popwreckoning

Mötley Crüe recently rocked the Sprint Center and joining them were glam rockers New York Dolls.

This band was the favorite of our photographer, Todd Zimmer, who shares these photos of the Dolls:

Heavy metal rockers Mötley Crüe revved up Kansas City fans at their Sprint Center performance. Between the rock, dancing girls and an impressive rollercoaster rig for Tommy Lee‘s drum set, the show was an amazing sight.

Photographer Todd Zimmer was there and shares these photos from the event:

When some of my friends discovered I was attending a Linkin Park concert they scoffed. For anyone that knows my tastes well, I’ve never really been that into them, changing the dial when they came on the radio and I’ve never expressed an interest in having an of their music on my iPod. But even for a person as skeptical as I am of a rock group that merges with the rap genre, I must admit…Linkin Park is downright entertaining live.

Linkin Park has an aesthetically pleasing show. Behind the band, a big video screen played mostly black and white close-up videos of the band performing and various shots of fans reacting. For an amphitheater show, videos as big as this not only look classy, but are much appreciated by those in the back with a less than stellar view of the stage. For some variance, the video sometimes displayed clips of the band’s music videos or other images that matched the songs. The video display even got some use before the show promoting Music for Relief, a charity the band is heavily involved in. It’s pretty cool to see a band take a cause they believe in that seriously – great use of celebrity status.

In addition to the great use of video, the light show was spectacular. Sometimes bands go a little overboard with lights and fans are so blinded by the strobes (as it was with opener Does It Offend You, Yeah?) that it is almost impossible to glimpse the band even once. This light show was not only interesting, but it served to compliment the band – spotlighting solos, adding to the mood of a tune, and keeping the background video from being overwhelmed. Another segment of their stage set up that I loved was the use of a raised deck. The turntables and drums were set up on the platform, which was great to actually see what they guys were doing instead of being buried in the back like a usual set up. Their were also ramps up to the deck, so the guitarists, bassists and singer were free to move around between different levels, which was cool not only to watch, but also a great way for the guys to express some of the energy they have as they perform.Vocalist Chester Bennington was especially impressive as he moved from a crouched yell stage left to running up the ramp to singing upper stage left. Just from watching alone, a person could see that these guys love what they do…they’re not just faking it for the money.

Now, on the audio side of things, music doesn’t always sound the best in amphitheaters. The wrong type of genre can sound horrid in that environment, but in this case, Linkin Park’s music worked. Nothing sounded muffled as is a common problem in an amphitheater.

The set list was about what you’d expect: all the hits from all the albums, but also a lot of the new material. Fans went wild over a back to back performance of the popular “Numb” and “Breaking the Habit.” The band took some liberties with “Breaking the Habit,” and while the pause for a spasdically creepy video clip weirded me out, I did enjoy when Bennington extended the end of the song a cappella. From the amount of people waving their arms and singing along, it looks like I wasn’t the only one who loved that moment.

And no review of Linkin Park is complete without mentioning Mike Shinoda. His musical contributions, both instrumentally and vocally are some of my favorite parts of this band. I don’t think I would have enjoyed this show as much as I did if he wasn’t a part of the band.

Opening for Linkin Park were two UK acts: the quirky electronica rock act Does It Offend You, Yeah? and Pendulum. Does It Offend You, Yeah? isn’t for everyone. They sang a song where the main lyric was, “The fucking monkeys are coming,” and then they imitated a monkey. With lots of strobes, and beats that make you want to get down, this is more of a dance club scene band – perhaps aimed more at people that like tripping to music. Their last number was a bit more speed, but that have been that I had no idea what the sparser vocals were saying through their distortion. Pendulum is a bit more of the Linkin Park speed, just minus the rapping and with an added bonus of a British accent. So if you’re into Linkin Park, this band would be great for you to check out.

Now if you to experience the show for yourself, the entire set was actually recorded and is being offered as a free download to mobile users. You just have to text ‘KCLP’ to ’50505.’ Unfortunately, this is just audio – you’d have to dig around YouTube or buy a ticket to another show date to see the visuals for yourself.

Photos by Andrew Dunlap

Most of the bands this photographer sees could learn a thing or ten from veteran rocker Neil Young. While the crowd inside was smaller than expected, Young put on an energetic and emotional performance mixing work from his decades-long career, including tracks from his new album, Fork in the Road.

Neil Young: website

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