Prominent Figures Gather to Pay Tribute to the Late Chester Bennington at Linkin Park’s Hollywood Bowl Celebration of Life

Chester Bennington, the front man of Linkin Park, was truly unique, and Friday night at the Hollywood Bowl served as a perfect reminder of that.

For the first time since Bennington killed himself at his Palos Verdes Estates home on July 20, a sold-out audience came to support the band’s remaining members as they took the stage. The band—vocalist and keyboardist Mike Shinoda, drummer Rob Bourdon, bassists Dave Farrell and Brad Delson, and DJ Joe Hahn—promised fans that the evening would be a celebration of life, and it certainly delivered.

“I lack the words to… Shinoda addressed the assembly, saying, “I don’t think any of us do, to thank you guys for coming.”

Even though a number of performers, including Korn’s Jonathan Davis, Machine Gun Kelly, Bebe Rexha, and Gavin Rossdale, came out to fill in the vocals and pay their due respect, it wasn’t the same without Bennington’s dynamic, charismatic delivery, who also possessed a very impressive vocal range.

The band opened with “Robot Boy,” to raucous cheers. It then moved into two somber tracks, “The Messenger” and “Iridescent.” The band performed a live version of “Roads Untraveled,” a song off their 2012 album “Living Things,” and by the time they reached “Numb,” they had let the crowd sing the whole song. For many of the supporters in attendance, this was the kick in the gut that set off a chain reaction. As 18,000 spectators sung along, a lone flashlight illuminated a microphone stand on stage. Even though there were a lot of notable people scheduled to be on stage that evening, Linkin Park members made sure that the fans were the ones who ultimately stole the show.With a hint of U2’s “With or Without You,” Ryan Key of Yellowcard gave a lovely performance of “Shadow of the Day,” while Rossdale carried the weight with the solemn tune “Leave Out All the Rest.” With the more upbeat “Somewhere I Belong,” where Japanese band One Ok Rock’s Takahiro Moriuchi flawlessly executed the song and its vigor, the melancholy subsided a little.

Every three or four songs, a video featuring Bennington would play. It generally showed him having fun with his singing and, in one instance, developing a new song dubbed “Unicorns & Lollipops.” Many viewers of the film, which had already circulated on YouTube, were singing along to the absurdly adorable made-up lyrics.