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Linkin Park Live: My Experience at From Zero World Tour (November 2025)
This post is part of Fannish 50 in 2025 series (Masterlist here).
I have finally sat down to write into words all the emotions I went through at the Linkin Park concert last Sunday. It took me a bit because the 3 days preceding the concert were really intense and as such, I don't think I truly realized the amount of Feel Good chemicals my brain needed or I couldn't really wrapped my head around the fact that I saw one of my favorite bands live. So anyway, here's a retelling of Sunday November 2nd as told with a little bit of distance from the event itself but fresh enough that I can recall it vividly. For posterity.
Currently listening to: Linkin Park From Zero Tour Santiago Setlist. Read below for an extremely detailed account of the concert.
I woke up around 9 am because I was so excited about the concert that I couldn't sleep anymore. I got dressed in my black cargo pants and Linkin Park t-shirt, put on a choker (that's literally a fence chain lol) and the waiting started. I think I had breakfast, I don't really remember, but I do know I tried to study for an hour without much success. Time passed quickly and suddenly it was lunch time, where I tried to eat something substantial to tide me over the rest of the day but the potato salad sat heavily in my stomach and after a few bites I let it go. I smoked a joint. I drank a beer. I was so anxious I was lighting up cigarette after cigarette. Funny thing is, over a year ago I quit smoking but ever since my phone got stolen again, I've relapsed HARD into tobacco. Not that it mattered at the moment, I was about to have a panic attack over leaving the house on my own to go to a concert on my own. Now this wasn't by far my first concert alone (I crossed the Atlantic for a Festival on my own in 2016 ffs) but it was the first time I felt so vulnerable going out so it was definitely a first.
I asked my partner to drop me off at the bus stop and I left around 5:15 pm. It took me around an hour to get to the venue, where the whole process of going in went smooth as fuck. Literally, the easiest time I've had going into a concert. I had a General Admission standing ticket, so I was prepared to lie on the floor until the concert started. Luckily for me, I liked the warm up acts, so I didn't have to wait long. Somewhere around 6:30pm I drank a beer, bought a veggie burger and waited walking around until Tenemos Explosivos, the local warm up act, came out at 7:15. Excellent stuff. I'd like to invite everyone who has ever listened to metal to listen to Tenemos Explosivos. It's a heavenly blend of politically charged lyrics with heavy drums and guitar riffs to go insane for.
At around 7:50, it was Poppy's turn to delight us. I've been casually listening to Poppy for the last year and I was surprised at how much fun I had at her short set. I'm definitely going to be listening more of her and, if she ever comes back, I'm going to her concert. I'm sure of that. When Poppy sang V.A.N., I went ballistic lmao. I completely forgot about the Phone Incident and its fallout. I danced and sang and headbanged like I was alone at the concert. A lot of people didn't know Poppy, or knew little of her, so after her set ended I got a couple of questions asking me about her and I had to be all "bestie, I'm a casual Poppy listener, I just come to concerts to have fun like it's the end of the world even if I don't know the artist very well. Who's to say I won't fall in love?" This earned me some nods of respect and smiles.
Finally, it was the last leg of the evening: waiting for Linkin Park to play. I bought some fries from a vendor since I was getting hungry and then I started singing to the songs they play while we wait. Ten minutes before the show, a countdown appeared on the screen. I was vibrating with anticipation. Just before the concert started, Golden by Huntrix came in the pre-show playlist and everyone started singing. The countdown reached 10 and we all counted backwards until the Linkin Park Intro with elements of Castle of Glass started.
I was immediately moved to tears by listening to Chester's voice echo in the stadium, filled to the brim with new and old fans alike. People started echoing the words in the intro. A familiar mix started and suddenly, the guitars and the drums announced Somewhere I Belong. The stadium trembled with the screaming of thousands of fans losing their minds. I was among the many screaming the lyrics from the very beginning. Once the chorus dropped, even more people joined.
By the time Crawling came out, everyone was already pumped and thousands of voiced sang along Emily as she screamed the chorus with as much passion as Chester once did. When she sang "I've felt this way before" the stadium vibrated with "SO INSECURE" loud enough to bring the walls down. I sang loud enough that I felt my vocal chords beg me to stop. I did not.
They played the From Zero Intro and the crowd went insane with The Emptiness Machine, proving that fans were not only there out of nostalgia, but out of respect of the bands current trajectory as well. Where I was, you could see the older fans be a bit skeptical as it started, but then, some of us who have been in the game long enough that we've lost count, were singing as if this was one of the many LP classics. I screamed my throat raw with the last chorus of The Emptiness Machine, drawing many a look from other concert goers when I went all in. Here's the thing though: I was having a great time and even if they found me strange I was completely unbothered by it.
The Catalyst made me scream as loud as it ever does (songs that age like wine, am I right?), then in Burn It Down, things became crazier if it was even possible. As the chorus came in, I started jumping like crazy with the beats, singing at the top of my lungs like I was singing for my life. I'm 100% sure at least one of the people who were filming HATED me by this point because I was singing loud enough that probably all of her recordings featured me lol.
When they sang Two Faced, I ended up in a mosh pit of my own making, where it was me, a bunch of 20-somethings and the one 50-something dude who gave his entire life in the pit. I was also the only not-dude in this pit. It was awesome, everyone treated each other kindly and we were literally jumping around hugging each other like old friends as we screamed lyrics as loud as Emily did. At this point, my feet were completely busted, by the way. Not that it stopped me from losing it dancing as When They Come From Me started. This other girl who went on her own was there shyly trying to dance, so I figured out "eh, who cares?" and danced with her until she started jumping up and down and having fun as well. I didn't even ask her name later, we just hyped each other for the rest of the concert singing and dancing and jumping and headbanging.
When the first notes of One Step Closer started, the stadium seemed to be vibrating in a whole new frequency. The public lost it with the chorus. I found myself in another pit jumping and up down and hugging some shirtless dude (idk man, this was chaotic as fuck). Poppy came out to sing with Emily and Mike and the public was in a frenzy, so when the "shut up when I'm talking to you" came, the "I'm about to break" was louder than anything I've heard in my life in a concert. Excellent stuff. Would go back in time to experience this song live again for the first time at least 10 times.
They finished the main set with Bleed It Out, complete with me headbanging next to the 50-something from before who seemed to have endless energy. That guy and I exchanged only a few words ("do you have a cigarette?" "no, sorry, babe") but he and Previously Shy Girl were my concert soulmates at the moment. We were vibing. We were a whole ass Vibe. I don't know if they remember me as anything else but the girl who screamed too much, but I hope they're having a good day today.
The encore was 3 excellent songs: Papercut, In The End, and Faint. Papercut made every older fan lose their minds. As someone who discovered Linkin Park at age 9, this is one of the songs that first caught my attention, so you can bet your ass I was jumping and headbanging and generally losing my mind.
In The End was the cherry on top. The whole stadium seemed to hold its collective breath after Papercut in a way that when In The End started, the screaming was deafening. That chorus was insane. The pits were insane. I opted to stay in the edges of the pit for this one but I was literally rapping those lyrics like I was a stripper at a club and rent was due the next day. The bridge was beautiful. We all seemed to sing in tandem, tearing our vocal chords to shreds with the last chorus. I'm pretty sure Chester could hear it all the way Beyond. I was in tears by then, moved by the energy of the concert while missing Chester like a lung.
The concert ended with a bang when Faint started. They said it would be their last song and we all acted like it. There were multiple massive pits of people jumping together, singing and enjoying our last moment with Linkin Park.
As the stage light went dark and the exit lights were on, we all exited the stadium in an orderly fashion that would be envied at other shows. I could barely bend my knees to go up and down the exit stairs. I found the van that would take me home in about 15-20 minutes. I was so immensely happy that all the aches and pains I felt were unimportant. I got home around 1 am, where my partner was waiting for me with a cup of warm tea.
If you ask me for pictures of videos, all I can say is that I was too busy having fun to get my phone out. Did it annoy me when some people filmed above their heads part of the set obstructing my view? A little. Did I really care about it in the end? No lmao. I really was too busy having fun to care about much by then.
I went on to sleep for 10 hours and missed my lessons on Monday, but I feel like I really needed to recover after getting home with hardly any voice and my busted knees. It might be true what they say about your knees not being the same after 30 because it's the third day after the concert and they still feel tired. Thankfully, I can move them just fine, it's just like my knees need an extra few days to completely recover from the massive shock they were in.
All in all, it was a GREAT concert. I would definitely go see Linkin Park live again.