Linkin Park at the Town Hall

By AIDAN RASMUSSEN

The young and the disaffected descended upon the Auckland Town Hall to see American Nu-metallers Linkin Park.

Wash, this country's version of the eardrum-bursting genre, warmed up the crowd with their Rage Against The Machine-influenced chug. Their set was thunderous and tight and possibly a little more original than the atomic assault that followed them.

Linkin Park were chanted onto the stage by an expectant crowd. They were not disappointed. Not only is this generation's voice loud, it's also a crowd-pleaser. The southern Californians smashed their way through an energetic and melodic set like a jackhammer and had the audience jumping.

A collective howl of appreciation went up when the first few notes of current single Crawling were played. It's quite unsettling hearing 1000 frantic teenagers sing, "I felt this way before, so insecure."

The vocals of Chester Bennington - one-half of a twin vocal attack - were superb and swung from vicious bark to sonorous soar. Their true quality was on display when he sang solo the Janes Addiction classic Jane Says. For a moment there I could've sworn Perry Farrell had stepped up to the mike. Perry who? Janes who? A voice for another generation. One that would have gone way over the heads of the kids on Tuesday night.

Linkin Park are a fans' band, and while they're not groundbreaking, what they do, they do very well. Bennington and Mike Shinoda, who supported his melodious partner with his mellifluous rapping, worked the room expertly, climbing atop speakers and thrusting mikes into the crowd.

The kids loved every minute, especially the end, when an over-excited Bennington clambered up a speaker stack, pulled himself upstairs and spent 10 minutes shaking hands and hugging his overawed faithful.

What more can a fan ask for?