September 25, 2001

Linkin Park : Manchester Apollo

The time is now, the kids are alright, but Linkin Park's spirit is somewhere else entirely...

The day after this gig, the Linkin Park tour moves to the 15,000 capacity London Arena, indelibly date-stamping their arrival at The Big Time. Their album, 'Hybrid Theory' has sold 400,000 copies in the UK alone and their imminent single, 'In The End', should be their first top ten hit.

One look at the Manchester Apollo audience and it's obvious why Linkin Park's audience is expanding so rapidly - they're so young they're practically still being born. There are literally girls of six waving their arms unsteadily to 'Crawling' from their perch on their dads' shoulders (the dads are wearing Deftones t-shirts). A couple of ten-year-olds swamped in baggy jeans and hoodies pipe "thanks!" as their uncle passes them Cokes from the bar. In fact, the pre-pubescent contingent is so massive that NME finds ourselves wishing thatLinkin Park's Chester Bennington wouldn't swear so much between songs - young ears!

It seems that Linkin Park are the metal equivalent of the trainer bra. And there is, of course, absolutely nothing wrong with that - pop is for, after all, The Kids. But it doesn't make for a very thrilling night out. While there's no doubting the effect Linkin Park's slick rap-metal roadshow is having on large parts of the audience - there are girls, eyes closed, singing along to every word, absolutely transported - it seem every bit as antiseptic as a traditional teen pop show.

And that's not to drag out the ridiculous argument/conspiracy theory that Linkin Park are too young and pretty to make Real Men's music and therefore must have been constructed by some wicked svengali. It's just to point out that Joseph Hahn, the DJ, is embarrassingly surplus to any requirements other than fashion; that the bassist, Phoenix, and guitarist Brad Delson are so resolutely ignored by the spotlight that they might as well not be onstage at all; and that when Chester Bennington claims that "Manchester is the best fucking place on the whole fucking tour" you don't believe a bloody word of it.

There are upsides to this more yout' friendly approach - no-one is in danger of getting killed in the moshpit, thanks to Chester impressing on the crowd the call-and-response chant "If they fall - pick them up!" There's also something very sweet about the crowd putting their hands up when Chester enquires "anyone heard that before?" after 'A Place For My Head'.

And Linkin Park are tight alright - thanks to craftily used samples, every song sounds almost exactly like the record. 'Points' is a glossy stormer which almost provokes some genuine mayhem, the Depeche Mode -alike 'Step Up' proves their vesatility, and in 'Crawling', 'Pushing Me Away', 'Paper Cut' and the final 'One Step Closer' Linkin Park have songs encrusted with devilishly clever details yet charged with undeniable power - you only need to hear the crowd bellowing 'SO INSECURE!!!!' before the chorus of 'Crawling' to realise that. And Chester isthe metal Justin Timberlake - he even does the human beatbox thing like *NSYNC at the end of 'Pop'! Which is another good thing.

Yet for all their ruthless professionalism, the band seem distracted (this is, it must be said, only four days after the World Trade Center attack). Even when they're joined onstage by Wes Scantlin from a href="http://www.nme.com/NME/External/Artists/Artist_Page/0,1226,207808,00.html">Puddle Of Mudd[/url] at the climax, the show never really takes off. The time is now, the kids are alright, butLinkin Park's spirit is somewhere else entirely.

Alex Needham