I would like to do a review on the single greatest concert of my life. Well, it�s gonna be a little more than a review. Sunday July 29, 2007 I went and saw my very favorite band Linkin Park live in concert. I had already seen them live about 4 years ago. I was on the lawn the whole show, this time I was a lot closer, but I�ll talk more about that a little later. The reason Linkin Park is my favorite band is they sing a lot about painful emotional suffering and I can relate. I can honestly say I�ve experienced all of their songs once or twice my whole life (I�ve gone through a lot of bullshit). So their music is very cathartic for me, and seeing them live is �the icing on the cake�.

I had been waiting for Linkin Park to come back to the Bay since the last time they were here 4 years ago. I found out they were coming to town about 3 months ago. Like last time they played at Shoreline Amplitheater in Mountain View CA. So I woke up at 8:00am on Sunday 7/29 excited as hell. I had to spare change for hours the night before to get money for Caltrain. When I woke up I went to a free breakfast feeding for street people. Then I went to the methadone clinic for my daily dose of �get well juice�. Then I was on my way! Happy happy joy joy!!!

I got to Mountain View at about 1pm. The opening bands started at 12:45pm, already I was missing out on the action! I had to walk the 3 miles from the Caltrain station to the concert. So I probably didn�t get there until 2pm. I had $25 dollars in my wallet for a ticket, but when I got there I found out that tickets were actually $30. Well it was $30 for lawn tickets and $70 for front area seats. So I started to half ass panhandle the extra $5 I needed. Then I was approached by a kinda younger mother with her baby in a stroller. She asked me if I wanted to buy the ticket she had for $25. Lucky me! It turned out to be a $70 ticket. I felt blessed.

So once I got in I decided to check out some of the opening bands on the venue�s 2nd stage. The band Mindless Self Indulgence was playing. I had never heard of them. But it was cool �cuz the 2nd stage was on flat ground (unlike the main stage that is all seats until you get to the far back which is a semi steep hill which also means no crowd surfing). The mosh pit was kicking up so much dust that I had to wrap my black bandanna around my face just so I could breathe! The crowd was so tightly packed that right away I got some kidz to give me a boost so I could crowd surf. I hadn�t crowd surfed in years! Fun fun! After I was there for about 20-30 minutes I noticed a pretty tall, kinda good looking chick staring at me. I couldn�t tell if she was checking me out or what. After a few minutes of us staring at each other back and forth she approached me and said �What�s up Fish. Long time no see!� It tuned out to be my old friend from Berkeley Raven. We hung out for a few minutes, half moshed. It was fun moshing with her �cuz she�s just as tall as me and I�m 6�4. Then all of a sudden I was attacked by a huge hug. It was another one of my old friends Sunshine. Actually we�ve been on again off again fuck buddies for years. She asked me if I was going out with any body. When I said no she grabbed me and we started making out in the middle of the crowd. I felt pretty proud �cuz she�s pretty hot. I jumped on top of the crowd to crowd surf one more time. After that I went to go check out my seat before I met back up with Sunshine. I was hella close to the stage I was like 16 rows from the stage! Then I met back up with Sunshine and we ran around making out at different spots until Linkin Park was about to come on the main stage. She and I were there for one band: Linkin Park. Right after the band before Linkin Park got finished playing I got Sunshine�s phone # and we parted ways. I promised to call her so we could hook up at a later date in the near future. I went to go find my seat. I was so excited! I couldn�t wait to see Linkin Park play!

I was sitting in my seat when I saw the lights begin to dim. I jumped up out of my seat and started cheering with the rest of the roaring crowd. Then all I could hear was heavy ass machine gun guitar. Hell yes they were starting off with �No More Sorrow� off their newest album �Minutes To Midnite�, which is their heaviest song ever. It was so fuckin� bad-ass hearing it live. After a few songs Mike Shinoda the bands MC said �This song is dedicated to all the Linkin Park Street Soldiers that are here tonight!� I am a Linkin Park Street Soldier and I am fuckin� proud of it. Anyway they started playing �Papercut� which is the first song off their first album �Hybrid Theory�. I fully understood what he meant. After a few more songs the stage got pitch black for a minute or two. Then a spotlight was shining on Mike Shinoda sitting behind a keyboard slowly starting out the song �Pushing Me Away�. Another spotlight started shining on Chester Bennington the bands lead singer. It was just the two of them the whole song when normally for that song it�s the whole band jamming out. It was fucking amazing! Chester Bennington then asked the crowd to either hold their lit lighters up or their lit cell phone screens up in the air. After a few seconds I looked back and all I saw was a sea of cell phone screens and tiny flames. Chester Bennington said that was honestly the most beautiful thing he ever saw. I 100% agree. The next song they did was �Hands Held High� which is the only political, anti war song they have ever done. Mike said that was the first time they ever did it live. I felt truly honored they played it live for the first time for us. When they played the last song it was one of my favorites, the song is called �Faint�. At that point I was beginning to wonder if they were gonna play it. It was a truly amazing concert.

One thing I almost forgot to mention is, I have been to lots if concerts in my day and I�ll probably go to lots more. But this was my first concert clean and sober. I just felt like sharing that.