Live in Texas

Linkin Park's insanely powerful concert set is now available on the CD+DVD package Live In Texas. With the CD tentatively featuring 12 songs and the DVD 17 (plus backstage footage), recorded in August at Houston's Reliant Stadium and Irving's Texas Stadium, Live In Texas expands on the continuing momentum of the band's #1, nearing triple-platinum album Meteora.

Recorded on the Dallas date of the 2003 Summer Sanitarium arena tour, with Metallica, Limp Bizkit, et. al, Live in Texas is a concise, no-frills two-disc DVD/CD souvenir of the muscular Linkin Park live experience. 5.1 Surround Sound captures every nuance of Brad Delson's explosive guitar, the incendiary turntable flourishes of DJ Joseph Hahn, and the interplay between MC Mike Shinoda and singer Chester Bennington (although the audience sing-along on "Numb" gets lost across the barricades), as the sextet runs through a tight set of selections drawn exclusively from its bestsellers Hybrid Theory and Meteora, with the big hits ("Crawling," "In the End") programmed toward the climax. Casual fans may grumble about the absence of extras--there's no backstage-with-the-band documentary or viewing angle options, no previously unreleased songs--but hardcore devotees (who get plenty of face time on the DVD) should appreciate the opportunity to revisit the thrills of Linkin Park in concert whenever they wish. --Kurt B. Reighley