In the midst of a global nu-metal revival, Linkin Park enter their most exciting chapter yet, proving themselves to 75,000 fans at their biggest headline show to date…
Words by Ali Grice | July 03, 2025
In a bumper evening for rock music in the capital, (Iron Maiden are concurrently playing East London’s largest stadium), London’s Wembley Stadium was packed to the rafters with fans eagerly awaiting Linkin Park’s return to a UK stage following their O2 Arena performance just last September. Unbelievably, it is part of the same world tour, expressing a long-known truth about Linkin Park – their allegiance and care for their UK fans.
Despite the band touring for the past two decades (even playing London’s O2 Arena five times throughout that period), tonight marks their biggest headline show to date. This feat pushes the envelope from the formidable 20,000 capacity venue of the O2 to now nearly selling out the sprawling 75,000 capacity Wembley Stadium, typically reserved for pop darlings and regarded as neutral turf for national football’s biggest tournaments (the band are no stranger to this however, appearing as the opening act for May’s Champions League Final in Munich).
Contrast this feat with the recent unmissable hostility and hate from ‘fans’ following the announcement of current Dead Sara vocalist Emily Armstrong as the replacement for the late Chester Bennington, and it doesn’t add up. When the band lost Bennington they had the option to sink or swim, and they chose to swim.
While Bennington’s legacy remains ever apparent in each decision Linkin Park continues to make, and will forever remain an integral part of their history, a deliberate decision to add a substantial portion of new material to their set can be seen as the sign of a band moving forward and rediscovering the joy in looking to the future, and embracing all the bumps that may come with it. These decisions points to a desire to build a new chapter while still honouring their late frontman.
An honour they do – five minutes before showtime, the house music cuts out and an unexpected but welcome rendition of Susan Boyle’s ‘I Dreamed A Dream’ accompanies stray fans to their seats, acting as an operatic segue into the evening’s proceedings.
Not long after Boyle’s dulcet vibrato fades out, and a flashing onscreen clock reaches zero, the band gradually appear on the stage. First spotted is bassist Dave Farrell, who is then followed by DJ Joe Hahn and their newest addition – drummer Colin Brittain. It’s not long before the recognisable Mike Shinoda and Emily Armstrong appear on stage, Shinoda draped in his signature baggy tee and Armstrong luminous in a graphic yellow longsleeve.
With no further pauses (or operatic segues), they launch into an opening salvo of Somewhere I Belong, Crawling and Cut The Bridge, covering every corner of their discography (Crawling and Cut The Bridge were written over 24 years apart) that remarkably still hit as hard as they did when they were first released. Without missing a beat they launch into The Emptiness Machine, the catchy lead single from their 2024 album From Zero, which charted in the UK at an impressive no. 4 upon release. Bolstered by back and forth vocals of Shinoda and Armstrong, these moments act as a testament to their powerful accord, but ass the track draws to a close, the stage goes quiet. We realise that Linkin Park are at that level where they require ‘Acts’ within their set to carefully apportion their hits to keep energy levels high over a near 2-hour set time.
The remainder of the performance is split neatly into four distinct acts, each 25 minute quarter containing a smorgasbord of tracks from the recently released ‘From Zero’ (eight tracks in total feature across the near two hour runtime), a handful of album tracks from their near 30 year career and naturally, the hits. And the Califronian rockers are no strangers to hits. Continuing proceedings with a uproar-provoking rendition of Burn It Down, with both Armstrong and Shinoda leaning on the crowd for singalong moments, act II presents not one, but two Fort Minor (Shinoda’s side project) covers, with the electro-acoustic ballad Wherever I Go led by a wistful Armstrong and Remember My Name fronted by an animated Shinoda.
Whilst nostalgia is an obvious pull point of Linkin Park, at no point in the runtime does this concert feel like fan service. They throw in the sometimes overlooked Castle Of Glass, a galloping piano moment from the Rick Rubin produced record Minutes To Midnight – a polarising record which saw the band make their foray into stadium rock with mixed results. This rendition spotlights a band who recognises their self is made up of every moment, mistake and chapter of their story, unafraid to be loud with their creative choices.
Act’s III and IV spit out hits like a blackjack dealer with a deck full of pip cards, interpolating their discography like each song was written to follow the last. The bittersweet anthem Lost makes way for What I’ve Done, where a few songs later they drop a reggaeton intro to Numb/Encore back to back with the anthemic In The End. As compelling as the most recent record is, no fan is seated throughout any of these tracks, singing their lungs out to to the chorus melody “I tried so hard and got so far, but in the end, it doesn’t even matter”.
The fifth and final act holds space for fan favourite Papercut, and new album hit Heavy Is The Crown (led by a joyful Armstrong), before being usurped by the opening riff of Bleed It Out, announcing itself as the coda for the evening. Armstrong’s false chords echo out into the extended outro of the track, leaving just enough air in her lungs to thank the upstanding London crowd as the band play out the last few bars in repetition.
The show itself holds a rich sentiment of ‘something new’. The namesake of their most recent album pointed to enough, zeroing in on how Linkin Park is a band that transforms and adapts no matter what, allowing grief and love to shape it but not control it. Tonight, Emily Armstrong is a standout performer, with a voice that was always fated for stages of these sizes, but without a doubt the hero is Shinoda. A standout out co-frontperson, engaging with the gigantic crowd like he was speaking at a family dinner.
And just like that, we feel like we are eating at Linkin Park’s table. This is a band telling you that you are somewhere you belong, and among the thousands, they see you.
Leave a Reply