Gateway

Issue date: 2/15/08 Section: Arts & Leisure

Dave "Phoenix" Farrell, above, works the bass guitar during the Linkin Park concert Tuesday. Linkin Park's Chester Bennington, right, energizes the Omaha crowd. [Click to enlarge]

photos by Michelle Bishop [Click to enlarge]

Linkin Park's Chester Bennington performs "Given Up" off their most recent album, "Minutes to Midnight." [Click to enlarge]

The bass that reverberated through the Qwest Center Tuesday night was the first clue the Linkin Park concert had started. With flashing lights and graceful movements of lead singer, Craig Owens, Chiodos began their opening act.
A mixture of emo and heavy metal, this bipolar combination actually turned out to be quite impressive. The most admirable part had to be the lightening fast pick movement of guitarists, Pat McManaman and Jason Hale.
Following this diversified ensemble was Coheed and Cambria. The audience received their presence with a tremendous applause, hooting and hollering at the end of every song.
Coheed and Cambria turned out to be a fantastic warm-up act, as the audience was already roaring before Linkin Park hit the stage.
At about 9:26 p.m., the auditorium was filled back to back with people pushing for a front row view of the stage. For the third time that night, the lights went down, and the audience began screaming, knowing that their well awaited heroes were making it to the stage.
If the pyrotechnics had been incredible earlier, it was absolutely amazing at this point. Along with the blinking club lights were light screens that narrated each song and at times gave a clearer image of the band from Agoura Hills, Calif., as they rocked out.
Lead singer, Chester Bennington, made the crowd go wild throughout the night as he got off stage and headed into the throngs of awaiting fans.
The band performed recent hits like "Bleed it Out" and "Shadow of the Day" and after about an hour of straight playing, headed off stage to call it a night. Nevertheless, their fans were not quite satisfied, rioting for an encore.
Impressed by this tremendous admiration for their music, Linkin Park came back and performed old classics like "Papercut," "Faint" and a few other songs. Then, with a kiss goodbye, the band put down their instruments and said farewell.

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