{"id":42944,"date":"2026-06-16T10:10:32","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T08:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orkus1.com\/thats-how-it-was-with-linkin-park-3\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T18:26:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T16:26:36","slug":"thats-how-it-was-with-linkin-park-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orkus1.com\/en\/thats-how-it-was-with-linkin-park-3\/","title":{"rendered":"That’s how it was with LINKIN PARK"},"content":{"rendered":"
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That’s how it was with LINKIN PARK<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

June 1, 2026, Hamburg, Volksparkstadion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

When memories grow louder<\/h3>\n\n

There are some things in Hamburg you could really do without. Endless rain with a crosswind. Storm surges lapping at your feet. Sold-out Franzbr\u00f6tchen when the morning\u2019s 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<\/strong> 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! <\/p>\n\n

Scars of Light<\/h3>\n\n

Linkin Park<\/strong> 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\u2019t tried to replace Chester. That would be impossible, tasteless, and for many fans, beyond words. Instead, Linkin Park<\/strong> has learned to breathe again. Differently. Rougher. With a new friction in the system. Emily doesn\u2019t feel like a foreign body, but like a spark that has fallen into an old machine and made it dangerous again. <\/p>\n\n

Act 1 \u2013 \u201cFrom Zero,\u201d but not from the beginning<\/h3>\n\n

The evening began with a grin from offstage. \u201cPiranha\u201d by The Prodigy<\/strong> rippled through the stadium like a foreshock, followed by that wonderfully absurd \u201cI\u2019d Like a Hamburger\u201d moment, as if someone had briefly opened the door to madness. Then \u201cInception Intro B,\u201d iridescent traces in the haze, that typical Linkin Park melancholy<\/strong>, stretched out to the sky. And suddenly: \u201cLying From You.\u201d 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\u2019s voice, Emily\u2019s edge\u2014a start like a punch against old dust. \u201cCrawling\u201d followed as an early test. A song that inevitably stirs up memories. Emily didn\u2019t sing it like a copy, but like someone who knows that this pain already belongs to someone else\u2014and yet still lets it rip through her own chest. With \u201cUp from the Bottom,\u201d the band immediately followed up with new material. \u201cFrom Zero\u201d took on a body, sweat, and a pulse here. \u201cNew Divide\u201d brought back that grand cinematic drama, briefly hinted at by the \u201cMoscow\u201d intro. No sooner had it faded than \u201cThe Emptiness Machine\u201d 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. <\/p>\n\n

Act 2 – Sparks in the Engine Room of Humanity<\/h3>\n\n

The second act opened with \u201cThe Catalyst,\u201d a darker, more electronic, more apocalyptic track. Shorter in length, but no less powerful. When \u201cBurn It Down\u201d finally blasted through the stadium, every last trace of restraint had vanished. Emily grinned, rousing the crowd with a dry \u201cMoin H\u00e4mbourg,\u201d and the stadium responded not like an audience, but like a single, fevered organism. For \u201cStained,\u201d Emily sat at the keys. Even as the last notes were still echoing, Mike surprised everyone in German: \u201cHello Hamburg, we\u2019re really happy to be back here in Germany. When we were last here, we were just at the beginning of this journey, and we\u2019re very grateful to be able to play here and wrap up the \u2018Zero\u2019 tour. Thank you so, so much for your support at the Volkspark\u2014we love you all!\u201d These weren\u2019t just polished stadium-speak lines. It hit home. Because you could feel that this band knows what Hamburg means for this fresh start. \u201cWhere\u2019d You Go\u201d served as a brief \u201cFort Minor\u201d glimpse back into another corner of Mike\u2019s history. Not a foreign element, more like a side room in the same house. \u201cWaiting for the End\u201d then opened up the heavens. This mix of longing, beat, and collective singing is one of those moments when a stadium can suddenly soften. \u201cA Place for My Head\u201d immediately put an end to that softness. Old \u201cHybrid Theory\u201d nerves, still raw live. \u201cTwo Faced\u201d 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\u2014precise, playful, edgy. One of those moments you can\u2019t plan happened at the end of \u201cWhen They Come for Me.\u201d 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<\/strong> had he seen? It was his first. Mike gave him his cap, gave him a warm hug, and carried on\u2014selfies, handshakes, closeness. From that moment, from the pit, he urged the audience to sing along to \u201clike this\u201d as the chorus, so they could rap \u201cStep Up\u201d together. That was a total of four and a half minutes of goosebumps. Barely back on stage, Emily took over the drums for \u201cRemember the Name.\u201d A powerful role reversal, almost casual and all the more cool for it. \u201cUnshatter\u201d then brought new material back into the set, before \u201cOne Step Closer\u201d hurled the old fury back into the stadium with scratching, an extended outro, and that still-biting chorus edge. <\/p>\n\n

Act 3 – Wounds That Speak<\/h3>\n\n

After a brief pause, the atmosphere grew more intimate. \u201cLost\u201d was performed in a shortened piano version featuring Mike and Emily. Less wall, more wound. \u201cBreaking the Habit\u201d opened up one of this band\u2019s darkest spaces. The song remains a cut, no matter how many years have passed. \u201cGood Things Go\u201d served as a quieter counterpoint before \u201cWhat I\u2019ve Done\u201d 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. <\/p>\n\n

Act 4 – Memory Becomes Voice<\/h3>\n\n

The fourth act began with \u201cKintsugi\u201d as a fitting metaphor: don\u2019t hide the cracks, but set them together in plain sight. \u201cOverflow\u201d kicked off with an extended synth intro that briefly flashed a hint of Depeche Mode\u2019s<\/strong> \u201cEnjoy the Silence\u201d\u2014a nod to the darker side of the audience, cool, elegant, and perfectly measured. \u201cOver Each Other\u201d maintained the new emotional tone before \u201cNumb\u201d finally transformed the Volkspark into a collective memory. \u201cNumb\u201d is no longer just a song, but a reflex. The \u201cNumb\/Encore\u201d intro lent it added grandeur. Then \u201cIn the End.\u201d 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. \u201cFaint\u201d then sent electricity coursing through the raw spots again. Fast, nervous, razor-sharp. The extended finale didn\u2019t let the song end, but let it fray like a cable under tension. <\/p>\n\n

Encore – A Final Uprising of the Night<\/h3>\n\n

The encore kicked off with \u201cPapercut\u201d in the intro played in 2024. There it was\u2014that madness, that paranoid flicker that Linkin Park<\/strong> 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. \u201cHeavy Is the Crown\u201d 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\u2019t just work\u2014it burns. She didn\u2019t 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, \u201cBleed It Out.\u201d Of course. What else? The extended bridge with the first verse of \u201cA Place for My Head\u201d 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<\/strong> track: \u201cPass the Mic.\u201d They couldn\u2019t have ended the evening any more fittingly. <\/p>\n\n

Conclusion – Linkin Park Write Their Second Chapter in Hamburg<\/h3>\n\n

Linkin Park<\/strong> didn\u2019t just prove in Hamburg that they\u2019re 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\u2019t the sole director. Emily Armstrong didn\u2019t stand in front of Chester\u2019s 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\u2014everything is clicking again. Different from before. But just as real. Hamburg didn\u2019t get a nostalgic museum night. Hamburg got a band that doesn\u2019t cover up its scars with makeup, but holds them up under the floodlights. \u201cFrom Zero\u201d doesn\u2019t mean forgetting everything here. It means starting with the break. And damn, that break sounded huge at the Volksparkstadion! <\/p>\n\n

Text & Photos: Thomas Friedel Fuhrmann<\/p>\n\n

Linkin Park Setlist<\/strong>\u2022 “Lying From You” \u2022 “Crawling” \u2022 “Up from the Bottom” \u2022 “New Divide” \u2022 “The Emptiness Machine” \u2022 “The Catalyst” \u2022 “Burn It Down” \u2022 “Stained” \u2022 “Where\u2019d You Go” \u2022 “Waiting for the End” \u2022 “A Place for My Head” \u2022 “Two Faced” \u2022 “Joe Hahn Solo” \u2022 “When They Come for Me \/ Remember the Name” \u2022 “Unshatter” \u2022 “One Step Closer” \u2022 “Lost” \u2022 “Breaking the Habit” \u2022 “Good Things Go” \u2022 “What I\u2019ve Done” \u2022 “Overflow” \u2022 “Over Each Other” \u2022 “Numb” \u2022 “In the End” \u2022 “Faint” \u2022\u2022\u2022 “Papercut” \u2022 “Heavy Is the Crown” \u2022 “Bleed It Out”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n