We got to the venue around 6 o'clock. The show was scheduled to start at 8 so we had to wait about 2 hours in the FREEZING cold. But we entertained ourselves by talking to other linkin park fans on the line. Finally, they began to let us in. I bought a Linkin Park shirt for myself and we checked in all our stuff then went in to the ballroom. It was pretty empty so we were near the front pretty much the whole show and once Linkin Park came out we squeezed our way all the way to the front. The first band came out (Alien Ant Farm) and in my opinion, they totally sucked! I thought they had no talent, their music was horrible, and the band (especially the lead singer) were totally cocky. Every one around my area were booing them and one guy next to me kept flipping him off and the singer got pretty pissed at him and threw a condom at him that someone had thrown up on stage.

We were put out of our misery when AAF got off the stage and Taproot came out. I'm a big Taproot fan. Ive seen them once before with Deftones, and Incubus and they rocked even more this time. The lead singer (Steve) especially rocks. He even dared to get up at the top balcony walk around a little bit and then jump off into the crowd! Which is crazy because the jump was about 10 feet! He even got in the mosh pit during one of the songs. Their preformance was great and after they got off the stage they were signing autographs on the left corner of the stage so I got to meet the whole band. I told Steve "You guys fucken ROCK!" and he was like "No YOU rock!" and i was like "No YOU rock!" and we did this a couple more times...lol.

Then finally, the moment I was waiting for, Linkin Park came out. Words cannot express how awesomely great they did that night. The entire preformance was increadable! They were oozing energy, the music sounded amazing, and the entire audience was jumping and everyone in the whole place was singing all the words, It was so load sometimes you couldnt even hear the band. They came out individually and got straight into "With You". Heres the track listing they did:-With You-Runaway-Papercut-By Myself-Points of Authority-High Voltage (Remix)-Crawling-Pushing Me Away-And One-In The End-A Place For My Head-Forgotten-One Step CloserOf course, I pushed my way up the closest I could get and almost suffered from several heart attacks each time Chester or Mike would come over to my side and stick the mic into the audience or something. One time Mike even pointed at me. It was during "A Place for My Head" He had come over to right where I was and looked right at our little section and I just started going nuts and rapping along with him during the part...."Im so sick of the tension, sick of the hunger, sick of you acting like I owe you this. Find another place..." and he saw me basically going nuts and exageratting all the words and he burst out with that great smile of his and pointed at me for a few seconds. They love it when you sing along.Then during "And One" Mike stage dived into the audience. By the time they pushed him back onto the stage, he had lost half of his shirt! The girls, Im sure didnt mind because enough was ripped off to see his boxers. :) He was pretending to be all pissed off and flipped off the audience a few times. A whole chunk of the back of his shirt was just gone! lol.. so he ran back stage and came back with another tshirt on and everythig was ok. Mike had even played guitar during two songs." Crawling" and "Pushing Me Away". Chester also had a habit of cocking his head back and spitting out a big wad of spit every once in a while. But, I guess spitting all over the stage is a rock-star think to do.

Meeting Linkin Park (..continued) 2-21-01

Right after the show was over, Rob grabbed a bunch of drum sticks and threw them out into the crowd. I tried catching one but had no luck. A girl right next to me caught one though. Mike was wetting the crowd with like 15 bottles he had in his hands and the rest of the guys went back stage for a little. Then they all came out to meet there fans. They were hanging out in the area between the first row and the stage and since I was in the first row I got to meet them all (except Joe) and talk to them. I met Brad first and he was so cool. He was trading bracelets with all the girls around me. He had like a million so it was kinda crazy. And I was helping him get one on cuz it was too tight. We had to roll it on his arm..lol. So, I told him I loved him and all that stuff and he signed everything. He was really friendly. Then Rob was next to him. He was a total sweetheart. I told him that Linkin Park was my favorite band and that I loved them so much and yada yada, and he was like "Thank you so much! that means a lot to us. I really appreciate it!" and he asked what my name was and I said Jessica and he shook my hand and was like "Its nice to meet you Jessica" and he asked me when Ive seen them play before. Then I met Chester..wow..he is so hot. Like a gazilion times hotter up close. He was really quiet though and didnt say much to anyone. This body guard came up to him with an autographed poster and asked him if he had signed it yet and he was like inspecting it and trying to figure out if his signature was on it already. It was cute, he was like "Yeah, I did. No wait I didnt. I dont fucken know!!" so then he just signed it again, or not again. whatever. This girl next to me was like hyper ventalating and screaming "Chester! Chester! OH MY GOD!" she was beeing really annoying, teeny-bopper-ish. but Chester found it amuzing and was cracking up and laughing at the girl. I shook his hand too (he had really soft hands) and then I met Phoenix who was really cool. And last I met Mike. He was all the way on the other side surounded by a million fans but I just pushed and shoved my way to the front because there is no way I was going home without Mikes signiture. So it took a while but I got to the front and Mike signed my stuff and flashed me that cute smile of his and right after he signed my paper the body guard next to him was like "Alright thats it,no more!" and literally shoved Mike away and he left so I got the last autograph!!! How lucky am I?!!So, then we just went home. I felt like I was walking on air the rest of the night. It was a great night, the best concert I had ever been too, plus I met Linkin Park!