Good Goodbye Anthracite LP Tribute

The year was 2011 and an old Sony Erission W888 had just come into my possession. The world was suddenly full of possibilities- and above everything was the ability to listen to my own music, just like all the cool adults did. In a train ride that same year, I had come prepared- with all of my four songs - Waka Waka, Waving Flags, Kilimanjaro and Leave out all the rest. I remember not sleeping that night, tucked under IRCTC's blanket and sheet, listening on repeat.

Leave out all the rest was the first and for a long time the only Linkin Park song that I had heard, loved and listened to non stop. It was much much later in life when I got to really, and I mean really listen to all of LP. Numb, Faint, Burning in the skies, Not alone, Breaking the habit, Iridescent, Blackbirds became staples throughout my teenage. I remember once (I hope memory serves me right here,) my schoolmates Ritvik Rajvanshi and Aryaendra Shekhar performed Numb in our school assembly and I had uncontrollable glee of knowing it, loving it and singing along.

But since that train journey, Leave out all the rest has remained my favourite Linkin Park song, only to ever be seconded by Roads Untravelled. Over the years, every Linkin Park song, every line, every lyric, every emotion made way into my life in some way or the other.

2017, sitting next to a window, head titled against the glass pane, hiding in the curtain, I watched Chester performing One More Light, and I bawled, uncontrollable. In a sky of a million stars, I did care, and I was powerless. I don't like listening to that album and it takes truly similar levels of heartache to get to it. I'm grateful to Mike for teaching us how to carry on, via Post Traumatic, a constant companion of mine since its release.

Cut to 2023-

My elder brother discovered LP through some DBZ thing way back in late 2000's. Like all things passed down in Indian households, I got that too. So when he told me there's a band called Anthracite, that performs LP tribute concerts, I knew I wanted to see them. So, in June 2023, excitement in our hearts, we made way to HRC in Bangalore and we came prepared - up late the previous night, we taped some string lights on a card board, placed it inside a comic-con bag and carried it along-

Up until that night, I had never met so many LP fans, I had never seen a band perform LP songs so well, I hadn't known how beautiful and loving this community was- strangers together, we sang along. That's what Anthracite gave me, us, everyone - a place where we belonged, where so many people came for a shared emotion, for a shared love, a place where we sang our hearts out. I had a great time that night. Anthracite was amazing. And yes, my eardrums no longer work from Bleed it Out but it was worth it, a thousand times over.

The band recently announced that they are saying goodbye to Linkin Park Tribute by Anthracite and will be performing their final tribute via The Good Goodbye Tour. I'm not ready. I also won't be able to see them perform it live one last time. Anthracite gave us LP fan so much that it's really heartbreaking and sad to see them stop. But they too are navigating life, and I'm grateful for everything the band did for us- the show they put on and the memories they gave us. Thank you Dev, Deep, Shubham, Mehar, Abhishek, Sharukh and all the LP fans from that night.

-forever Anthracite, R.