Linkin Park to finish Asian tour in Korea
Seoul has hosted concerts by the likes of DJ A-Trak, The RZA, Marilyn Manson, Mariah Carey and Xzibit in the last year. And the city continues to attract internationally renowned artists who in the past overlooked Korea during their Asian tours.The next hot band to make a stopover here is Linkin Park, the auditory revolutionaries who are acclaimed for their trademark blend of rock and hip-hop ― a mix other groups, like Limp Bizkit, have miserably failed at. Known for their energetic stage presence and interaction with their crowds, Linkin Park, it seems, does not know how to fail an audience.
Not a bad rap for a band who thought they would be on the independent grind for years before being noticed by a major label.
After their 2000 debut, “Hybrid Theory,” earned them international prestige and a hefty armload of Grammys and MTV awards (DJ Joe Hahn was among the first Asians to win a Grammy in the rock field), the group turned around and remixed the whole album, in one of popular music’s more innovative endeavors of late. The result was a predominantly underground hip-hop gem called “Reanimation,” which came out last year.
The summer of 2002 saw the subsequent release of countless remix discs. Some were tasteless, like P. Diddy’s “We Invented the Remix” and Jennifer Lopez’s “J to the L-O.” Others were briefly interesting, but none quite as ambitious as “Reanimation.” Linkin Park had allowed musicians like Orgy’s Jay Gordon and Korn’s Johnathan Davis and hip-hop philosophers such as Pharoahe Monch, Chali 2Na and Aceyalone to dissect and reassemble practically every track, every note and every lyric of “Hybrid Theory.” “Reanimation” was, by all rights, an entirely new album.
The band’s much-anticipated follow-up, “Meteora,” swiftly swept up the charts. With extensive sampling and mantric lyrics, the album delivers a shorter, more concise package than “Hybrid Theory.” While many aggro-rock purists argue that the album sounds unforgivably poppy and formulaic, “Meteora” is unpretentious and reflects the band’s impulse to embrace sounds that other bands shy away from.
Written largely on tour buses and re-worked mere days before release, “Meteora” is more succinct and straightforward ― a welcome foil to the elaborate “Hybrid Theory.” Following the release of “Meteora,” the band embarked on two widely publicized U.S. tours, “The LP Underground Tour” and “Projekt Revolution Tour 2003,” which featured Mudvayne, Xzibit and Blindside.
by Phil Chang
Linkin Park will hold their first Korean concert Wednesday at 8 p.m. at Olympic Park’s gymnasium complex to wrap up their Asia tour. Tickets can be purchased at Ticket Park (www.ticketpark.com) and more details are available at Access Entertainment’s Web site, www.allaccess.co.kr.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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