Introduction
The Hunting Party's Chinese Tour in July 2016 was Linkin Park's first tour of Asia for the album and first tour of China for the band. It was the first stadium tour for Linkin Park in their band's history, and due to the exclusive nature of the shows all being in China, the band did not visit any other countries in Asia for the tour. The tour was just 5 shows.
Before the tour
There was a two month gap in the band's touring schedule between the North American Summer Shows that ended in June 2015 and their third trip to Europe for The Hunting Party which began in August 2015. Before China, Linkin Park played 9 shows in 53 days, almost two month's worth of time, in a series of fly dates around North America.
Summary
This tour was rumored since December 2014 and was finally announced in May 2015. Brad confirmed the trip in an April 2015 LPU chat, but the shows potential dates were leaking all throughout the first part of 2015 before the band confirmed it.
Linkin Park last played in China in 2009 when they were out promoting New Divide that summer, playing Shanghai and Macao. They had three stadium shows in Beijing, Shanghai, and Wuhan scheduled for September 2011, but the Chinese government canceled the contracts of the shows before they were announced. This was due to Linkin Park meeting the Dalai Lama at a Music For Relief event earlier that year in Los Angeles. It was said that Linkin Park was banned forever from performing in China at the time, the usual threat from the Chinese government when a foreign band mentions/meets with the Dalai Lama, but that changed with the announcement of this tour.
Three cities on this tour (Beijing, Shanghai, and Wuhan) were canceled in 2008 for Minutes To Midnight as well when Chester injured his back playing with his kid a few weeks beforehand, so you could say this tour was a long time coming. After all that time, this finally marked the first Linkin Park show in Beijing.
The tour of China was different than standard Linkin Park tours. The LP Underground was not allowed to hold its customary Meet & Greets before the show with the band, which made it the first tour in the band's history to not have them since the inception of the LPU. Mercedes Benz (tour sponsor), however, held M&Gs before the shows for their own car buyers, etc to meet the band. Instead, two LPU Meetups events were held in Shenzhen and Shanghai. Despite the band not being confirmed to attend, they showed up as a surprise and fans were allowed to take a group picture with Linkin Park but not get any autographs. Even at these LPU Meetups events, the Mercedes Benz people went first to meet the band due to their huge sponsorship of the entire tour. However, the LP Underground and Linkin Park made their best effort in a new, foreign country and ended up coming through for fans in Shenzhen and Shanghai.
Next, as customary for bands performing in China, Linkin Park had to submit a list of songs to the Chinese communist government to be "pre-approved" for the setlist. Included were all songs played on the world tour for The Hunting Party up to the point of the tour, even those not in the current setlist. 42 songs total were listed, including A Place For My Head, Somewhere I Belong, A Light That Never Comes, With You and Blackout - all of which were not played at the North American Summer Shows preceding the Chinese tour. All of those except for A Place For My Head weren't played at all in 2015. A surprising inclusion was Keys To The Kingdom, which was rumored to have been rehearsed for the 2015 setlists, but it never made its live debut on the touring cycle.
Due to the Chinese government's censorship laws, the band was forced to censor Given Up, Remember The Name, Welcome, and Bleed It Out. On Given Up, Chester just skipped "fuck". On Remember The Name, Mike changed "motherfuckers" to "other fellas". On Welcome, Mike just skipped the "fuckers" part of "motherfuckers". On 'Bleed It Out', Mike didn't rap the entire line of "going out of my fucking mind" and let the crowd sing it instead.
There was no opening band for the tour. The shows were massive and featured seats all throughout the crowd instead of a standing general admission area, and allowed the band to be creative with their video and light production on such large stages.
The show in Beijing was webcasted by Mercedes Benz, but was censored.
Crew
| Name | Job |
|---|---|
| Jim Digby | Director of Touring |
| Ken "Pooch" Van Druten | FOH Engineer |
| Kevin "Tater" McCarthy | Monitor Engineer |
| Warren Johnson | DJ Technician |
| Mark Fiore | Videographer |