linkin park - live in texas
you have to hand it to this motley crew. 2 sudio albums. 1 remix album and already onto a live album. in fairness though i suspect that the masses of folks who bought their previous albums are gonna lap this up. prior to hearing this i thought that i didn't know any linkin park tracks. then after 5 songs i realised i knew them all, obviously they have cherry picked the tracks from their previous releases. on the plus side the live stuff sounds stunning. the band are tight as a ducks behind. everything sounds great. in fact so good that one wonders just how mush touching up in the studio has been performed .. is this duran duran 'arena' all over again ? the lead singer has a voice that ranges from well handled melodic tuneful through to full on rageful angst screaming so predominant in most nu-metal, but the matching of the styles works far better than i would ever expect revealing the bands talents for a proper song.
as well as the concert in audio form there is the added extra of a dvd which shows them doing it live in front of the hoards. eeek. scary as fuck. glad i have it on dvd and not there in real life. the crowd are predominantly there for headliners metallica as the band were supporting them on the stadium tour but after several tracks there are vast sections of the crowd doing the regulation moshing dance risking life and limb by the look of it. the fact that you can see the band all doing their thang quickly dispels the duran duran live album touch up theory and thus the feeling of respect is increased. unfortunately the dvd also reveals the lack of any real stage presence and complete lack of a show as this was recorded in full daylight reducing any possibilities of atmosphere, but the quality songs presented carry the whole thing in the right direction.
ok, i wont be going out and getting the bands back catalogue (though their remix album does look mightily interesting now..), but as greatest hits package done live-n-loud this is a good addition to anybody's collection of modern angry rock music. and, perfect for blasting through your dolby 5.1 system on a miserable rainy day.