Damn it Chester.... Why?

Day 18

Sitting down on the computer a bit earlier today particularly to prevent rushing into my ideas because it's too late and tiredness.   Every morning when I sat in my car to drive to work, I normally put my office address on the GPS to prevent (or mentally prepare) for any delay along the way and as "music" I tend to either be listening to "Elvis Duran and the Morning Show" or listening to some YouTube video.

My radio, for whatever reason, sometimes changes the audio input automatically and starts playing the music I have on the CD player (yes, CD player in 2023) but I could never be happier with the music that starts playing.  I have inserted the album "Minutes to Midnight" by Linkin Park which I honestly think is my all-time favorite band.

You see, when I discovered them, it was at the very beginning of career when "One Step Closer" started to creep into MTV and MTV Latino and I instantly fell in love with the song.  In general, I consider myself someone generally very calm and I avoid conflict as much as possible, for many years I didn't even say a curse word out of respect for my parents but at the same time I felt like I was holding in too much.

In the 2000, when this song came out, I was full on teenager who honestly thought no one understood me but my friends from high school but even with them I felt a bit misunderstood (we spent way too much time arguing non-senses) but in my family environment not my brothers (where the closest ones were either 3 years younger or 5 years older) and definitely not my parents whom for whatever reason decided not to be interested in my interests.

The song starts with a guitar rift that rapidly turns into a heavy rock song with the following lyrics:

I cannot take this anymore

I'm saying everything I've said before

All these words they make no sense

I find bliss in ignorance

Less I hear the less you'll say

But you'll find that out anyway

Just like before...

And oh boy oh boy how I related to that, you see the song set loose of my teenage anger.  I felt on top of the world listening to it and when the chorus came around:

Everything you say to me

Takes me one step closer to the edge

And I'm about to break

I totally got into the "fuck everything and everyone" mode.  I liked them so much that I started looking for music alike, but I had to remind myself that "your parents don't like that kind of music" since you know, it was "satanic".  Nowadays I find so dumb that line of thinking since it created so many problems between my older brother and my parents because he liked Nirvana, Metallica and music alike.  I tend to stay away from it for too long but when I discovered that, I overdid it.

I started to tell my friend to listen to Linkin Park and others, and I remember clearly Luis saying, "Linkin Park es una mierda" (Linkin Park is a piece of shit - and Luis, I have witnesses to that) and I was like "OK whatever".  Following the success of "One Step Closer" they released "Crawling" and for me that was even a bigger and better song with way deeper lyrics that touched on topics I rarely talk about like domestic abuse, isolation, anxiety and insecurities that I had then (and carry some till now).

This song cemented them in my mind as the best shit ever and I was very happy that even though one of my best friends hated the band, I had this little treasure for myself, but then, they released their third single and my "mostly unknown band" because a household name with "In the End", a freaking great song that broke barriers between the rock and pop world, and funny enough after that one, Luis started to like the band (bandwagon fan).

Besides their relatable lyrics and amazing music, one other aspect that I really like about the band is that they made a lot of use of technology on their videos (CGI at times where it was not very common), the anime references, the arrangements of the music felt very modern, the look of the lead members which I always wanted to copy but never went ahead with it (my parents then and now would kill me lol).

As time went on, they kept releasing albums and continued their very successful career and me enjoying every single new release.  When I found myself living in Miami one of my main objectives was "now that I'm in the USA, as long as I can, I will go to all the concerts of my favorite anglo artist" since back in my days in DR, an American/European act would rarely play in my home country.  I closely followed Linkin Park and as soon as they announced that the "A Thousand Suns World Tour" would play in Sunrise, FL (nearby) I bought my tickets and on January 20, 2011, my dream came true, and I was able to see them live. NOTE: I didn't cry like a fangirl with Justin Bieber out of self-respect.

The next time I would have the opportunity to see them live was in 2014 but I remember clearly that their concert was right after I came back from a 3-day festival (Lollapalooza) in Chicago, so I passed on that opportunity but when they announced their "One More Light Tour" I got my tickets right away and waited until August 20th, 2017.  Sadly, a month prior, on July 20th, 2017, Chester Bennington, the lead singer of Linkin Park died by suicide and that's when I understood how a death of somebody you didn't know at all can affect you.

I texted a friend right away, someone who just like me idolized Linkin Park and someone who had confess me suicidal thoughts, anxieties and other metal health issues, to talk about life and not let this tragedy get to him, since you never know what could trigger an episode, but this particular story is material for another day.

But well, long story short, I'm a fucking fanboy of Linkin Park and will be until I cease to exist.

Me in 2011 at the end of the "A Thousand Suns World Tour" - may not be visible in the picture, but I was the happiest I could be (and as aphonic as possible)