And LJ did it again. It erased two perfectly written paragraphs that now I don't know if I'll be able to re-write in the same way.
I know I haven't been around lately but I think you already know that besides Bones, my other passion/addiction/thing I'm crazy about is Linkin Park. And that's what this post is about, because on October 7th I finally got to see them live after 9 years of excruciating wait. Not only that, I met the mother fuckers. Something I still can't believe, even if practically a month and a half has gone by.
So, first things first. I officially began listening, really listening, them in 2002. It was a thing of hate/love with them. During December 2001 I met my now best friends, and one of them used to listen to
Points of Authority on and on every single day. I eventually got sick of it and just hated the song whenever I heared it. Months later I saw the Making of
Somewhere I Belong vid and I remember I thought... "man that guy looks like a total nerd," referring to Chester who at that time wore glasses. I saw Crawling video live a few times on tv but still they weren't catching my attention. I don't know when or why I did the click, but one day I woke up loving them. And guys, it has been one of the best decision that I ever made.
Ever since I became a serious fan of them my greatest dream was to see them live. To get to meet them. I remember I used to draw the [LP] logo on the corner of my classroom's blackboard. My classmates hated it. My mom knows the lyrics to most of their songs. I also used them as the subject of my speech for my IGCSE oral exam back in 2006, which was pretty cool since I didn't have to memorize anything, already every single detail of them was stuck in my head like a mantra. Even they helped me with my english, by learning their lyrics and looking up every word I didn't understand (you can't imagine the amount of vocabulary I learned by listening to them). So awesome. I owe them so so so much. Fun fact: Back in 2007 when Minutes to Midnight was about to be released, I had a countdown on my msn nickname, so that day, May 14th, I ran into one of my classmates on my way to school and when she saw me she said "Happy Birthday Sofi!!" and I was like, "uhm..thanks but it's not my birthday :)" and I explained her that it was the release date of LP's new record. LOL. She felt like an idiot. Well, she WAS an idiot, 13 years being classmates and she couldn't even remember my birthday? -_-
In 2004 they ended the
Meteora (their second album) World Tour in Brazil, without playing in any other South American country. Then three years later they put out
Minutes to Midnight and they didn't even played in Brazil. That tour went down like this: Germany, Japan, Germany, Japan, Germany, Germany, England, Australia, some more of Japan and Germany and of course, US. Maybe I'm exaggerating but you get the point. I love them and I love their music so when they announced they were back in the studio making a new record in 2008 I was very excited. My hope always was in the next record. You should have seen me screaming when I read the news that they were playing here, and the first show of the
A Thousand Suns Tour nonetheless!! By that time I had kinda lost a bit of hope on them, because about a month before the the announcement (that was on July 24th), they had already confirmed dates on Chile and Brazil...so I was beginning to think that they were going to
skip us shamelessly. But nope. And thank god they didn't because I would have been so mad at them!
In 2006 I convinced my brother (who lives in Miami) to pay me the annual membership of the
LPUnderground (their official fan club) because I knew that someday they would come to play here and I wanted to be one of the lucky bastards who got to meet them. And I also wanted the t-shit, cd, guitar pick and fun stuff that annually came with the package. Four years of membership later, they came here. BUT, It wasn't that easy. The first perk I had, had to do with pre-sale tickets that came out 2 months before the show. It was too early to talk about a Meet&Greet, so I just sat tight and waited. Waited, waited, and waited some more. Even if a Meet&Greet was happening it was no guarantee that I would be in it because supposedly not every LPU member attending the show got in, they randomly select an amount of members depending on how many they are in that city. So I knew I had a big chance since only 20 LPU'ers were attending this show. Still, I didn't wanted to get over-confident. And guess what? Three days before the show I got an email from the LPheadquarters telling me that I had been selected to attend the M&G right before the show. I was over the moon, completely amazed. I couldn't believe it. Lucky for me I was with one of my best friends (the sister of the one who first introduced me to Linkin Park) and she helped me calm down. Thanks to another of my friends I also got 3 free tickets that I gave to my two best friends and one of their boyfriends who's also a die hard LP fan.
Anywaaaaaay, October 7th FINALLY arrived. I worked during the morning so that I had the whole afternoon ahead of me to meet up with my friends and go to the show together. The thing was that we had to split because they had to go make the line (who's end was three blocks away from the stadium) and I had to wait on Gate 10 to be picked up by the LPU crew. Fortunately, while standing there waiting, three fellow LPU'ers from Peru approached me and we stayed together, I knew them from the forums but that was that. Then a friend from Uruguay arrived (also from the LPU but I knew him from way before) and we stayed there chatting. As if things weren't already awesome, Mark Fiore walked by right in front of us. And you wonder who Mark Fiore is, right? Nope, not one of the guys of Linkin Park.. he's the guy that takes video footage of them all the time and edits the LPTV and LPUTV videos for the respective websites. Also director of Given Up's video. A few months ago the LPU organized an LPU chat with him and he answered me a question, funny enough, I remember I asked him if he went with the guys on every tour lol (he answered that only to the important ones and shows like that). SO, we called him out, at first he only waved at us but then he came back and stayed with us chatting for like 15 minutes or so. He had his 'LP all access' card hanging from his belt and his awesome camera too. He was so nice to us! Chatting about everything and anything, we learned he does surf, and that his mom used to visit a certain city of Peru very often, we asked him about the show, if he knew anything about the new set up and stuff like that...and he told us that Brad and Chester now had a set of drums on stage for a certain song. We also asked him if he knew why they never ever played here before, and he also answered it. God, he even took a picture with us! When I was about to take a picture of his all access card the guys from Linkin Park Argentina (the official fan club here) arrived and kind of scared him away. :(
Like two hours later at around 8.30 pm they finally came to pick us up and take us to the M&G. They gave us this sticker to stick in our tshirts that said we were Guests from the LPU. I felt so important with it LOL. It was starting to feel real. We were all kind of amazed that it was actually happening. so they took as to an adjacent tent next to the stage where there was a mini stage with the table and 6 chairs lined up, lots of sharpies and water bottles. Around the tent was also a wii, catering food, some more tables with chairs, and get this: you'd think that being Linkin Park they would have an awesome cd player, or at least an iPod plugged in to some decent speakers. Nope. There was music in the back, the new record was playing. And they had an iPod plugged in to an old -very old- cd player, that looked very damaged too. It was funny and kinda embarrasing at the same time, like really? to an old cd player??? anyway, the LPU crew guys were amazing, very welcoming, they gave as an introduction speech to what we could and what we couldn't do (like, the guys could sign only one item to each of us, also no individual photos because of a matter of time) and they even made a quiz and gave away two tour tshirts, plus guitar picks (I've got 6 :D). Finally after 15 more minutes of aching wait the guys came up on our little stage (we were up there too). It was so surreal, I remember watching them come up, specially Mike since he was the one who was near me...I watched him with a huge grin on my face, I think he saw me and smiled. I thought I was dreaming guys. For real. It was amazing.
But that wasn't all. Oh no. My turn finally came and I was in front of Phoenix (the bassists for ya'll that aren't familiar with the band.) I took my From The Inside: Linkin Park's Meteora book for them to sign, there's a picture of them with a blank space under every shot that I think they especially made for fans to get it signed.. ahahaha. It's a big book, I was the only one with something as large as that, most of them took cd booklets or the first cd they put out when they were still called "Xero" back in '99. So I was standing next to Phoenix and I gave him the book, he signed it and asked me how I was and I literally answered "very very very very very good...*awkward silence* and you?" he said, "excited to play." and smiled :) I love him. Then Joe (the DJ) signed it, I said hi and he was like bleh, at the same time Brad (the guitarist, who was sitting next to him) extended his arm and signed the book. Which I thought was a bit lazy of him because then when I moved in front of him he had already signed my item so he gave me a tiny smile and looked the other way because there was a guy right after me who was getting his leg signed so he could get it tattoo'd later. Apparently that was more interesting. Anyways, Rob came next and he was a total sweetheart (the drummer), he even made me a joke! About the beard he had in the photo, he said that he was glad he shaved that beard because now he realized it looked horrible hahaha. I was so nervous that I wasn't really listening to him, I was just looking at him amazed. So I said "what?" and he said "shave" and he did as if he were shaving off his now much more normal beard. I love him too. Then was my turn to face Mr. Chester Bennington (the lead singer) and I think I melted, right there. There was a time when I thought he was hot, when I was younger...now not so much. I mean, I think his tattoos are hot, and sometimes in certain pics he looks pretty, also his whole rockstar attitude appeals me...but when I say I 'melted' I mean it in the way that it was freaking chester bennington, a guy who I been admiring and listening to since I was 12! Heck I even tried to make a mini chester out of dough once, no kidding!! I couldn't believe I had him in front of me!! Again, it was surreal. So he signed my book and I stared at his lovely signature, you guys, his signature is beautiful!! then I looked at him, shaked his hand and asked him if I could hive him a kiss on the cheek. Of course he said yes and lifted himself a bit from his chair. Oh my god, I wasn't sure if I would be able to talk in front of them and there I was, asking Chester if I could kiss him. AH MA ZING. I had already promised my friends that I wouldn't freeze or cry in front of them, so far I was doing a great job! Although when they first came in I have to admit I had to swallow those few tears that wanted to get out..but then I was okay. Except that my throat and mouth felt extremely dry. Last but not least, Mike (guitarist, rapper, singer, keyboardist, producer and artist) signed my book, and I asked him if he could make me a little drawing there :) he did. A skull. I knew he'd do something like that (see 'Diamonds Spades Hearts & Clubs' - http://www.mikeshinodaclan.sosugary.com/thumbnails.php?album=33), though I was expecting a person, like the one he drew over one of his guitars. The skull is awesome though, I'm not complaining. I also asked him if I could kiss him, I was more confident this time. They were all so nice to me that I can't complain. They truly are great guys. I was almost the last one so when they finished sigining the guy's leg they left. Only Chester and Mike stayed a few more minutes because people crowded them. I watched them and I couldn't believe it. I still couldn't understand how was it possible that I was right there with them. So I stepped aside and carefully put the book back inside my bag. Then I returned where they were and, I don't really know how this happened but I was close to Chester, I looked at him, he looked at me, smiled, and hugged me. HE HUGGED ME. Not me. HIM. HIM. CHESTER BENNINGTON. HIS TATTOO'ED WRISTS TOUCHED MY ARMS. I burnt inside with those tattoo'ed flames. And don't worry, my hand immediatly went around his waist, HE'S SO SKINNY!!! Oh and his face, his skin is so smooth. After that incredible moment which I don't know how it happened, I told him they should play one of the songs on the cookies cd (a 6 bizarre song cd he and mike made for the LPU 8 package) and he laughed and said "the cookies cd?? like Bubbles??" and I was like "yeah, BUBBLES!!! BUBBLES Please!!" I was so glad I made him laugh. And no, they did not played any of the songs of that cookies cd during the show. :(
Well, then more stuff happened. I went to the show and caught up with my friends, I told them and the 15 people around us about the M&G. I felt like a rockstar for a bunch of minutes. As soon as they entered the stage and wretches & Kings began I pushed myself into the crowd and tried to go as far as I could into the front but it was impossible. I kept my place for like 7 or 8 songs, until they played Faint (my all time favorite song) and then I backed out because A) I was suffocating and B) I lost my cell in the middle of the pogo. Granted, I couldn't find my friends until the show was over and I was outside the stadium. I met this guy, Dany, cute and very cool. Who lend me his cell phone to call my mom and try to reconnect with my friends.. :D A few weeks later he invited me out but we never agreed on a day and now he changed his facebook status to 'in a relationship.' Yeah, meeting a future date on my first linkin park show wasn't going to happen all that easy right?
And this is the review of the day in which I met the guys of Linkin Park. I can't believe it actually happened. I dreamed with this so many times that...*sigh* I'm speechless. I'm glad they are nice peeps and not jerks. I'm glad my brother payed me the LPU membership. I'm glad they finally came to play here. I'm glad they exist. :)
thanks for reading this guys, it was a very important day for me. This was a dream come true for me and I'll never forget it.
Now some pics for you to enjoy:
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57, 58, 59
67, 68.![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif)
