Linkin Park headlined Rock am Ring at the Nürburgring in Germany on Friday, 5 June, returning to one of Europe’s largest rock festivals for the first time in twelve years. The performance balanced nostalgia with renewal, drawing on the band’s three-decade catalogue while marking a new chapter in its history.
Before taking the stage, the band premiered a trailer for Unshatter, an upcoming documentary project subsequently announced on its official social media channels.
The set opened with “With You", a song that had not been performed live since 2014 and had not opened a show since 2012. In a deliberate nod to the band’s history with the festival, the performance began with the original intro used during Linkin Park’s Rock am Ring appearance in 2001. Vocalist Emily Armstrong stepped out in a colour scheme echoing that worn by the late Chester Bennington at that same show, before launching into the track with a sharp opening scream.
The setlist drew from multiple eras of the band’s discography, featuring “Somewhere I Belong", “Lying from You", “A Place for My Head", and "IGYEIH". During the introduction to “A Place for My Head", co-founder and multi-instrumentalist Mike Shinoda briefly paused the performance to check on the safety of concertgoers in the crowd before continuing.
Shinoda later performed the opening verse of “Reading My Eyes” — one of the band’s earliest recorded songs — layered over “Bleed It Out", weaving the group’s origins into a set that consistently connected its past with its present.
Friday’s headline slot represented one of the band’s most significant festival appearances since reforming with a new lineup following Bennington’s death in July 2017. Armstrong and drummer Colin Brittain now perform alongside Shinoda as part of that reconfigured lineup, which has continued to tour and record since its public announcement in 2024.
