Seven years after tragedy silenced the raging platinum-selling rock band Linkin Park, the group took a major step toward its resurrection at the Kia Forum on Wednesday night, launching a tour with new singer, Emily Armstrong.
Following 17 years of radio hits and major touring success, the band’s original run ended abruptly with the 2017 suicide of singer Chester Bennington, who had long been the roaring counterpoint to Mike Shinoda’s rapped vocals.
A new singer who sounded too much like Bennington would only make fans miss him more. For his replacement, casting against type was the braver and more interesting path, rebirthing Linkin Park as something more than an echo of its past. Armstrong, who previously sang for LA-based rock band Dead Sara, showed that potential.
The band played in the round at the Forum, on a mostly empty, high-tech stage shaped like an aircraft carrier. That meant great sight lines for more people in the arena, but muddier sound as a result.
Regardless, for two hours the band powered through 27 songs as tight as ever, beginning with two of their most popular early anthems, “Somewhere I Belong” and “Crawling.” Like most of the Linkin Park songbook, Bennington’s voice was central on the original recordings, but Armstrong dove in with confidence and appropriate angst, frequently bent over her mic, wailing at the edge of the stage.
On “Crawling,” she roared: “I’ve felt this way before/So insecure!” as the crowd shouted along.
Genders aside, there are similarities between the current and former singers. Like Bennington, Armstrong is as capable with rich melodies as throat-ripping vocals, which fit naturally in the established Linkin Park sound.
Between songs, Shinoda did most of the talking, explaining to the crowd, “We are thrilled to be back out here. It is not about erasing the past. It is about starting a new chapter into the future.”
There are other changes too. Drummer Rob Bourdon chose not to participate in the reunion (and was replaced by Colin Brittain). While guitarist Brad Delson remains a full member, he will no longer tour with Linkin Park (filling in on the road is Alex Feder).
Fans were primed for this moment and roared with approval. There were many spontaneous chants of : “Linkin Park! Linkin Park! Linkin Park!” Bennington was irreplaceable, but Armstrong showed she had chops of her own to help the veteran act work toward something new.
Until the band’s new album, “From Zero,” is released in November, the band’s setlist will remain almost entirely songs from that past. But Armstrong seemed up to the challenge even on “Given Up,” originally featuring one of Bennington’s most superhuman vocals, as she paced the large stage, pumping her fist, reshaping the vocal to her voice.
After years of silence, Linkin Park once again seems to have a future ahead.
