That’s how it was with LINKIN PARK

That’s how it was with LINKIN PARK

June 1, 2026, Hamburg, Volksparkstadion

When memories grow louder

There are some things in Hamburg you could really do without. Endless rain with a crosswind. Storm surges lapping at your feet. Sold-out Franzbrötchen when the morning’s already off to a bad start. And then there are those other events. Those are welcome back. Not quiet. Not polite. But bigger, heavier, twice as intense, and with no holds barred. Just one year, eight months, one week, and three days after that evening in Hamburg when Linkin Park celebrated their European rebirth with Emily Armstrong at the Barclays Arena, the band was back in this city. This time not under the arena roof in front of 16,000 fans, but at the Volksparkstadion, in front of around 50,000 people. And because Hamburg is often lucky, the whole thing happened twice. And twice sold out!

Scars of Light

Linkin Park have long been more than just a band. For many, they represent a milestone in their own life story. A soundtrack of anger, the schoolyard, escaping into headphones, lost nights, a first love, the first painful breakup, and that strange salvation music can sometimes provide when no one else can find the right words. Chester Bennington remains invisibly present throughout. Not as a shadow blocking everything. Rather as a spirit in the concrete, as a voice in the spaces between, as pain that no one can talk away. And yet this is no cover version of their own past. With Emily Armstrong, this band hasn’t tried to replace Chester. That would be impossible, tasteless, and for many fans, beyond words. Instead, Linkin Park has learned to breathe again. Differently. Rougher. With a new friction in the system. Emily doesn’t feel like a foreign body, but like a spark that has fallen into an old machine and made it dangerous again.

Act 1 – “From Zero,” but not from the beginning

The evening began with a grin from offstage. “Piranha” by The Prodigy rippled through the stadium like a foreshock, followed by that wonderfully absurd “I’d Like a Hamburger” moment, as if someone had briefly opened the door to madness. Then “Inception Intro B,” iridescent traces in the haze, that typical Linkin Park melancholy, stretched out to the sky. And suddenly: “Lying From You.” In Hamburg for the first time as the show opener. No tentative knock, no warming up. The band kicked the door down. Guitars, beats, Mike Shinoda’s voice, Emily’s edge—a start like a punch against old dust. “Crawling” followed as an early test. A song that inevitably stirs up memories. Emily didn’t sing it like a copy, but like someone who knows that this pain already belongs to someone else—and yet still lets it rip through her own chest. With “Up from the Bottom,” the band immediately followed up with new material. “From Zero” took on a body, sweat, and a pulse here. “New Divide” brought back that grand cinematic drama, briefly hinted at by the “Moscow” intro. No sooner had it faded than “The Emptiness Machine” devoured the crowd. One of those new songs that no longer asks for permission live, but has long since become part of the fabric. The choruses soared as if Hamburg had had them in their bones for years.

Act 2 – Sparks in the Engine Room of Humanity

The second act opened with “The Catalyst,” a darker, more electronic, more apocalyptic track. Shorter in length, but no less powerful. When “Burn It Down” finally blasted through the stadium, every last trace of restraint had vanished. Emily grinned, rousing the crowd with a dry “Moin Hämbourg,” and the stadium responded not like an audience, but like a single, fevered organism. For “Stained,” Emily sat at the keys. Even as the last notes were still echoing, Mike surprised everyone in German: “Hello Hamburg, we’re really happy to be back here in Germany. When we were last here, we were just at the beginning of this journey, and we’re very grateful to be able to play here and wrap up the ‘Zero’ tour. Thank you so, so much for your support at the Volkspark—we love you all!” These weren’t just polished stadium-speak lines. It hit home. Because you could feel that this band knows what Hamburg means for this fresh start. “Where’d You Go” served as a brief “Fort Minor” glimpse back into another corner of Mike’s history. Not a foreign element, more like a side room in the same house. “Waiting for the End” then opened up the heavens. This mix of longing, beat, and collective singing is one of those moments when a stadium can suddenly soften. “A Place for My Head” immediately put an end to that softness. Old “Hybrid Theory” nerves, still raw live. “Two Faced” pushed the new grunge right up next to it; Joe Hahn kicked things off with his intro, and the extended bridge pulled the song even deeper into the engine room. Afterward, the stage briefly belonged entirely to him and Colin—precise, playful, edgy. One of those moments you can’t plan happened at the end of “When They Come for Me.” Mike went into the pit and took his time, looking at posters, shaking hands, clapping along, talking to a little boy. How many Linkin Park concerts had he seen? It was his first. Mike gave him his cap, gave him a warm hug, and carried on—selfies, handshakes, closeness. From that moment, from the pit, he urged the audience to sing along to “like this” as the chorus, so they could rap “Step Up” together. That was a total of four and a half minutes of goosebumps. Barely back on stage, Emily took over the drums for “Remember the Name.” A powerful role reversal, almost casual and all the more cool for it. “Unshatter” then brought new material back into the set, before “One Step Closer” hurled the old fury back into the stadium with scratching, an extended outro, and that still-biting chorus edge.

Act 3 – Wounds That Speak

After a brief pause, the atmosphere grew more intimate. “Lost” was performed in a shortened piano version featuring Mike and Emily. Less wall, more wound. “Breaking the Habit” opened up one of this band’s darkest spaces. The song remains a cut, no matter how many years have passed. “Good Things Go” served as a quieter counterpoint before “What I’ve Done” delivered the great catharsis. This song carries guilt, a new beginning, and purification within it. Live, it became a collective exhalation, a moment between a clenched fist and a lowered gaze.

Act 4 – Memory Becomes Voice

The fourth act began with “Kintsugi” as a fitting metaphor: don’t hide the cracks, but set them together in plain sight. “Overflow” kicked off with an extended synth intro that briefly flashed a hint of Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence”—a nod to the darker side of the audience, cool, elegant, and perfectly measured. “Over Each Other” maintained the new emotional tone before “Numb” finally transformed the Volkspark into a collective memory. “Numb” is no longer just a song, but a reflex. The “Numb/Encore” intro lent it added grandeur. Then “In the End.” Phoenix played the intro, and immediately this incomprehensible feeling hung over the stadium: everyone knows every syllable, everyone knows who these lines once belonged to, and yet this moment belongs to the living. Mike led, Emily held, Hamburg carried. No pathos needed. Just 50,000 voices sharing the same scar for a few minutes. “Faint” then sent electricity coursing through the raw spots again. Fast, nervous, razor-sharp. The extended finale didn’t let the song end, but let it fray like a cable under tension.

Encore – A Final Uprising of the Night

The encore kicked off with “Papercut” in the intro played in 2024. There it was—that madness, that paranoid flicker that Linkin Park has always been capable of. The song hit hard right away. Mike and Emily raced through the lines as the stadium was transported back to the early 2000s, without getting stuck there. “Heavy Is the Crown” followed, serving as both a duty and a statement. A new song, but with the weight of an oath. Here, Emily showed particularly clearly why this second era doesn’t just work—it burns. She didn’t force the high notes as an effect, but hurled them like shards over the crowd. Mike remained the anchor, Emily the crack in the glass. Together, it sounded dangerously good. Finally, “Bleed It Out.” Of course. What else? The extended bridge with the first verse of “A Place for My Head” turned the finale not into a nice send-off, but into a final demolition. Everyone was jumping, everyone was screaming, everyone was clapping, as if they had to keep the night awake with their own hands. After that, a recorded Beastie Boys track: “Pass the Mic.” They couldn’t have ended the evening any more fittingly.

Conclusion – Linkin Park Write Their Second Chapter in Hamburg

Linkin Park didn’t just prove in Hamburg that they’re still around. That was already clear back in 2024. At the Volksparkstadion, they showed that this band can grow again without betraying its roots. The past was on stage with them, yes. But it wasn’t the sole director. Emily Armstrong didn’t stand in front of Chester’s legacy. She took her place beside it. Mike Shinoda remains the heart, the brain, and the bridge. Joe, Dave, Colin, Brad as part of this larger body—everything is clicking again. Different from before. But just as real. Hamburg didn’t get a nostalgic museum night. Hamburg got a band that doesn’t cover up its scars with makeup, but holds them up under the floodlights. “From Zero” doesn’t mean forgetting everything here. It means starting with the break. And damn, that break sounded huge at the Volksparkstadion!

Text & Photos: Thomas Friedel Fuhrmann

Linkin Park Setlist
• “Lying From You” • “Crawling” • “Up from the Bottom” • “New Divide” • “The Emptiness Machine” • “The Catalyst” • “Burn It Down” • “Stained” • “Where’d You Go” • “Waiting for the End” • “A Place for My Head” • “Two Faced” • “Joe Hahn Solo” • “When They Come for Me / Remember the Name” • “Unshatter” • “One Step Closer” • “Lost” • “Breaking the Habit” • “Good Things Go” • “What I’ve Done” • “Overflow” • “Over Each Other” • “Numb” • “In the End” • “Faint” ••• “Papercut” • “Heavy Is the Crown” • “Bleed It Out”

Listen to our “Electronic Rock” playlist on Spotify:

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