A few weeks back, as vigils for Chester were just starting through out the world, many of us weren’t sure as to how to come to terms with losing him so suddenly. I was at work when I got the text from my friend Nick, who has gone with me to just about every Linkin Park show I’ve been to, about Chester’s passing and it took an hour for it to sink in before I had broke down. Both of us had hopes of seeing the band perform at Citi Field since the Barclay’s show didn’t happen either. Instead, I’d be joining about 200 other folks with the same intentions outside of the ballpark for a vigil none of us were expecting. It was going to be depressing but we had to make the best of it.
But I knew deep down, I wanted to do something. Posts in the Facebook vigil page had some talking about bringing mini bluetooth speakers and singing along. I wanted to do something that other Linkin Park fans in the area would remember for a long time to come and the only thing that seemed to keep me more calm that I thought it would, was to just pick up my guitar and start to play something. Anything.
Then I became pretty determined. I took my first guitar I ever got over to Sam Ash to be cleaned up and re-stringed. There’s been a Hybrid Theory soldier on the pick guard forever and that immediately became the guitar I was going to take. (Honestly, I was a little worried about taking that thing on the train. When you carry something so big, you stick out and besides the nerves of playing it in front of strangers, the next thing that crossed my mind was someone is going to take it.)
I got to Citi Field and I built up the courage to do it. I introduced myself and played ‘Shadow of the Day’. It was crazy looking out at everyone around you. People, phones, cameras, and everyone is singing along with me. I took it all in and about 3/4’s of the way through, all the fears I had were just gone. We played a little more around the flower garden in a circle, another guitarist joined in and so did another with a ukulele. ‘Numb’ and ‘In The End’ were played after that, then we took a break. I made some friends and we talked about the band.
Finally we all got together and watched the sunset to sing to ‘One More Light’, that’s the one Citi Field video you’ve probably seen before. Of course, with me playing guitar I wasn’t able to record anything I was playing but luckily Dana sent me video of me and the Aiden, the one fan with the ukulele, playing ‘Leave Out All the Rest’ with everyone. Yes, it’s vertical but the audio is perfect. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did. 
–RS
