On Nov. 15, popular American rock bank Linkin Park performed in Israel, despite the fact that other bands and artists refuse to play there on account of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
One of the founding members of the band, Brad Delson (lead guitarist), identifies as Jewish, according to the Delson’s Wikipedia page (his Jew-fro seems to confirm that; check out the photo on the Wiki page), and the site also says that he went to L.A.-area high school Agoura High with Mike Shinoda, the rapper in the group.
The six-piece band performed at HaYarkon Park in Tel Aviv (other band members include Chester Bennington, Rob Bourdon, David Farrell and Joseph Hahn).
Linkin Park started out as a nu-metal band, mixing heavy rock riffs with hip-hop, but nowadays they do more emo-rock.
In high school, I rocked-out to their song “In the End,” off their debut album, “Hybrid Theory,” which sold a zillion records (certified Diamond, actually, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, which means 10 million albums sold in the U.S., which puts them in a club with only 104 other albums in the history of record sales, according to a list easily found with a Google search. Yup, I counted).
I didn’t think they could achieve that level of success on subsequent records, and they didn’t, but they still continued to do well, really well considering the sad state of the music industry, with their follow-ups, “Meteora” (2003) and “Minutes to Midnight,” (2007) each selling between two-to-four million records in the U.S. (Wikipedia).
The band released their latest album, “A Thousand Suns,” last September and the album, which the band described in a recent MTV interview as one with “concepts [that] blend human ideas with technology” – so a Concept Album, perhaps, which possibly addresses nuclear warfare (song titles include, “Burning in the Skies,” “Blackout, and “Fallout”)?—features the semi-reggae-infused single, “Waiting for the End,” a song that currently receives a lot—maybe too much—airplay on local L.A. rock radio station, KROQ. How do I know that? When my iPod battery runs out, I listen to KROQ.
The band went to Israel as part of the A Thousand Suns World Tour. At the beginning of 2011, they come to North America, with a stop at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Feb. 23. You can see more tour dates here.
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