Show Review, Photos: Linkin Park Thrill Northern California In Sacramento For First Time In Over A Decade
Linkin Park
w/ JPEGMAFIA
Golden 1 Center
Sacramento, CA
September 17th, 2025
Review and Photos by Jaime Schultz
Things have changed significantly for Linkin Park within the last eight years. Their longtime vocalist, Chester Bennigton, passsed away unexpectedly in 2017. The band struggled to find a way forward, retreating into other projects and leaving the band in limbo as they navigated uncharted waters. Several years later, with a revised lineup that now includes vocalist Emily Armstrong stepping in for Bennington, Linkin Park has been taking arenas around the world by storm, bringing their highly anticipated ‘From Zero’ World Tour to Sacramento’s Golden 1 Center, thrilling a Northern California audience for the first time since their performance at Live 105’s Not So Silent Night in Oakland back in 2014.
The show was opened by JPEGMAFIA, utilizing every inch of the stage and rapping his way through songs. While he wasn’t as “crazy” as I had previously seen him in recent years - usually finding his way into the crowd or jumping onto the barricade - the performance was still quite good and a great way to kick things off for the evening.
After a ten-minute countdown timer hit zero and the intro song played, eliciting a roar of applause from the crowd, Linkin Park took the stage and ripped into Meteora favorites “Somewhere I Belong” and “Lying From You”. While there were a good deal of songs from their new album From Zero, this was a show for the diehard fans - pulling songs from classic LP albums like Hybrid Theory, Meteora and Minutes to Midnight to draw out some of the biggest and best reactions of the night. There was even a cover of “Where’d You Go” by Fort Minor, the side project of founding member/vocalist/guitarist Mike Shinoda.
The show was rather unique, in the sense that their stage was in the round - it allowed for a good seat in the house no matter where you resided, as each member moved around and interacted with the audience on the sprawling stage throughout the epic headlining set. Even the members that were more static - keyboardist Joe Hahn and drummer Collin Brittain - switched positions on the stage halfway through the set to give everyone on the other side of the stage the chance to get up close.
“We were told that Sac is a great place to play, and you guys didn’t disappoint,” Shinoda remarked to the crowd during the show. While it’s clear that things have changed in the Linkin Park camp over these last several years, vocalist Armstrong is doing an excellent job to help the band carry on their legacy and honor Bennington. It feels more like a group of friends getting together to play huge Linkin Park anthems in the biggest arenas in the world, rather than a band that is trying to actively “replace” anyone, as we’ve seen certain bands try to do over the years.
After four intense acts of fan favorite songs and new additions, Linkin Park closed out with a three-song encore that brought forth some of their biggest and best tracks - “Papercut”, “In The End”, and “Faint”, before sending the Sacramento crowd back into the night.
Linkin Park Set List
Somewhere I Belong
Lying From You
Up From The Bottom
New Divide
The Emptiness Machine
The Catalyst
Burn It Down
Stained
Where’d You Go (Fort Minor cover)
Waiting For The End
Lies Greed Misery
Two Faced
When They Come For Me/Remember The Name
Casualty
One Step Closer
Lost
Over Each Other
What I’ve Done
Overflow
Numb
A Place For My Head
Heavy Is The Crown
Bleed It Out
Encore:
Papercut
In The End
Faint
More photos coming soon. Stay tuned.
