Projekt Revolution: Back With A Vengeance

By Brian Campbell

I was mainly excited about Projekt Revolution because there hasn’t been a Revolution tour in three years due to a Linkin Park hiatus, Fort Minor, Grey Daze, Julien K and various other LP related side projects. Regardless, PR is back in full force. Sadly, the festival as a whole did not meet my expectations.

PR was also one of the rare shows where I was actually excited to see the headlining act play. Normally, I am more excited about the under card than the marquee act, so this show was different in that respect.

I arrived to the venue late and then started on a few cold beverages in the parking lot. The atmosphere was entirely different from that of a Warped Tour or Family Values; it just seemed more fun. The lot was packed with concert-goers enjoying many of the same beverages I was, playing a variety of games and just hanging out. My buddy and I finished up our cooler and headed inside the venue.

PR started way earlier than I had assumed it would, thusly leading me missing the entire second stage. First off, there were only five bands at the second stage, those being the headliners Mindless Self Indulgence, Saosin, Styles of Beyond, Madina Lake and The Bled. I would have liked to have seen SOB and Saosin, but I'm sure I’ll catch them sooner or later down the road.

The fantastic Julien K led off the main stage with a roar from me, but not much of anything from the crowd. They jammed a lot of their great tracks, but most importantly they played their hit off the Transformers soundtrack, Technical Difficulties. Following them came Placebo, which again no one cared about. It seemed as if everyone there only wanted to see the big four. Well, they didn’t have to wait long as there was not too much downtime between sets.

The first of the big four, H.I.M., hit the stage and the crowd could not have waited any longer for them to do so. I was also excited to see them, and they did not disappoint me at all. They blasted through a lot of my favorites and then completely made my night once they played the fantastically depressed Join Me in Death. I didn’t think it was going to get better until they played their solid cover of Chris Issak’s classic Wicked Game. They also played Wings of a Butterfly, Killing Loneliness, and ended their set with Kiss of Dawn. The set was fantastic and at this point, I said that the night would not get any better, but it sure as hell did.

Taking Back Sunday came to the stage next and tore the house down. The crowd was insane for them and they blasted through a beautiful set full of songs from all of their records, including Liar (It Takes One To Know One), What It Feel Like To Be A Ghost?, Make Damn Sure, Cute Without the E (Cut From the Team), You’re So Last Summer, This Photograph Is Proof (I Know You Know), A Decade Under the Influence, among others. It was only my second time seeing them, but they were better than the first.

I was then excited to see My Chemical Romance, since the only other time I saw them was at the MTV $2 bill tour with the Used and their set was very short. Frankly, I was completely let down by not only their set, but all of the fans who needed a ride to the show with their parents to see them, and their stage show was sub par. Aside from the top notch pyrotechnics, they just didn’t do it for me. They played the majority of their radio hits (isn’t every MCR song a radio hit?), like Teenagers, Welcome to the Black Parade, I’m Not OK (I Promise), Helena, Famous Last Words and so on, and even ended their set with the acoustic Cancer. Ending their set with Cancer was pretty much an emphatic slap in the face to fans that have followed these guys for years. I was looking for them to end with The Ghost of You at least, but not Cancer. I was happy when their set ended. They just seemed flat and I never thought of them as sell outs until I saw them at PR.

Thankfully, Linkin Park was next. They owned, as I thought they would and their new material off their latest record really came off very well. Off the new record they played What I’ve Done, new single Bleed It Out, Given Up, No More Sorrow, Shadow of the Day, instrumental opener Wake, very soft, very emotional closing track The Little Things Give You Away and then they played one of my favorite LP songs, Leave Out All the Rest. I know it is cliché to say one of my favorite songs is on their latest record but still, just listen to the song and you will know why. They also added to the set some fantastic renditions of Pushing Me Away and Breaking the Habit as well as Crawling, In the End, Somewhere I Belong and more. Mike Shinoda even intervened with a freestyle version of the Fort Minor single, Petrified. That was unexpected, as was the set being opened with One Step Closer and ended with Faint. They even added a nice breakdown at the end of Faint which only worked to make the song that much better.

LP was amazing as they always are. They are a model of efficiency when it comes to a live rock band, and are definitely worth seeing. As for the whole PR festival, it was not that good. There wasn’t much to do besides check out the Verizon tent to get a free bag. No games, no vendors, no nothing, other than to just sit there and wait for the music to start. It just wasn’t what I was expecting as a festival.