Chris Cornel

Chester Bennington

Chester Bennington

Brad Delson

Mike Shinoda

Dave Farrell

     Linkin Park’s Projekt Revolution 2008 Tour made an early stop in Camden, N.J., on a Thursday in July. It was an early 2pm show start with two stages, the main stage and the Revolution stage, set up in the Ben Franklin parking lot facing the Delaware River with the decommissioned USS New Jersey battleship in the background. It made for an interesting setting. And to think I toured that ship with my father when it was up and running. Whew, where does the time go.
    The tour featured several strong bands on the small Revolution stage during the afternoon:  Armor for Sleep, Hawthorne Heights, 10 Years and Atreyu.
    Around 5pm, the action moved to the main stage where Street Drum Corps, Ashes Divide, Busta Rhymes and The Bravery performed first and all bands gave brief but tight sets. Chris Cornell was up next and performing songs from his solo stuff as well as songs from his days with Soundgarden, Audioslave and even Temple of the Dog. He opened up with "Cochise", "No Such Thing", "Black Hole Sun" and "Spoonman" before lead singer Chester Bennington of Linkin Park wowed the crowd by walking onstage during Cornell's set to help him sing "Hunger Strike," while the two traded high-pitched screams over the crowd. Cornell also offered up two new songs from his new album due out in September, the driving "Watch Out" and "Long Gone" before finishing his one-hour long set with "Blow Up The Outside World", "What You Are" and "Rusty Cage".
    Finally, the main event: Street Drum Corps came out and provided a Blue Man Group-esque drum intro. Then, in near darkness, you could barely make out the six figures of Linkin Park as they walked on stage. They opened their set with "One Step Closer" and raced into "Lying From You", "Somewhere I Belong", "No More Sorrow", "Papercut", "Given Up" and "From The Inside." Then the band was rocking hard for "Leave Out All The Rest, "Breaking the Habit" and "The Little Things Give You Away" that were real crowd pleasers. But the biggest screams of the night were reserved for "Crawling", when Chris Cornell walked onstage and helped Chester Bennington finish this song with fist pounds and hand grab gestures before Cornell left the stage and Linkin Park finished thier set with "Faint."
    The encore, a few minutes later, was great when Linkin Park came back out with Busta Rhymes and performed a rousing rendition of "We Made It". When the song ended, Busta Rhymes grabbed the mike and thanked and recognized Linkin Park as one of the best groups around which sent the crowd into deafening cheers and screams.
    The lights went out again but the crowd knew there was more. Then, the spotlight was on drummer Robert Bourdon for a drum solo before the buildup to the final encore, "Bleed It Out". As Linkin Park walked off the stage, they knew they had given everyone at the Susquehanna Bank Center an unbelieveable day of music. Stay tuned for the next report from the road!
– Gary Crouthamel, concert photo/journalist