Projekt Revolution 2007

Projekt Revolution 2007
Projekt Revolution 2007
Tour by Linkin Park
Type:	Headline
Associated album:	Minutes To Midnight
Start:	July 25, 2007
End:	September 3, 2007
Number of shows:	29
Supporting acts:	My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday, HIM, Placebo, Julien-K
Tour chronology
Tour chronology

Introduction

Projekt Revolution 2007 was the fourth edition of Linkin Park's Projekt Revolution Tour. It was also the band's first big North American Tour for Minutes To Midnight. The tour ran from late July to early September and consisted of twenty nine shows. It was also the first and only Projekt Revolution Tour that featured a stop in Canada and the show took place in Toronto, ON. The band sold out one of the shows - in Woodlands, Texas.

Despite interviews from 2002-2004 stating that the band wished to continue Projekt Revolution even when they weren't on it, the tour took a break in 2005 and 2006, coming back full-force in summer 2007.

The "rival tour" in North America at the time was Warped Tour, and members of Projekt Revolution's bands (Linkin Park included) even hosted an Xbox Halo competition against Warped Tour in the middle of the tour. This was shown on Fuse, as well as in several videos released by the LP Underground.

Before the tour

After the Minutes To Midnight Promo Tour and the Minutes To Midnight European Tour earlier in 2007, the band returned home to Los Angeles to prepare for Projekt Revolution. However, LP did play several shows during this time. They played the Live Earth event, put together by Al Gore, on July 7th in Chiba, JP. Here is what Phoenix had to say about the show and why the band played in Chiba, JP for the event, "Doing Live Earth took a bit of logistical tweaking, though. The reason we’re playing in Japan is because our drummer Rob is locked into a wedding as the best man on the 8th, so we had to figure out how to play the show and have him make it to the wedding. But we’re booked, and we’re going to play. And Rob will get to the wedding, too, which is important."

Live Earth was a series of worldwide concerts and events that raised awareness of climate change, put together by Al Gore. It was broadcasted across the world. At this show, Linkin Park played fifteen songs and dealt with their famous "barricade incident" after Lying From You, where rowdy fans broke through the barricade forcing the band to take a 20+ minute break mid-show while it was repaired.

Linkin Park also performed at the grand opening of Ritual Restaurant and Night Club on July 17th. It was a small, intimate show to celebrate the club's opening. Because of a technical issue during Numb, Mike decided to tell a story about their first ever show as Xero. He had this to say, "Daron Malakian from System Of A Down was in a corner somewhere, just fucked up before the show. The System Of A Down set started at like 1:00 in the morning." Then he said Xero thought, "I guess that when we're big, we can just do whatever the fuck we want for like, four hours and people will just stand around and wait."

The band then performed a small set Inglewood's Forum, where their production rehearsals for the tour were set up, for the Kevin And Bean Breakfast Show on July 19th. It was a short six song performance held for a small amount of fans and was webcasted live. Sometime before the tour, several members (Rob, Brad, and Mike) of Linkin Park hosted a "battle of the bands" at the Roxy Theater in West Hollywood, CA. The winner of the competition earned a spot to open up the Revolution Stage on Projekt Revolution. Art Of Chaos won the competition, thus they performed at select shows as the opening band of the Revolution Stage.

Summary

The tour kicked off in Auburn, WA on July 25th. During an Australian interview in 2007, Chester revealed that he got meningitis a few days before the tour kicked off. Here is what Chester had to say about it all, "We started Projekt Revolution this year, a few months ago, and I had meningitis. I got meningitis right before we left, two days before we played the first show. I was like "I kind of feel like I've got the flu" and like two hours later I was like I can't open my eyes because everything hurt so bad. And that was the worst pain, all over my whole body, that I've ever experienced."

However, the band did not cancel any shows and it is unknown how quickly Chester recovered from it.

Besides Projekt Revolution being the band's big "comeback" tour after their 2005-2006 break, the most notable thing about the tour was that it was Linkin Park's first time rotating setlists. They rotated three different setlists for fans, with each set having a few exclusive songs. There is a full breakdown of all three setlists, which shows had what set, and more written by Astat that can be viewed here.

Set A opened with Wake and Given Up, closed with Faint, and had an encore of One Step Closer, In The End, and Bleed It Out.

Set B opened with No More Sorrow, closed with One Step Closer, and had an encore of Cure For The Itch, QWERTY, Bleed It Out, and Faint.

Set C opened with One Step Closer, closed with Bleed It Out, and had an encore of The Little Things Give You Away, What I've Done, and Faint.

There were many new intros and outros performed for songs that debuted on this tour, for a list of those click here.

Live debuts from these sets included Shadow of the Day in Set C at 2007.07.25 Auburn, WA, In Pieces in Set A at 2007.07.27 Wheatland, CA, and Hands Held High in Set B at 2007.07.29 Mountain View, CA.

The tour started with Set C at 2007.07.25 Auburn, WA and rotated C, A, A, B, B, before going A, B, C for a few more weeks. The band then experimented by changing Set B at 2007.08.25 Camden, NJ and then changing it once again at 2007.08.29 Holmdel, NJ so much that fans started referring to it as the unofficial "Set D." See the respective show pages for more information on the changes.

Other small changes started happening almost immediately. QWERTY made its comeback on this tour, but the band couldn't decide how to perform it...electing to play a mashup of the 2006 "live version" and the LP Underground 6 studio version. As a result, it was dropped several times from the setlists (2007.07.31 Chula Vista, CA and 2007.08.13 Raleigh, NC).

Two big things happened at 2007.08.01 Phoenix, AZ. Mike started rapping a verse over the intro of Points Of Authority and the band literally forced Rob to start playing a drum solo over Bleed It Out. The intro verse and drum solo both continued to be a staple of Linkin Park's setlists for years (2009 for Points Of Authority and 2012 for Bleed It Out). Click here for a full list of the verses Mike rapped over Points Of Authority on the tour. Verses included Fort Minor songs, rarer Linkin Park songs, and the collaboration tracks It's Goin' Down and Second To None.

The show at 2007.08.22 Clarkston, MI was webcasted by MySpace.com for a Projekt Revolution Tour all-day special.

This is the first tour that the band started selling professionally-mixed copies of their shows to fans. Commonly now referred to as DSPs (Digital Souvenir Packages), fans could purchase a blank CD with a custom code at the merch booth and then download the show 3-5 days afterward online. Linkin Park promoted fans sharing the concerts amongst each other online as well, due to the setlists and shows not all being the same. The show at 2007.08.15 Wantagh, NY was not sold at the last minute due to the venue demanding a portion of profits from the show, despite the DSP being sold in Wantagh a year after on Projekt Revolution 2008. The DSP for the Wantagh show on Honda Civic Tour 2012 was also not released, and most likely for the same reason as the Projekt Revolution 2007 show. It is unknown why the Wantagh stop on Projekt Revolution 2008 was sold.

Live Debuts

Memorable Moments

On the Greenwood Village, CO stop of the tour, the final show of the tour, Mike invited members of every band that was backstage to come out on Faint to close out the tour. Some of these guests can be heard on the DSP recording, most notably Jimmy of Mindless Self Indulgence saying c'mon motherfuckers during the second chorus.

Collaborations

Mike came out during Styles Of Beyond's set to perform Second To None and Remember The Name starting at the Cuyahoga Falls, OH stop of the tour. He did this at several other shows after this show as well. On the Hartford, CT stop of the tour, Apathy, who collaborated with Styles Of Beyond and Mike Shinoda a lot in the past, came out as well and rapped some songs with them. It is unknown exactly which songs were performed at the show.

Chester came out during Julien-K's set to perform Technical Difficulties starting on the Bristow, VA stop of the tour. He did this at several other shows after this show as well. Julien-K eventually shared a video on their MySpace page of the performance.

Chester also filled in for Ryan Shuck on the Tinley Park, IL stop of the tour because Ryan needed to attend a wedding. Chester performed the entire set with the band and swapped out System De Sexe for Maestro, a song that the band was not playing on the tour. A video of Kick The Bass from the performance was posted on Julien-K's MySpace page as well.

Touring Bands

Main Stage: Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday, HIM, Placebo, Julien-K

Revolution Stage: Mindless Self Indulgence, Saosin, The Bled, Styles Of Beyond, Madina Lake, Art Of Chaos (Select Shows)

According to Revolver Magazine, Chester originally asked Muse to be a part of the tour, but they declined. Here is what he had to say about it, "Placebo and Muse were also at the top of my list, but Muse couldn't do the show because they had other commitments. But Placebo was available."

Also, in March of 2007, Bob Bryar, the drummer of My Chemical Romance, revealed that Billy Talent was on the Main Stage of the tour. This obviously turned out not happening, and it is unknown what happened with the situation. Claudio Sanchez of Coheed And Cambria also mentioned around the same time that the tour was a possibility for them, meaning that they had been asked to be on the line-up. This also ended up not happening and the reason is most likely because they may have been offered to be on the Minutes To Midnight U.S. Arena Tour in early 2008 instead, which is the likely conclusion, since they were a part of that tour.

Finally, another rumor going around was that Three Days Grace was also asked to be on the tour, but declined. There has never been any proof of this that has been found, as well as the fact that it was most likely Projekt Revolution 2008 that the band was asked to be a part of, not Projekt Revolution 2007.

Chester's first choice for the tour was My Chemical Romance, according to Revolver Magazine. Here is what he had to say about the decision, "This year, I wanted bands that I felt were the total package. And my first choice was My Chemical Romance. I was like, if we get them to do this tour, it doesn't matter who else is on the bill. Because I personally would love to see My Chem and Linkin Park play."

Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance also spoke on the tour, saying this, "It was an instant yes. We're a band that never likes to repeat ourselves at all, and we'd never gotten an opportunity to be out with a band that's different but that we have so much respect for in terms of how they operate. That was one of the big things: We're really interested in bands that operate in unique ways, and I love the fact that each member of Linkin Park is involved so specifically in things like art direction and booking tours and everything. That's always appealed to my band, because it's how we work."

Mike spoke about the tour in the LP Underground 6 Newsletter. He had this to say, "With eleven vastly different bands, none of us would have predicted how smooth and enjoyable it was. By the end, Styles Of Beyond was out drinking with The Bled, and Jimmy from Mindless Self Indulgence was taking pictures with my dog. We even got to watch two friends get married on the last night of the tour. People were swapping email addresses and taking pictures together like it was the end of summer camp. It was the kind of "awww" that other people might think is nauseating, but when you're on outside of the fence, you don't care if you're being cheery, you just want to let everyone know you had a memorable time."

Mike and Chester also talked about the tour again during an Australian interview in 2007, saying this, "The guys from Placebo are some of the nicest people. They had this thing, like I came out one day off the bus, and in front of the buses, there was like this little tent and on the front of it had been spraypainted "Placebo Gazebo". And they had made their own like little outdoor oasis with truck stop goodies, it was the funniest thing, like a little gnome and a little astroturf and a white picket fence that's about this tall around it, it was so funny. They'd be out there barbecueing and riding their bikes."

They added, "You know, My Chemical Romance actually, I would have to say, were the kings of the grill, on this tour. Every night, like every night without fail, after they played, they would fire up the grills and feed everyone on tour. Like, it seemed like, anybody could go, they had like endless supplies of sausages and hamburgers and hot dogs and chicken."

Lastly, Mike and Chester talked about the tour with Matt Pinfield on the Clarkston, MI stop of the tour, discussing the other bands and how the band set up the tour. Mike said, "One thing that I really like about the way this was set up this year is that we were able to do the Revolution Stage without playing over top of the Main Stage with two things competing, you really can come at noon and watch the whole Revolution Stage and then move over to the Main Stage and watch the whole Main Stage and to me, you know, if we were the first band of eleven, that would mean a lot."

Chester said, "It was really important for me putting the show together that I was looking at it from a fan's perspective, and I've been to shows where I've had to run back and forth between stages like Mike was saying, and it's really annoying. And it just kind of really cheapens the band's motivation to perform really hard, knowing that there's another band somebody wants to see going on half way through their set. So I think that was really important, but even beyond that, you know, we've got a lot of bands, from Madina Lake who's just coming out and building their fanbase as we speak, to a band like Mindless Self Indulgence which has been kicking around for as long as we've been kicking around and they have a very strong fanbase, very unique sound, it's amazing how they all work together and they're all so positive and the kids getting there early, I think everyday there's an average between 4 and 5 thousand kids that are showing up at noon to watch these bands, which is unheard of, and a lot of them are saying they've been on other tours where it just wasn't this much excitement this early and they feel like they've really gotten the thing they've come out to do, they've accomplished that goal. And it's really great to see the guys in Madina Lake and now they've got 4 or 5 hundred kids standing in their meet and greet lines everyday, it's just growing and it's awesome to watch that happen and it's great that this is the place that that can be done, so I'm glad they're gonna get out of here and go tell other bands that they tour with about Projekt Revolution and what a positive experience it is and you know, this year has just been a great bunch of guys, a great group of bands, the crews have been awesome, and it's just been probably one of the most enjoyable experiences I've ever had touring."

Chester commented on the lack of hip-hop artists on Projekt Revolution 2007 saying fans didn't seem to be that into the hip-hop artists on previous tours. "I personally noticed in the past, with the exception of maybe Cypress Hill and Snoop Dogg, there was the enthusiasm of the hip-hop artists, but there really wasn't a lot of overall excitement, and I personally felt like the show kind of went into a lull in some cases, and I really wanted this to be exciting, energy-filled. I want the band to be able to feed off of the crowd. I don't want to have to warm them back up after a show."^[1]

Releases

Linkin Park has several releases from this tour.

For LP Underground 7 in November of 2007, the band featured ten live tracks from the tour, spanning from different shows including Toronto, Hartford, Syracuse, West Palm Beach, Woodlands, Atlanta, Holmdel and Raleigh.

LPU 7: "This year's Projekt Revolution was arguably our most ambitious and most successful tour to date. Every single band on the Main Stage and the Revolution Stage brought something incredibly unique to the overall experience. As our band was faced with the challenge of playing last each night, we pushed ourselves to put on the best show possible. This meant tailoring every show differently around the framework of three distinct set lists. We were so excited about the response that we began to professionally record these performances, making them available to the fans in attendance at each show. To commemorate the seventh anniversary of the Linkin Park Underground, we've expanded this year's CD to ten tracks. Included are our favorite versions of the songs we performed this summer. Each track represents a special piece of a special night shared with our most dedicated supporters. Thank you for being part of the LPU."

The band also released live tracks from the tour on the Shadow Of The Day and Leave Out All The Rest single CDs. Bleed It Out from the Holmdel, NJ stop of the tour was included on the Shadow Of The Day Single. In Pieces from the Bristow, VA stop was included on the Leave Out All The Rest Single, as well as Leave Out All The Rest from Clarkston, MI being on the Single as well.

Linkin Park also included Pushing Me Away from Dallas, TX on their Hybrid Theory - Live Around The World compilation in 2012.

Champs offered an exclusive USB drive that contained four live tracks from the band, all taken from this tour, in 2008. The tracks included Given Up, Leave Out All The Rest and No More Sorrow from Clarkston, MI, as well as In Pieces from Bristow, VA. A laminate could be obtained at the Revolution Village (by the Revolution Stage) and then later exchanged at Champs stores for the USB drive. The full tracklisting was:

Linkin Park

- Given Up (Live from Clarkston 2007)

- Leave Out All The Rest (Live from Clarkston 2007)

- No More Sorrow (Live from Clarkston 2007)

- In Pieces (Live from Bristow 2007)

Busta Rhymes feat. Linkin Park

- We Made It.

The Bravery

- This is Not the End

Ashes Divide

- Enemies

Atreyu

- Blow

10 Years

- Beautiful

Stage

Setup

Gear

Rehearsals

Band rehearsal

July 16th - 20th LA Forum

Production rehearsal

July 23th in Auburn, WA

Itineraries

Crew

Name	Job
Rob McDermott	Manager
Mike Amato	Tour Manager
Tonto Genovese	Assistant Tour Manager
George Hundleby	Band Security
Tom Robb	Band Security
Mark Fiore	Videographer
"Church"	Director of CB Activities
Jim Digby	PR Production Manager
Robert Long	LP Production Manager
Kim Burkart	PR Production Coordinator
Molly Brickson	LP Production Coordinator
Mark Wise	Security Director / Village Production Manager
Beth Gibson	Tour Accountant
Ciaran Flaherty	Live Nation Rep
Angel Aguirre	Lead Carpenter
Michael Dunn	Lead Rigger
Dylan Ely	Pro Tools Technician
Jason LeMiere	DJ Technician
Kevin "Tater" McCarthy	Monitor Engineer
Ethan Merfy	Stage Manager
Sean Paden	Guitar Technician
Kimo Proudfoot	Video Director
Ted Regier	Bass Technician
Sooner Routhier	Lighting Director
Kurt Schneck	Guitar Technician
Athena Simpson	Assistant Production Assistant
Susie Steadman	Wardrobe / Dressing Room Technician
Brad Stonner	Drum Technician
Ken "Pooch" Van Druten	FOH Engineer
Paul White	Audio Technician
Geoff Frood	Lighting Crew Chief
Mark Abra	Lighting LED Tech
Glen Rubert	Lighting Synchro Tech
Mike Kapler	Lighting Dimmer Tech
Christopher Hollis	Lighting Tech
Travis Braudaway	Lighting Tech
Shane Crowl	Lighting FOH Tech
Erin Charlton	Lighting Tech
Adrian Brister	Video Director
Park Seward	Video Engineer
Kieran Murphy	Video Cameras
Chris West	Video Technician
William Duncan	Video Cameras
Ryan Ratajczak	Video Engineer
John Cooper	Main Stage Audio FOH Tech
John Bruey	Main Stage Audio Monitor Tech
Anthony Clinton	Main Stage Audio Stage Tech
Evan McElhinney	Main Stage Audio System Tech
Casey Long	Main Stage Carpenter
Hugh "Hugo" Rempell	Backstage Coordinator
Jordan Lovis	Merch Main Contact
Jill McCutchan	Merchandise
Jeff Zorn	Merchandise
Marcel Matthews	Venue Security
Jesus "Jesse" Calleros	Venue Security
Kevin Zoellner	Venue Security
Shawn Shebetka	Revolution Stage Manager
Frank "Wolfie" Madina	Rev Stage Carpenter
Mikah Martin	Rev Stage Ass't Carp
Maruice Montalvo	Sponsorship Coordinator
Rob Zuchowski	Rev Stage Audio FOH Tech
Monty Carlo	Rev Stage Audio Monitor Tech
Greg Lopez	Rev Stage Audio Stage Tech
Matthew Silva	Kleege Stage Tech
Joe Lesik	Kleege Stage Driver
Chris Mitchell	Catering Crew Chief
Mark Foffano	Lighting Design Team
Steve Cohen	Lighting Design Team
Curtis Cox	Lighting Design Team
Ben Cabot	Audio Consultant
Jochen Sommer	Audio Consultant