linkin park in bangkok

last night i went to see linkin park here in bangkok- it was a great show and the biggest concert in thailand for almost 10 years. the venue was the impact muang thong thani convention center, but was held outside so they could accommodate the capacity crowd of 26,000 people.

as it has been raining in bangkok almost every day we went armed with towels and zip-lock bags to put our valuables in, but amazingly enough the weather held out and it didn't rain. was really hot, though, and the linkin park guys looked pretty tired by the end of the show.

the doors actually opened at 3pm with several thai bands taking advantage of linkin park's equipment to play from around 5pm or so. we arrived at 7pm and of course had to park a mile away- walking in we passed by a starbucks in a bit of an obscure location. can't think it gets much business when there aren't any conventions or concerts going on.

there were lots of people milling around outside and things were a bit chaotic- lots of vocational school types which made us wonder if there would be any trouble after the concert. Inside everything was pretty well organized, with big defined boundaries between the different admission areas. I thought perhaps the crowd would break through the barriers like in the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert, but everyone was quite well behaved.

we found a good spot about 100 feet from the stage with a group of kids in front, so we could see the stage clearly. we kept having to shift places as people would stand right in front of us though, totally blocking our view. at one point a girl stood in front of me, so i started coughing in a sars-like fit which actually worked as she moved out of the way. was all for naught as when the concert started everyone rushed forward about 15 feet or so anyway.

at 8:20 an announcement in english said the concert would begin in 10 minutes. this was followed by a slideshow on the enormous screens either side of the stage saying what we weren't supposed to bring in- including weapons, drugs, and cameras. clearly the camera ban was being sparingly enforced, and many people were taking photos with their mobile phones during the show as you can see in my (ahem) pics.

the crowd was warmed up by some alice in chains, henry rollins, and tool and at the end of every song people would cheer thinking the concert was about to begin. finally the king's anthem played, followed by... more warm up music and the same announcement as before except in thai this time. we had all been given small glo-necklaces without the little plastic piece to make a necklace out of it- so the bored folks started throwing the bracelets around. one or two at first and after a while everyone tossed their bracelets towards the stage. was actually quite pretty but i'm sure the guys in front didn't appreciate the rain of glow bracelets coming down on their heads.

after probably 30min or so the music was cut, linkin park came on stage and the crowd went absolutely nuts. they (linkin park, not the crowd) launched into a series of high-energy songs (linkin1.avi - 631k) and for a good 15min everyone was going crazy until the energy level dropped a bit. the floor underneath us was concrete but my friend and i noticed it pulsing beneath us as everyone jumped up and down.

some pics from the show:

the concert ended after around 80min or so and ran pretty much without long breaks. chester seemed tired at one point- asking the crowd to sing for a while. high energy level (linkin2.avi - 1645k) through most of the show and was overall a really good time. about 3/4 of the way through, linkin park announced that this was the biggest crowd they have ever played for when they were headlining a show.

finally the concert finished with a small fireworks show. the encore was actually wish from nine inch nails, which seemed to leave everyone a bit stunned- really well done though, have a listen for yourself- (linkin3.avi - 902k).

definitely a fun time and great to be able to see a group like linkin park out here in se asia. it took us 90min to get out of the area and back on the highway. while we were driving back we passed a small police-escorted convoy of vans, some with blacked-out windows. one van's windows weren't blacked out and there was a farang (foreigner) inside looking out who may or may not have been rob. sorry, no pic as I was driving, but i know they were staying at the dusit thani. the night before the concert they had booked a table at mystique but wound up going to bed (their bed, not bed) instead- too bad as we had by accident booked the table next to them for my friend's birthday.

haven't yet seen any reviews of the show yet but these two articles give good background info.