Tuesday night at Clutch Cargos, the L.A.-based rap rock band Linkin Park and Ann Arbor”s own Taproot rocked the sold-out Pontiac venue. The theme of the night”s show: Dangerous but entertaining stunts and showing love for the fans.
- Paul Wong
- Chester Bennington is seen here blowing up the spot.<br><br>JOYCE LEE/Daily
In Pre-Valentine”s Day celebration, both Linkin Park and Taproot showed their love and appreciation for the fans. Taproot, being natives of Michigan, brought a large crowd of hardcore, devoted fans to the venue. Taproot”s set was wild and full of crowd-pleasing antics.
Lead singer Stephen Richard was exciting to watch. He jumped around on the entire stage, but the movement wasn”t limited there. Richard mysteriously popped up in the balcony happily surprising many fans that tried to get a piece of him. He did a balancing act along the balcony railings while at the same time singing.
At this point, what more he could possibly do? He gets up on the highest speaker still singing and the fans look above waiting for his next move. In a split second he jumps off the speaker and into the mosh pit. The crowd carries their beloved rockstar until he makes it in the middle of the pit where he moshes alongside the fans and still sings strong. Only in rock can you see those daredevil stunts and listen to great music. It was like the ESPN X-games.
Headliners Linkin Park had a tough act to follow, but they managed to bring their own rock mayhem to the show. Around 10:30 p.m. the stage was pitch black and all you could see were glow in the dark signs with the Linkin Park initials. They came on one by one and the crowd went crazy. They opened their set with “Point of Authority,” a track off their recent album Hybrid Theory.
Their set also consisted of showing their appreciation for the fans. The two vocalists, blonde-haired Chester Bennington and blue-haired Mike Shinoda, had great interaction with the crowd, constantly shaking hands with them and spraying water at the dehydrated, sweaty crowd. Bennington also jumped into the pit and climbed the speakers to the balcony, serenading his audience. The set continued with other songs off their album as well as more moshing, crowd surfing, slam dancing and good rap rock. It was an awesome hour-long live performance, and it closed out with their current single “One Step Closer.”
The show didn”t end with the last song, though. Linkin Park came to their fans and sat around for maybe 45 minutes or more, signing autographs and talking to fans. The band proved that they cared more about being with their fans than their own safety by sticking around and taking time to greet all their fans. I don”t think there was a single person there who didn”t either touch or see Linkin Park or Taproot up close and personal.