Linkin Park combines heartfelt tributes, classic tunes & a new era in KC concert
A 10-minute countdown flashed on the screens inside T-Mobile Center on Sunday, Aug. 31, letting fans know that the wait was finally over and that the countdown from zero was turning into a countdown to zero.
For the first time since 2011, nu-metal greats Linkin Park took the stage in Kansas City as a part of their ongoing From Zero World Tour. It also marks their first tour since lead vocalist Chester Bennington died in 2017.
It’s impossible to replace a voice like Bennington had, and co-founding band member Mike Shinoda has said so multiple times since the band revealed Emily Armstrong as the new vocalist in 2024.
Along with Shinoda and Armstrong, returning bandmates Brad Delson, Joe Hahn, Dave Farrell; new drummer Colin Brittain, and new touring guitarist Alex Feder, the group played a mix of Linkin Park’s discography Sunday, touching on the many albums they’ve released since 2000’s “Hybrid Theory” debut.
The Dead Sara singer has impressed longtime fans with her recent live performances and contributions to the band’s 2024 album as they enter a new chapter.
Was Kansas City just as receptive? Here’s what happened inside Linkin Park’s two-hour showcase.
Somewhere I Belong
The show’s first song, “Somewhere I Belong,” felt like a message to Kansas City’s crowd that Armstrong is sticking around. From the distorted guitar opening to the final verse, they welcomed her with open arms, singing along to her versions of the classics and the band’s new material.
“Thank you for singing along so loud to the new stuff,” Shinoda said after the band finished “Cut The Bridge.” “That’s incredible.”
Over time, the fans could see her become more comfortable as she sang on stage.
Twenty-five-year-old Coffeyville, Kansas, native Samuel Niles has seen Linkin Park on this tour three times so far (he previously traveled to Dallas and Tulsa, Oklahoma) and said this was the most relaxed he’d seen her during her live performances.
The singer sounded more comfortable on songs she directly helped with from their 2024 album “From Zero,” but it didn’t stop her from strutting, jumping, running and hyping up the crowd at all moments of the show. Fans in the arena enjoyed hearing her switch from her usual angst-sounding vocals on songs like “The Emptiness Machine” and “Cut The Bridge” to a gravelly and angry sound similar to Bennington’s on songs such as “Crawling” and “Bleed It Out.”
She even attempted Bennington’s iconic 17-second-long scream on 2007’s “Given Up,” which garnered a huge ovation from the crowd when they realized what was happening. She did have to take a quick pause during the vocal section, but it didn’t dampen the mood in the arena.
“She’s comfortable, she’s messing around, she’s having fun,” Niles said. “They seem like a big family, and she’s doing a great job.”
A love for Linkin Park
Niles was one of the first people in the Linkin Park Underground line outside T-Mobile Center, reserved for fan club members, alongside Monique Newman and her daughter, Brooklyn Newman. The two traveled from Little Rock, Arkansas, for Brooklyn’s birthday gift, and Monique made it her mission to secure a spot on the barricade for her daughter.
Monique Newman listened to the band when she was younger and gave credit to her husband for passing on the love for Linkin Park to her daughter. She said it was Brooklyn Newman who introduced her mother to the new album, and after a while, she said she fell in love with the new sound.
Both got to enjoy a mix of old and new from the barricade in the general admission section on T-Mobile Center’s floor. The band played songs from seven different albums, and Shinoda played a couple of songs from his hip-hop side project Fort Minor, receiving assistance from Armstrong on “Where’d You Go,” and sliding in a few verses from “Remember The Name,” during his solo section.
Songs like “In The End,” and “Papercut,” which were created before 20-year-old Brooklyn Newman was born, were screamed in full force by the audience. Laser light displays and video board graphics were unique to each song on the setlist, adding to the entertainment.
“I feel like Linkin Park really created their own niche within rock music, and it’s something that no one else does like them,” Monique Newman said.
Remembering Chester
Small mosh pits were seen on the floor throughout the show, some organized by the fans and others organized by the band asking the fans to pick a side and get ready when they started playing “Two Face.”
It’s unknown if Dylan Nighswander joined in the mosh pit like he said he would, but both he and his wife, Amanda, missed out on their chances to see Linkin Park when Chester Bennington was alive. They both thought they’d missed their chance to see the band, and quickly jumped at the opportunity when they announced this tour.
The couple from Columbia, Missouri, has been together for 15 years and married for two, and couldn’t pass up the chance to hear songs key to their youth live, like “Numb,” but Dylan Nighswander said it’ll be weird to hear it from Armstrong’s voice and not Bennington’s.
While Bennington was a big part of it, Amanda Nighswander said all of the members were equally important to the band. She gave credit to Shinoda for relatively keeping the band intact over a seven-year hiatus.
Fans did their part to keep Bennington’s memory alive by singing along to his parts when Armstrong pointed the microphone toward them. One fan along the barricade wrote “We love you Chester,” on his phone and showed it to the stage camera during one of the band’s set changes.
Fifteen of the 27 songs performed by Linkin Park on Sunday were written or performed by Bennington when they were originally released, with some of these songs celebrating their 25th anniversary. All these years later and fans can still feel the impact he left on the music world and in their personal lives.
“He covered feelings that we all feel,” Dylan Nighswander said. “You just resonate with it and you feel like you’re right on stage with them.”
“Specifically, things that are really hard to talk about and not easy to verbalize,” Amanda Nighswander said. “When you hear it in a song, you’re like ‘oh my god, me too.’”
Linkin Park’s set list
Linkin Park played 27 songs in total during their show in Kansas City:
- “Somewhere I Belong”
- “Crawling”
- “Up From the Bottom”
- “Lying From You”
- “The Emptiness Machine”
- “The Catalyst”
- “Burn It Down”
- “Cut The Bridge”
- “Where’d You Go” (from Shinoda’s band Fort Minor)
- “Waiting For The End”
- “Castle of Glass” (with opening act Jean Dawson)
- “Two Faced”
- “When They Come For Me”/ “Remember The Name” medley
- “Given Up”
- “One Step Closer”
- “Lost”
- “Good Things Go”
- “Overflow”
- “Numb” (with “Numb/Encore” intro)
- “Let You Fade”
- “Heavy Is The Crown”
- “Bleed It Out”
- “Papercut”
- “In The End”
- “Faint”
This story was originally published September 1, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
