Projekt Revolution 2008 Set Times

This is from the booklet they gave out at the entrance and not specific to the Dallas show. Keep in mind that show times could change.

Just Blane and I went to this one. Since it was just the two of us, we got gold seats which means they mailed us a package with a couple of metal Linkin Park water bottles, LP bandanas, and a lanyards to wear. The seats were pretty close to the stage and I am getting quite good at sneaking my DSLR into concerts. Haven’t uploaded anything yet, but I’m sure I got at least one decent photo of the hundreds I took.

We couldn’t have asked for better weather. It threatened to pour down rain, but all we got was a cool breeze the entire evening.

This is the first year LP takes this tour to Europe and I understand they sold more tickets to each show there than they did in the States. Maybe we are too spoiled with all the great music that comes around here.

Linkin Park’s performance was just as energetic as last year’s show but the voices were a bit worn as the they hit Dallas late in the tour this time around. Still excellent, but not as flawless as last year.

Projekt Revolution 2007 Set Times

Here’s something I wish we’d been able to find online before the show, what times the bands are playing. One would think it’s printed on the ticket. It’s not.

This is from the booklet they gave out at the doors and not specific to the Dallas show. Keep in mind that show times could change. The shows did run about 15 minutes earlier than this schedule.

Also, if you are unable to get to Projekt Revolution, see it live online in August at myspace.com/nowwhat. Or you could paste this url into your media player and get a better stream:

http://myspacecom.edgeboss.net/wmedia-live/myspacecom/23091/750_myspacecom-projekt_revolution_070821.asx

If anyone knows the day of that MySpace show, speak up. [Edited note: The concert will air on August 22nd at 4:30 PM EST, 1:30 PST.]

Don’t miss Spanky’s Review of Projekt Revolution 2007.

If you are looking for 2008 set times, click here.

Spanky’s Projekt Revolution Review (Part 2)

This is my fourteen year-old daugter’s (Spanky’s) review of the last two bands that played at Project Revolution 2007 (Dallas):

It seems that every time I see My Chemical Romance they get better, and this was no exception. It was a flawless performance. Well, not entirely, but the flaws had nothing to do with the music and more to do with the… interesting behavior.

I’ll chalk it all up to the possibility that Gerard was simply feeling… rambunctious yesterday, and entirely ignore a possibility that he’s totally gay.

Because those dance movements made me bury my head and say softly to myself, “No, noo, nooooo.”

Ray, the lead guitarist, was, as always, almost stoic in that all he did was stand there and play. I like that about him, he’s a no-nonsense and no-pretending-to-be-gay sort of guy, he just straight up rocks out. I could see him smiling, though, and I also like it when I can see someone truly enjoying themselves performing.

In truth, Ray Toro does not get the attention he deserves.

This, of course, was ended when Gerard told him to take off his shirt.

Well, he also told Frank to take off his shirt, and he complied, so he then got Ray to take off his shirt, too. The fangirls were drooling, and anticipating the possibility of Gerard taking off his shirt as well. Luckily he didn’t, because if he had he probably would’ve gotten attacked by one of those aforementioned rabid fangirls.

Of course, I’m sure it was a relief to be taking off all of that hot, black clothing, because they must have been absolutely roasting under the pressure of the Texas heat, as well as the spotlights, not to mention the pyrotechnics.

Yes, pyrotechnics.

At first they scared me, then they fascinated me.

Because honestly, who can resist fire?

There were great columns of it shooting up from the machines whose purpose I now knew. Alternatively, they shot out firework-like things, and there was a point during “Welcome to the Black Parade” where another great machine rained sparks upon them.

And I, standing comfortably by my seat, hot and sweaty in a way but not as hot and sweaty as they were surely getting, could not help but think that this all seemed very dangerous.

I also felt a great wave of sheer pity for Bob, the drummer.

He was, after all, right next to the fire-machines, wearing a long-sleeved button-up black shirt, the sleeve of which he’d rolled up to his elbows. It must have been like an inferno, not to mention that he really, really pounds on those drums with all he’s got.

Also, Bob was the one who got a second-degree burn from some unruly pyrotechnics in one of their videos, so one could imagine that he was at least a little afraid of getting burned a second time.

It was when Gerard told the crowd to mosh and named a man in a Wrestlemania shirt the, “dance commander,” that I realized something about this crowd.

Simply put, they were not exactly overly enthusiastic.

This saddened me greatly.

I couldn’t even see Sir Dance Commander doing anything, much less the rest of the pit.

Sure, they would pump their fists in the air at times, but I didn’t really see any moshing or crowd-surfing.

Well, there went my entertainment for the night.

My Chemical Romance’s show was, I think, designed with the specific purpose of energizing the crowd. All of the songs they played were upbeat, with the exception of the song they played for closing, “Cancer.”

While I do very much love their fast-paced songs, I like seeing the maturity projected in their slower songs, the world-wariness and the wisdom.

There was one thing, though, that I missed dearly.

To make what would be a tedious, drawn-out paragraph full of adjectives commonly used whilst one is mourning, I missed Gerard acting all grown-up. I know we can’t act mature all the time, and maybe he just wanted to let loose and have fun, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. Much.

Actually, there were two things I missed.

The second was Mikey, bassist and very cute brother of Gerard. Where are you, man? Your absence is being grieved right about now by about fifty thousand fangirls (myself included), you know. Well, I can’t blame you for needing time off to deal with stuff, but still. Poo.

I love watching “Cancer” live. I can feel the emotion in the air, heavy and heady, hanging around and building with each word and each chord struck on the piano until it’s nearly crushing. You can taste the sorrow, because a lot of the people there know what it’s like to lose someone. Every sadness is different, but they mix and mingle together, creating an atmosphere that’s been unrivaled at every single concert I’ve been to.

Gerard stands in the spotlight, singing along softly with the piano, the air vibrating with the emotion he’s able to convey through that amazing voice.

All too soon (and this time I really mean it), it’s over and the backdrop is gone and the instruments are being transported off by the roadies and people are starting to collect inside the auditorium-like thing, waiting.

Waiting for Linkin Park.

To be honest and not a kiss-up, I don’t really like Linkin Park. More like I really don’t like Linkin Park. They’ve got a few good songs, sure, but they’re not my type.

They set up, but I hadn’t really been paying attention.

In front of the stage were two very large expanses of thin, white material, veiling the stage.

And, of course, when the band got on stage we saw their silhouettes.

Leave it to musicians to have a thing for being melodramatic.

Instead of just having fun being silhouettes, they also had to have tons of colorful, flashing lights in the background.

There were enough strobe lights to make a horse epileptic.

Men around me were screaming like little girls and I was extremely disturbed.

Even if I don’t like Linkin Park too much and I wasn’t paying attention, really, I must admit that they played extraordinarily.

And, of course, the crowd actually got responsive. There were tons of crowd surfers, even if I couldn’t really see any mosh pits. Everyone was singing along and pumping their fists. People who had been lounging around outside of the auditorium-thing rushed in to watch and hear.

This influx of human life made for one very hot place.

And one smelly crowd.

I could feel the heat radiating off of all of the crazed fans, taste the sweat (which isn’t exactly delicious). All manifestations of the indescribable amount of heat were tangible at that time.

The band was also feeling this heat, which wasn’t surprising, seeing how many lights they had up. Originally, Bennington (because Chester is an awkward name) was wearing a black leather jacket, but he stripped down to a white tank top sort of shirt that ended up being totally drenched in sweat. You could see the sweat trickling off their faces on the big screens.

Personally, I think Bennington has a voice that is much more proper for something like opera. Don’t ask me why, I don’t really know. It’s a strange, strange thing.

We left before the actual end of the show, seeing as we didn’t really want to get stuck in post-concert traffic as we usually were and they’d played all of the songs we actually knew.

When I got home, all I really wanted to do was wash off all the sweat and go to sleep. I could feel its gritty presence on my skin, and that’s never pleasant.

Concerts are always so exhausting. -Spanky

If you missed Part One, check it out here.

For some shirtless shots of MCR, see MCR Unwrapped.

For Project Revolution Set times click here

Edited Note: If you are a Linkin Park fan headed to Projekt Revolution, make sure to check out the booths where you can buy a live recording of Linkin Park’s performance for that night. How? You buy the code to download the audio off the internet the next day. Take it as a promise the show is going to be stellar if they are preselling live recordings. Linkin Park is one of the best live performances we’ve ever been. Chester Bennington’s voice is as close to perfect as it gets. He doesn’t even need a mic. LP’s performance makes good on their promise in terms of music, vocals, performance, energy, crowd interaction…It’s got it all. -Kitty

Spanky’s Projekt Revolution Review (Part One)

As promised, Spanky did a review of a concert we just attended on Saturday, Projekt Revolution. It is a unique perspective because she is only fourteen. Don’t run off yet, the kid can write. Maybe one day you’ll see her work in The Rolling Stone. You never know.

Here she goes:

The drive to the Smirnoff Music Center was a long one. Well, sort of. When you’re fidgety it’s always a long drive, and I hadn’t brought any books with me, pity. So when we (we being my mother, father, and myself, as usual) got to the gates, they passed these weird detector things over us.

Long story short, they found my granola bar. They tried to make me throw it away, too. Over by another guard, they found my mom’s umbrella and apparently, you can’t take umbrellas in, either. So of course, while my dad was causing a ruckus about the umbrella, I slipped the granola-y goodness back into my pocket and kept on walking.

All of this commotion allowed us to sneak in some chicken nuggets for my sister, after all.

So we drifted about for a few minutes, sitting in the grass and talking with my sister and her friend and eating some of her chicken nuggets and a snowball. Then we figured since Taking Back Sunday was coming on soon we’d better hurry off to our seats.

So we lounged around in our seats while they set up for Taking Back Sunday, and here I’d like to take out the time to point out a rather infuriating concert phenomenon.

When the roadies (a.k.a. the people who cart the band’s stuff about) come onto the stage bearing an instrument or some other piece of equipment, the crowd will cheer loudly. It’s louder than loud. People often cheer louder for the roadies than the bands, which is just… puzzling.

I mean, yes, they do drag around the SAME GUITAR THAT YOUR HERO TOUCHED and they should get some credit for doing all the manpower-like work for your favorite effeminate rock stars, but they don’t really do anything other than the hauling and the tuning, so they don’t deserve more attention than the people who created the music that you bought your ticket to listen to live. (Sorry roadies. You are really cool. But not that cool.)

So first we saw, rising slowly, their signature marquee with the words, “TAKING BACK SUNDAY,” and under that, “LOUDER NOW.”

The decibel level of the screaming was slowly getting more and more frightening as the marquee-thing was rising higher and higher until it stopped in its final resting position. Of course, just because it stopped did not mean that the fangirls did.

Then, of course, TBS came on, amidst the high-pitched screaming of way too many girls packed into one space at one time.

I have to say, I did not have high expectations for this show.

Taking Back Sunday has sounded (sorry, you guys) just awful the past few times I’ve seen them, so I didn’t really think that we’d be getting a fantastic concert. I mean, I seriously thought Adam’s voice was ruined forever.

Way to prove me wrong.

They actually played very well. Everything was in tune, perfectly, and on tempo and everything.

And of course, Adam could sing again. I mean, yes, he couldn’t hit a few of the high notes and that made for some really awful moments, but it sounded infinitely better than before, and, of course, he had his faithful guitarist to back him up (I’ve always wondered how he’s able to do that, play guitar and sing at the same time).

And, as always, it was just pure fun to watch Adam. He was swinging about the microphone again, which is pretty much the coolest thing ever. I’d been afraid he wouldn’t, because he didn’t for the first song or so, but then he did and I almost cried tears of joy.

Also, he looks a little like a T-Rex when he’s just standing there because of the way he holds the hands that’s not grasping the microphone. It’s rather amusing, really, and sort of cute in an, “I’m nervous and don’t know what to do with my hand,” sort of way.

Another interesting thing was his little box with the knobs next to the drums. He’d be holding a note and go back there and just amuse himself (or maybe just us) by twisting the knobs and distorting his voice. He genuinely looked like he was having fun with that, but maybe that’s just me.

The drummer was absent due to a herniated disc (how did that happen, I wonder?), so they had a fill-in drummer from another band, and he did a very good job of it.

The, “TAKING BACK SUNDAY,” bit on the aforementioned marquee was made of a bunch of lights, which danced around whilst they played.

It was all over too soon (actually, it seemed to be about the right time for it to end for me, but I’m sure the rabid fangirls would disagree [they always do]) and the band members left the stage. The lights of the marquee flicked off as it slowly descended to the ground, and out rushed the roadies to grab it and wheel it backstage.

And then they began to set up for My Chemical Romance.

They wheeled a piano onto the stage (ah, an actual piano and not a keyboard! Although there was a keyboard, too) and a backdrop unfurled. The backdrop was new, covered in wolves in what I assume is a promotion of, “House of Wolves,” one of their songs. There was also some equipment that I didn’t really know the purpose of, but that I’d find out later.

I personally think My Chemical Romance has a serious thing about playing at sunset. They always do. Maybe it has something to do with dualities or a very serious philosophical matter, but I wouldn’t know anything about that. And then again, maybe they just think that they look better in the waning sunlight.

One would not have to have their eyes open to know when Gerard got on the stage. What I mean by this is that they would be alerted by the high-pitched screeching and the possible shaking of the floor they were standing on, which could be attributed to said screeching.

Gerard looked fantastic.

Well, who am I kidding, he always does. But he somehow managed to look about five years younger than usual. He’d gotten a haircut, and he’d lost some weight, too.

This was all accented by the very tight clothing he was wearing, a change from his usual marching-band style Black Parade uniform. I could hear the fangirls’ hearts stopping, then starting again only going much, much faster than a normal heart should go. (Let’s pretend I’m not one of those fangirls.)

Click here for Part Two of Spanky’s Review. More MCR! Linkin Park!

For set times click here.