A few nights ago, I went to see a double-billed concert featuring Incubus and Linkin Park. Incubus was the band we were really going to see, with Linkin Park the afterthought (for some of us, anyway). Part of me thinks maybe we should have left at the intermission, really.
But the good news is that Incubus was a great band to see live. Every member of the band is very skilled at what they do. Each has a clear technical proficiency, and in my opinion always walked the fine line between performing a song "as you know it on the album" and "changing things up just enough to make the concert experience different."
I was particularly impressed by a few members of the band. The drummer, José Pasillas, was really able to produce a lot of sound with a tight economy of movement. What he was doing in a lot of songs didn't look showy, but was all the same. The singer, Brandon Boyd, maybe took a couple of songs to warm up to the lack of oxygen here at altitude in Denver, but once he hit his stride, performed with a clear and powerful voice.
Also, oddly enough, the DJ, Chris Kilmore, caught my attention. I'm not the biggest fan of turntable use in rock music; I find it's usually not well integrated into the band, dominating the other instruments and pulling the sound into another genre. (Linkin Park being a perfect example of too much.) That wasn't the case here, and all five performers really blended well together.
Then there was Linkin Park. I'll say in their defense that the crowd -- packed to capacity and on their feet the entire time -- seemed to love it. So this has everything to do with me not liking their music a great deal.
The band has a truly impressive singer in Chester Bennington. He has a striking range and a crystal clear quality in his voice that is quite uncommon in rock music. The second singer, Mike Shinoda, harmonizes with him very well. The two together can really deliver a power ballad.
The problem is, Bennington is also a nu metal screamer. It's impressive that he can bear down and growl for song after song in concert and still have any voice left, but that doesn't mean I want to hear it. And Shinoda is the rapper in all Linkin Park songs, taking hip hop style verses in between the choruses.
So what it basically comes down to is that there's maybe one Linkin Park song that I truly, fully like in its entirety -- the melancholy "What I've Done." They have dozens of other songs that start out great... but then fly apart when the one guy starts rapping or the other guy starts screaming. Or both. I found myself alternately enjoying and hating their concert for one or two minute stretches at a time.
Clearly, I wouldn't have gone to see their show if they hadn't been playing with Incubus, so take all that as you will. But as for Incubus, I'd definitely encourage any fan to check them out live if you haven't before.
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