a session in the park
While I was still in Jakarta, I considered my car as my own Fortress of Solitude. A private space where I can curse, scream, or sing to my heart’s content. One of the albums that got the most airtime was Hybrid Theory. I needed it as an energy boost to last the day and sometimes it acted as my anger management therapy session too. All the anguish seemed to go away as I screamed along with Chester & Mike.
That’s why I was a bit unsure if I could have the mother of all anger management session at all as I bought the seating ticket. And it got worse when I saw my next neighbour was a mid-30s Dad who accompanied his 10-year old son and brought along his little daughter together with the wife as well. Excuse me, are we supposed to scream & jump or sit along & smile while passing on the bread?
When I looked around, the scene was repeated numerous times. Dad & Mom with teenaged son/daughter, or Dad with 7-year old son. I wonder if they would leave the venue once Chester uttered his first "Shit".
They finally came out 1 hour late with lights silhouetting the curtained stage with Brad’s fro was the most recognized feature. Ladies & gents, please start screaming. The session now begins!
It was like a whirlwind inside of the venue as they kept bombarding us with songs after songs from Minutes to Midnight, during which I was still being civilized by sitting still.
Then Papercut came along and all hell broke loose. I was up on my feet, jumping, screaming on top of my lungs, and at the same time feeling that there was something primal inside me that wanted to be unleashed. This time around, all manners and politeness have been thrown out of the building as everyone was rocking along. Only the ones with weak knees were strapped to their seats.
When the tension was finally kept low, only Chester & Mike were left on the stage and the violent Pushing Me Away was given a tender treatment through Mike’s keyboard. I can’t say that I like it as it was one of the songs that I expected to scream along, but in the heat of the moment it was acceptable.
As the whole band returned to the stage, they trotted out the hits from the 3 albums with Faint as the closing song before the encore began.
It was close to 5 minutes when all lights were turned off and we’re all begging them for "more", and finally the machine-like intro of One Step Closer brought everybody back on their feet again. It was one of the songs that I came for and we screamed along happily telling those fuckers in our lives to "shut up when I’m talking to you".
While Bleed It Out was playing, it had a feeling of the last song of the night as there’s nothing else to look forward to. All of their catalogue have been used up, and I couldn’t be more right as the lights were all back once the song ended and Mr. Hahn & Rob went down from their own respective thrones to join Brad, Chester, Mike, and Phoenix.
That was it, no more encore. Please go back to your 9-to-5, face all your fuckers, back to your own self, and sleep tight. The session is now over.
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