Headliner:
Linkin Park
Also featured: Story of the Year,
Hoobastank
POD
Date:
01-27-04
Venue:
Palace of Auburn Hills
Rating:
TBA Stars
Reviewer:
Chad Malone

The night of the Meteora Tour pretty much started off right after my interview with Hoobastank. I went back into the lobby of the venue, there were hundreds of Linkin Park fans crowding the ticket takers. I was waiting near the box office when about 10 Hoobastank fans crowded me. It turned out that they were from the Hoobastank fan club. Within a minute, the man who escorted me to my interview showed up and asked to borrow my pen and started taking roll call like a school field trip. He said "I'll give you your pen when we get in there." .oO(In where?!)

Soon I found myself being shuffled along with this Hoobastank Fan Club to a very select meet & greet function with Hoobastank where they were to perform an acoustic song for all 20 or so of us as well as sign autographs and take pictures with all of us. Doug and Dan of Hoobastank blessed us with an incredible acoustic version of "Out of Control", which is quite a hard song to transition from what it is to what we heard! It was an incredible experience!

Onto the actual concert... Story of the Year came out to their opener song on their CD "And The Hero Will Drown" and completely wowed the audience. Dan Marsala and the rest of the band has SO much energy on stage that they could rock your socks off if they had sung Mary Had A Little Lamb. During their second song, Dan jumped off stage and was running back and forth to the audience, something that not a lot of bands do anymore. I am proud to announce that my favorite song by them, "In The Shadows" literally shook the walls. And a small tear shed down my face when I heard the great sound of a great Metallica cover of "Enter Sandman."

They came busting out on stage to an entire arena filled with screaming fans. During their second song, "Crawling In the Dark," the bass drum had so much power that literally every time it hit, I thought my knees were going to give out. To watch these guys in concert was just an awesome experience. It's one thing to hear their music on a CD, but to feel their music in person is something completely different. Their third song was "Same Direction" (one of my personal favorites.) Doug prepped their fourth song: "You may have recently heard this song on MTV or your local radio stations... it's called 'Out Of Control'." They continued to play a great mixture of both of their albums, but more on "The Reason" side, for obvious reasons. After their forty minute set they exited the stage and everyone was left feeling a little empty that they were gone.

Unfortunately, due to certain circumstances I was unable to see the rest of the show, but from first hand accounts, I heard it was awesome. I don't really think it would have been necessary to do a review on the Linkin Park set, just because... well... it's Linkin Park and you know if you like them, they f&@#ng rock and put on a great show. So I suggest going to see the Meteora Tour, but make sure you get there on time so you can see Story of the Year and Hoobastank suck your energy dry!