| North American Summer Shows 2015 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tour by Linkin Park | |||||||
| Type: | Headline | ||||||
| Associated album: | The Hunting Party | ||||||
| Start: | May 9, 2015 | ||||||
| End: | June 30, 2015 | ||||||
| Number of shows: | 9 | ||||||
| Cancelled shows: | 1 | ||||||
| |||||||
Introduction
The 2015 North American Summer Shows did not equal a full tour for Linkin Park. The band spent most weekends of May and June performing fly dates to shows around North America. Nine shows in all were scheduled but only eight were performed, due to Rocklahoma being canceled. With seven festivals in the United States and Canada being booked, this was the first time the band had played so many festivals outside of Europe in their career.
Before the tour
Linkin Park managed to perform three shows of their North American Tour in January for The Hunting Party before the rest of the tour was canceled. A break ensued from January to May so Chester could heal his injury which caused the cancellation, but he did go out with Stone Temple Pilots for a full tour in April.
Summary
It's hard to believe but the band had never headlined more than one U.S. festival at a time in their career, usually saving festivals for international countries. They have played certain festivals, like Bamboozle in 2007 and a lot of KROQ festivals in California, but not any of these popular rock festivals (two and three days) across the country.
The first show of the tour was at Rock in Rio USA, the debut of the incredibly popular Rock in Rio festival (Brazil, Portugal) in the United States. The first weekend was rock-oriented with No Doubt and Metallica headlining while the second was pop-oriented with Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars headlining. Linkin Park played as direct support for Metallica and debuted a new setlist. Papercut opened for the first time since the 2014 Download Festival, with a brand new "buildup" intro and to the delight of fans, A Line In The Sand was finally debuted live after being a setlist addition rumor for months. This was Chester's first true test being back on stage with Linkin Park after breaking his ankle in January.
Throughout these shows, the band made small tweaks to the setlist. Rebellion and Points Of Authority rotated in-and-out, Crawling was performed in Mexico, and in the full headlining setlist, Linkin Park kept From The Inside from January and added in Breaking The Habit for the first time on The Hunting Party's touring cycle, and debuted part of the Steve Aoki collaboration Darker Than Blood as an intro to Burn It Down.
Unfortunately, Brad missed the Rock on the Range show due to a family matter back at home, and his tech Benjamin filled in for him.
The Rocklahoma performance was going to be the first Linkin Park show in Oklahoma since 2008, but due to severe storms and tornado watches, the band's set was initially heavily delayed (over three hours) and then outright canceled. The festival evacuated the festival grounds twice during the day ultimately leading up to the cancellation of the festival.
Between the Canada show and the shows in Mexico, Mike surprised fans by releasing a new song Welcome and reviving Fort Minor. He played Conan on the 22nd before the Mexico City show to debut the song live, and the following day it was added to the middle of the Linkin Park setlists. The two headlining shows in Mexico were a return to the same venues Linkin Park played in 2012 for the Living Things touring cycle.
The band showed their generous side at Loudwire in Colorado - A Day To Remember had a show in Sweden two days prior to that performance and due to American Airlines misplacing their bags, they only had one bag total make the trip to Colorado. Before the show, Linkin Park let them borrow some acoustic guitars since they had to piece together gear to perform the show.
The show at Rock in Rio USA was webcasted by Yahoo and the show at Rock on the Range was aired live on AXS TV.
Live Debuts
- A Line In The Sand [2015.05.09 Las Vegas, NV]
- Darker Than Blood [2015.05.17 Columbus, OH]
- Welcome [2015.06.23 Mexico City, Mexico] (Linkin Park debut. Fort Minor debut was at 2015.06.22 Burbank, CA)
Memorable Moments
When the band came out for the encore in Monterrey Chester dedicated the rest of the show to Christopher, a fan who passed away the day before the show after fulfilling his dream of meeting the band in Mexico City. Over 71,000+ fans shared his Facebook photo/post so that he could win a Meet & Greet at that show. Chester said that it was a pleasure to be able to meet him and play for him.
Crew
| Name | Job |
|---|---|
| Jim Digby | Director of Touring |
| Ken "Pooch" Van Druten | FOH Engineer |
| Kevin "Tater" McCarthy | Monitor Engineer |
| Mark Fiore | Videographer |