In the summer of 2001, Christine (my older sister) introduced me to Linkin Park's first album, Hybrid Theory. I was on a twelve hour drive to New York City with the rest of the family, and I remember her playing "Crawling" for the first time. It was different. It was hard rock. It was awesome! Once in the Big Apple, I found a street vender selling burned CD's for $5 (this was a new business at the time, and we didn't have a CD burner at home. Yes, I realize purchasing this CD was illegal. Yes, I'm criminal). I found the Hybrid Theory amongst the music selection, paid the vender, and played that CD till it broke. Literally. I physically played it so much that it started skipping even though it was scratch-free. This actually happened again, and I'm now on my third copy of Hybrid Theory. Linkin Park's second released album, Meteora, was even better. It was an awesome compilation of songs and I'm probably on my third copy of that as well. The third Linkin Park CD released was a remixed collection of the first two hits and was titled Reanimation. It was like rediscovering my favorite songs all over again. Pure genius. The fourth CD released was Minutes to Midnight with the hit "New Divide" featuring in the Transformers movie. It was a great CD where they also experimented with some slower beats and new topics. The fifth CD, A Thousand Suns, was released in September 2010, and I remembering counting down the days to its release. The overall theme of the newest CD was very different from the previous ones. The first CD contained songs about built up pressures, expectations, and anger surrounding these issues. This newest released CD is politically and historically based. Just as I have grown and matured, so have Linkin Park and their choice of lyrical topics. I love them more than any band on the planet. So, when the 2011 tour dates were released I jumped on the chance to finally see them in concert. See, when I started liking Linkin Park they had already toured for Hybrid Theory. When Meteora came out, I couldn't get off work to go see them in Nashville because all my other coworkers had asked off. When Minutes to Midnight was released, I was dirt poor. I couldn't afford a slushy at sonic. So, I missed my chance yet again. Now, there were no excuses and nothing was holding me back. Rob bought us tickets to the Atlanta concert on January 23rd for my birthday. I was ESTATIC, and that's an understatement. The concert was everything I had hoped it would be. I had wanted to see Linkin Park in concert so bad that I thought I might cry at the concert (which would be hilarious while watching a rock show). Rob said he'd leave me if I cried ;-) So, I kept it together, sang my heart out, cheered till my teeth hurt (seriously!), and had the time of my life. I'm taking that memory to the grave. Last night was one of the greatest nights of my life, and I don't care if that makes me a dork. Mark it off the bucket list.
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