeks of their North American tour. A Perfect Circle also recently announced their first European tour in fourteen years
Howerdel also told Billboard that APC is making progress on its first new studio LP since 2004, promising it will arrive by spring 2018. He remarked, “We’re well over the midway point and still working . . . we’re about to have a stretch here in about a week when I think it’s going to be time to get a lot done.”
A Perfect Circle next plays in Pittsburgh tomorrow (Nov 17th) and wraps up its current tour on Monday, Dec 4th.
WHOA! This is unexpected AND surprising news! Billboard is reporting the Vans Warped Tour, the last major annual traveling music festival in North America, has announced that 2018 will be its final year, marking the tour’s 24th edition since it first launched in 1995. No lineup has been announced as of yet, but the tour itinerary has been confirmed. The trek will begin on Jun 21st in Pomona, California, coming to a close on Aug 5th in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Tour founder Kevin Lyman told Billboard why he decided to end the tour next year, explaining, “We were doing fine, but we had a pretty big dip last year. It was that younger end of the demo . . . I talked to people after the tour and bands did great on merchandise, they had great crowds — everyone had good crowds in front of the stage. But that casual fan that’s learning how to go to a music festival — they were not there last summer. It was a really great show, sponsors were happy, but our attendance was down.”
Lyman added about the final tour, “I’m looking to bring everyone a great show and have a great summer and connect with a lot of people, you know? For me, the saddest thing is I’ll be seeing sunrises and sunsets for the last time in a lot of those parking lots.”
Lyman did hint at some sort of celebration of the tour’s 25th anniversary in 2019, adding a statement to fans, “I truly look forward to seeing as many of you as possible during this final cross country run, and getting to thank you for your support on this wild adventure.”
Lyman launched the Warped Tour after spending four years working on Lollapalooza, wanting to do a show that mixed punk, hardcore, alternative and action sports. Since then more than 1,700 acts have played in front of more than 11 million people around the world on Warped stages.
Among the acts that played the first Warped Tour were No Doubt and Sublime, while other artists who have appeared on the tour over the years include Pennywise, Social Distortion, Bad Religion, Rancid, The Offspring, Blink-182, Sum 41, Good Charlotte, The Used, Jimmy Eat World, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Avenged Sevenfold, the Black Eyed Peas, Katy Perry, Green Day, Paramore, Beartooth and many more.
Lyman hinted that he hopes to have a number of Warped Tour veterans show up for its final summer. (My guess, The Offspring headline?)
SHAR-RRRRRRONNNNNN!!!!!! Don’t you miss The Osbournes sometimes? Ozzy Osbourne has been named the brand ambassador for Metal Casino, becoming part owner of the online gaming company as well. According to a press release, Metal Casino launched this past August to offer both casino gaming and partnerships with some of hard rock’s biggest names to bring players exclusive concert tickets, backstage access and loads of band merchandise, along with large cash prizes.
Ozzy said, “The guys at Metal Casino told me that their brand was all about being true, relevant and dedicated to the customer and that really resonated with me. To me, that translated as keeping it real, keeping it original, and doing it all for your fans, and that’s all I’ve been trying to do my whole life.”
Metal Casino chief marketing officer Clas Dahlén added, “When we started Metal Casino, we knew it had to be more than just a casino, but a platform for a global community of metal heads and casino lovers to share their passion. With Ozzy’s help, we’re going to make this happen.
In other news, Ozzy’s wife and manager Sharon Osbourne has defended a decision to file a lawsuit on behalf of Ozzfest against the organizers of the interactive outdoor festival OZY Fest.
Addressing the issue on her show The Talk, Sharon said, “It’s ridiculous when somebody’s worked so long to make themselves accomplished, to work on their career, and then somebody comes in — and to use word ‘Fest’ as well as ‘OZY’ . . . where do people come up with the nerve?”
It was reported last month that Ozzy’s long-running metal event had sued the OZY Fest team, claiming that the New York City event and its logo were confusing music fans. OZY Fest, billed last year as OZY Fusion Fest, took place in Central Park this past July, featuring performances by Jason Derulo, Issa Rae, RuPaul and Talib Kweli, as well as panels featuring Malcolm Gladwell, Katie Couric and others not associated with the metal genre.
But Ozzfest‘s attorneys noted in a cease-and-desist letter that the OZY Fest marks were “nearly identical in sight, sound, connotation and commercial impression to MLC’s well-known Ozzfest mark.”
Meanwhile, enjoy this!
Oh this IS Classic! Recognize anyone in this clip? Rumors have it the living statue guy is Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails! After several views, I believe it is. He appeared on a recent episode of HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm. Hilarious!
And we leave you with this today from Avatar:
