Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda returns to China on tour this month
In association with Live Nation
Photographs: courtesy Live Nation
How many times have you seen someone walking down the street here wearing a Linkin Park T-shirt? Admittedly, some of that may well be due to an over-production issue at the factory around the time the nu metal outfit released their Minutes to Midnight album, but the band has genuinely enjoyed an enduring fan-base in China since first performing here over a decade ago.
Linkin Park made their live debut in China back in 2007 and built a huge following across the country, eventually touring to Shanghai and Beijing, but also Chongqing, Nanjing, and Shenzhen in 2015. Their music struck a chord with fans all over China, while their appearance on the soundtrack to the Transformers movies, which were also incredibly successful here, only served to cement their popularity.
The return of co-frontman Mike Shinoda to Beijing and Shanghai this August, just over a year after the suicide of long-time musical partner Chester Bennington, is therefore set to be a special event. Arriving as part of his Post Traumatic Tour, Shinoda’s first solo shows in China – and only his second ever live performance in the capital – seem likely to be emotional affairs following the outpouring of grief here in the wake of Bennington’s death.
https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?vid=c0026pwgew0&width=500&height=375&auto=0Video: 'Ghosts' via QQ
It’s clear that for Shinoda, this tour – and the album it’s named after – are a mode of catharsis after such trauma. ‘A week after Chester passed, the idea of the studio was scary,’ he told Kerrang. ‘And it wasn’t just the idea of attempting to make a song and being overwhelmed by those memories. There’s another layer of fear for artists in this situation that is, “What if I can’t make anything good [without that person]?”’
Shinoda formed Linkin Park in mid-’90s LA, but it was only after Bennington joining the fold at the end of that decade that the band went on to find global fame. Together, they went on to sell millions of copies of albums such as Hybrid Theory and undertook critically acclaimed collaborations with the likes of Jay-Z along the way.
Yet Shinoda admits to not knowing what the future now holds for Linkin Park. ‘I’m unable to say what will happen with the band,’ he told Vulture recently. ‘There’s really just no answer, and it’s funny because if I even say anything about the band’s future, that becomes the headline, which is stupid because the answer is there is no answer.’
For now, Shinoda is focused on his solo work. But that doesn't mean he’s forgotten Linkin Park’s China connection. In addition to ensuring dates in Beijing and Shanghai were a key part of his first international tour under his own name, his self-directed video for intensely personal track ‘About You’ – the third single released from Post Traumatic – was almost entirely filmed in Shanghai.
https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?vid=h002668wgxz&width=500&height=375&auto=0Video: 'About You' via QQ
And if the album sounds a little heavy, coming so soon after the death of his bandmate, it’s something Shinoda is conscious of. ‘It starts in a dark place,’ he told GQ when promoting the album. ‘[But it] comes out of that, to some place a little more open and broad and bright.’
His return to China may therefore be an emotional event for many Linkin Park fans here, but it ought to also be a celebration of sorts. Either way, his debut solo performances in the country will be nights to remember.
https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?vid=n07385uccn5&width=500&height=375&auto=0Video: courtesy Live Nation
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