North American Tour 2008

Introduction

The 2008 North American Tour for Minutes To Midnight featuring Linkin Park, Coheed And Cambria, and Chiodos was a total of nineteen shows across the United States and Canada and visited mostly cities that Linkin Park hadn't played in quite a while, or ever. It was the second of three North American tours for the album, coming after Projekt Revolution 2007 and before Projekt Revolution 2008.

Summary

Linkin Park came fresh off of their European Tour for Minutes To Midnight in January and started this tour a few weeks after it. The band debuted new songs from Minutes To Midnight on the European Tour. Valentine's Day and In Between both received their live debut, as well as a few other new additions, such as a new intro for What I've Done, with What I've Done opening the show for the first time. These three setlists seamlessly moved over to North America for its tour.

The band had done several winter tours in the United States before this tour, in 2002 and 2004. The tour visited a lot of places that the band hadn't played in years, as well as some new landmarks, such as Madison Square Garden in New York City and Staples Center in Los Angeles.

A brand new stage and new production debuted on this tour, with a special 360 stage set up at some shows. This is the first and only time the band has ever done a 360 stage. Mike said before the tour, "A number of shows are being sold at 360 degrees. So that means that the stage is obviously set up for a 360 degree show, and a number of venues, such as Staples Center, Madison Square Garden, they sold out to 270 degrees, so now we opened it up to 360. So it's a great thing that the shows are selling out and we're able to open them up and play in the round."

To start the tour, the band kicked off the first show in Omaha, NE. The band then headed to St. Paul, MN and Detroit, MI and then headed to the East Coast afterwards to play places like Manchester, NH, Baltimore, MD and Madison Square Garden in New York City. At about 12am, the day of the Madison Square Garden show, the band performed at the Apple Store in SoHo, New York City. The band performed six songs for a small amount of people and ended up releasing the show on iTunes later in 2008. Jay-Z came out at the Madison Square Garden show for a surprise encore that included Numb/Encore and Jigga What/Faint being performed for the first time since 2004.

After the Madison Square Garden show, the band headed up to Canada to perform in Montreal, QC and London, ON. Chester pulled off the eighteen second scream on Given Up at the Montreal show, which was actually the second time he had pulled it off on this specific tour, pulling it off once before in Columbus, OH earlier on in the tour. The London show was the first time the band has ever performed in London.

After the short Canadian stop, the band headed back to the states to perform shows in Lexington, KY, Nashville, TN and Oklahoma City, OK, all places the band had rarely played at that point in their career. During the Oklahoma City show, Chester told the crowd that he was very sick and almost wanted to cancel the show, but ended up deciding not to cancel it. The setlist was modified to fit Chester's vocals, dropping the new single Given Up, No More Sorrow, and Points Of Authority. Wake interestingly was played directly before Lying From You, and Papercut was played with the common Points Of Authority outro. At one point during the show, Chester told the fans that they could have their money back if they weren't satisfied with the show.

After the Oklahoma City show, the band was forced to cancel their upcoming shows in Albuquerque, NM and El Paso, TX because Chester was diagnosed with tracheobronchitis. They then decided to continue the tour but decided to shorten the set a bit and cut a few songs to ease Chester's performance. The band then performed at Staples Center in Los Angeles, a first for the band, just like Madison Square Garden in New York City was earlier on in the tour. After the Staples Center show, the band performed two nights at The Joint in Las Vegas, NV, another venue that the band had not previously performed at but that they would come to familiarize themselves with over the next few touring cycles.

The tour ended with shows in Salt Lake City, UT and Sacramento, CA, with Chester being able to perform a full set in Sacramento to close out the tour on a high note.

Memorable moments

Starting at the Manchester, NH stop of the tour, Brad performed a short intro before Valentine's Day, performing it later on in the tour as well at the Staples Center show in Los Angeles.

Given Up from both the Columbus and Montreal shows both featured the complete 18 second scream from Chester, something he has rarely ever been able to do live.

The band also performed a short cover of Umbrella by Rihanna at the Manchester, NH stop of the tour, previously performing the song at one of the 02 Arena shows in London, ENG earlier in the year.

Releases

Various releases from the tour have been released by the band. Although the New York City, NY show at the Apple Store in SoHo wasn't technically a date on the tour, the band released a live EP of the performance on iTunes in March of 2008.

Linkin Park released a live version of My December, taken from the Nashville, TN stop of the tour, on Songs From The Underground in November of 2008. Several tracks were also released from the New York, NY show at Madison Square Garden through the Live Around The World series that the band released in mid 2012. Those tracks were Lying From You, Numb and What I've Done.

Chiodos released a DVD that came with the release of Bone Palace Ballet: Grand Coda which was a re-release of their album Bone Palace Ballet that came out in 2007 and featured some footage of the band hanging out backstage, preparing for the tour and also featured the moment when the actors of the TV show Trailer Park Boys came to the Madison Square Garden stop of the tour and opened up their set.

Crew

Name	Job
Jim Digby	Production Manager
Ken "Pooch" Van Druten	FOH Engineer
Kevin "Tater" McCarthy	Monitor Engineer
Sean Paden	Guitar Technician (Brad)
Mark Fiore	Videographer

Credentials

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  All Access

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  All Access (w/ escort stickers)

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  All Access (NYC)

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  VIP

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  Working

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  VIP

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  Photo

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  After Show

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