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The popular American rock band Linkin Park will hold its first concert in Korea next Wednesday at 8 p.m. at the Olympic Gymnastics Stadium. The group won a Grammy award last year for best rock performance, and one of its members, Joe Hahn, is a Korean-American who does the deejaying and programming for the band. Hahn¡¯s presence only adds to the band¡¯s popularity in Korea. On Tuesday, the band performed for the first time in Yokohama, Japan. The 14,000 seats were filled with raving Japanese in their 20s, who stood for the entire 70-minute show, which was held at an outdoor venue.
Despite the chilly weather, most Japanese fans wore short-sleeve T-shirts and had towels hung around their necks, ready to "sweat it out." At 7:45 the lights blacked out before a pinlight was turned on Hahn, who worked up the atmosphere with elaborate scratching. The first song was "Don¡¯t Stay." The second vocal Chester Bennington and rapper Mike Sinoda began singing, and the crowd started jumping together as if on cue. In the middle of the song, Bennington introduced Hahn, who responded with intense deejay play.
The concert went on without and intermission as the band performed songs from their first and second albums such as "Points of Authority," "Numb" and "Crawling." Bennington¡¯s voice reached its peak late in the show, singing simple pop melodies one minute and then belting out hardcore metal the next. Four of the members jumped around the stage from right to left, keeping up the frenzy, and Joe Hahn produced strong sounds with his live deejaying as his hands flew around the deejay box like a chimpanzee¡¯s.
The group eventually played their last song, "In the End." However, the audience refused to go home. The six-man band then performed two encores - "A Place for My Head," and then the familiar "One Step Closer." The 14,000 fans started jumping all over again.
(Han Hyun-woo, hwhan@chosun.com )
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