I know I’m kinda late talking about this now, but I wanted to share a little about my experience from the concert that was held in honor of Chester Bennington last Friday night.
Under any normal circumstances, I don’t think I could have ever seen myself flying across the country just for a concert. But with this concert, I made sure I was going to attend it before I even made plans for the flight, hotel, or who I was even bringing with me, and I’m glad I did.
I didn’t really know what to expect for this show, but the way they handled everything went above and beyond anything that I could have imagined. They could have easily just played a normal set and I would have already thought highly of it, but the whole night was perfect, and I wouldn’t hesitate to say it was my favorite concert I’ve ever attended. From the way they showed moments of his life on the screens and the speech given by Chester’s wife, to the little things like the light-up bracelets everyone got and getting the fans involved with singing Numb and In the End, I wouldn’t have changed anything.
Compared to past concerts, I didn’t have the best seats, there weren’t any meet and greets, and it wasn’t cheap and easy to attend, but none of these things mattered at a show like this, I was just happy to be there. I had the time of my life meeting tons of people I had only known online for all these years, as well as some new people.
You could tell everyone there truly cared about Chester and the rest of the band, and it was amazing to be surrounded by a crowd of people that came from all over the globe just to show how much they cared. And that isn’t to say the fans that couldn’t attend that watched the live stream at home didn’t care. The amount of people that watched the live stream is just mind blowing. The recording of the concert is already at nearly 7 million views.
When Chester passed away, websites blew up with people was saying how much they loved him and cared about Linkin Park, and I admittingly was worried it was only because he had just died, and that everyone would forget about him not soon after, but being where we are now, four months later, I can see that is not the case, and he was truly loved and appreciated by so so many people.
I could go on all day about the little details about my time in California at this event, but I’ll leave end it with this speech that was played at the show. I don’t know what the future holds for Linkin Park, but I plan on sticking by the band with whatever choices they decide to make.
Linkin Park Chester Bennington Final Show Speech - YouTube