Watch Footage of Chester Bennington’s Final Performance with Linkin Park
As the rock and metal world continues to try and make sense of the tragic suicide of Linkin Park vocalist Chester Bennington yesterday, tributes have poured in from every corner of the music world: members of Slipknot, System of a Down, Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Korn, Lamb of God, Black Sabbath, Avenged Sevenfold, Rage Against the Machine and yes, Bennington’s bandmates, too — just to name a few — have all offered their thoughts on his life, death and legacy.
Those of us without a worldwide platform are processing Bennington’s death in our own ways, with several fans sharing footage of Linkin Park’s final performance, this past July 6th, at the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham, England.
These kinds of videos are always so, so chilling to watch. I can’t say I was ever a Linkin Park fan, but watching this footage knowing it was Bennington’s final time ever taking the stage gives me the same full-body, physical sadness and overwhelming chills that I got watching Chris Cornell’s final show with Soundgarden. It’s incredibly powerful.
This footage of the band’s breakthrough smash “Crawling” — an acoustic version set to piano that sees Bennington go into the crowd and interact directly with fans — is particularly touching (in two separate parts):
1 Minute with Chester Bennington???? His last perform before suicide #RIPChesterBennington #RIPChester #LinkinPark pic.twitter.com/OZXCMYSCK2
— bakulan cangkem (@alvinghifari_) July 21, 2017
https://twitter.com/143_0k_3/status/888289448978284547
Billboard has fan-filmed footage of the show’s two final songs, “Papercut” — the opener on the band’s debut album Hybrid Theory — and “Bleed It Out,” the second single from 2007’s Minutes to Midnight. When Bennington and Shinoda put their arms around one another at the end of “Papercut”… wow. It was likely the last time the two ever embraced.
Here’s a clip of “One More Light,” from the band’s latest album, shot literally right up in Bennington’s face:
Here’s footage of another of the band’s huge hits, “One Step Closer,” shot from right up front:
One fan filmed the entire show from the arena’s upper level:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QF6Rxj8jtA
