| Middle Aged Man at a Rock Gig |
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Liam Stringer is in way over his head at a Linkin Park concert. (Poor bloke. Ed)
Parents are often guilty of attempting to live life through their children as if they have been granted a second chance to do things differently, given an opportunity to make different choices or take an alternative path leading to a perceived better outcome. I don’t think there will be many amateur musos out there, brimming over with latent ambition, who haven’t at some point secretly imagined their own child growing up to be a world class singer or player or a pop star even and that this very notion isn’t buried deeply in the back of their minds when insisting a fractious son or daughter puts in just another ten minutes practice. Likewise, it’s partly why amateur musos delight when they see their offspring’s musical interests develop and why we fall over ourselves to encourage and assist and; occasionally, coerce. For these reasons, when my fifteen year old son Nathan, acknowledging my existence on the planet for the first time in three days, asked me, completely unprompted, if I would take him to a music concert in Manchester I was completely overwhelmed, broke down and blubbed like a baby! ‘Yes, yes of course, just something in my eye that’s all!’ I flapped, wiping back the tears. Once I’d recovered and got a proper grip of myself I excitedly enquired as to who was performing. I was not overly surprised or concerned to realise I had never heard of them, a band called Linkin Park. ‘I’ll get the tickets’ I volunteered. And so, within a week I acquired four seated tickets within the Manchester Evening News (MEN) Arena for the princely sum of £35 each. I have to say I was impressed, a big venue and a high ticket price would suggest an act of some acclaim. While I like to think I keep my finger on the pulse I’ve long given up trying to be informed of every new band that comes along. It was time for a little internet background research which (I’m prepared to go out on a limb and assume that you know nothing about Linkin Park either) I will share with you:  Linkin Park is a rock band from Agoura Hills, California. Since their formation in 1996, the band has sold more than fifty million albums and won two Grammy Awards. (I’m liking it so far). Their style intertwines the nu metal and rap rock sound with influences and elements from hip-hop, alternative rock, and electronica, utilizing programming and synthesizers. (Not sure I follow?). They are best known for their use of two separate vocalists, one rapping whilst the other performs growling and screaming vocals common in various forms of metal. God help me! On the night of the gig I nervously queued at the entrance to the MEN. Nathan, his sister and his best friend were some way back in the line, desperate not to be seen with ‘the Old Man’. I was a little shocked to be frisked at the door but then felt that edgy sense of reassurance, similar to the aftermath of an airport security check, knowing that I’m safer as a consequence. Once inside you couldn’t help but pick up on the buzz. That excitement you feel when you are joining thousands of others in one place to share a monumental occasion. I scanned faces in an effort to gage the average age of the throng. Mostly under 30 but I wasn’t the only middle aged dad doing his duty and took heart. The MEN Arena has a capacity of 19000 and is one of the biggest indoor venue’s in Europe. Watching it fill is an awesome site almost worthy of the entrance fee alone. When Linkin Park took to the stage, the crowd were deafening, the atmosphere electric, the band announced themselves: “Good evening Man-ches-ter! I can tell, it’s going to be a cool night coz you guys are just so-fucking-on-it!!” Oh boy! I strapped myself in and braced myself. The volume of the opening chords ripped into my chest. It was ear bleedingly loud. It took me seconds to identify any kind of song structure or melody and the screaming, the terrible, terrible screaming!! Nevertheless, 19000 people surrounding me simultaneously rose to their feet and started jumping up and down. I couldn’t see a bloody thing! I got up worried that, what with my back and all, standing up for an hour and half would be torture (never mind doing the pogo!). After about thirty minutes I sat down again, settling for a view of about a third of the stage in comfort. After performing three encores, (two too many!), Linkin Park hurled their plastics water bottles into the crowd igniting a number of minor scuffles and left the stage. From what I witnessed, 18,950 young people had the evening of a lifetime. I imagined that possibly half of the fifty remaining people over the age of 40 found the experience interesting (from a purely scientific perspective), while the rest of us would no doubt be praying the ringing in our ears wasn’t permanent. On the way back to the car the kids reminisced excitedly about the concert. It was clear they had been moved by the whole experience and while it wasn’t the symphony or even ‘jazzy’ Jamie Cullum I was glad I had endured and knew I would do the same all over again next time. Liam Stringer www.linkinpark.com March 2008 |
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