Parked in Mumbary

 Nostalgia isn't the right feeling to describe something that feels more like a rebirth than a mere recall. To watch Linkin Park perform was like witnessing a family finally come to terms with grief and produce something familiar but new - not in the shadows of a lost titan but with broken pieces of Mirror of Erised in the hands of each member.

'My name is Mike, this is Emily. And in the role of Chester Bennington this afternoon is each one of you,' Shinoda had announced over a year ago when Linkin Park came back From Zero with their new vocalist Emily Armstrong. They didn't need to repeat this beautiful quote ever again - since the music spoke and continues to speak for itself. We sing Chester's lines. We all do that. We take our role very very seriously since the band returned like a Phoenix - with the Order of Chester. 

We sang again - in Mumbai. We sang Numb and Faint and Crawling and Castle of Glass with Emily and some of us who had not yet by-hearted Heavy is the Crown and the new numbers bounced and screamed to the voice of Emily and Mike. Mr Hahn sported a Tere Naam Salman bhai look and was at his wackiest best on the console. It all felt like a happy family ready to mesmerise the world once again.

Crying while singing Waiting for the End in 2026 felt cathartic. And when they played In the End i was transported to the roof of my nani's house 20 years ago where my cousins and I recorded a video on the song only to delete it from Youtube the next day after a morning epiphany of embarrassment. It was all familiar, but it wasn't truly nostalgic. It felt like a beginning of a promise - that the band will keep coming to India (after keeping us all waiting for so long all these years).

Emily is wonderful and I would like to see her sing her songs and Chester's too. It's a sign of a great band to break the habit after a tragedy and I think this group has achieved that. I want them to succeed in every way possible for their music is genre-defying and timeless as always. It's deeply personal and hence yet so universal. 

I just wished they had been more vocal when it came to the reciprocation of love addressing the long wait by Indian audiences. But i guess that is what Linkin Park is all about - the music that you already know and the professionalism that you didn't. No time for antics, just pure skill. 

Two hours flew by and i didn't even record any bit. Kept searching for a place for my head. You try to take the best of me? Go away!