Linkin Park recently busted out some of their controversial new pop songs live at French heavy metal extravaganza Hellfest and needless to say some metalheads in the crowd did not take too kindly to the performance.
A bunch of punters flipped off frontman Chester Bennington during his rendition of the former nu-metal band’s ironically soft single ‘Heavy’ and someone also hurled a plastic jug at him.
But the LP frontman seemed unfazed by the hate, shooting off a series of post-show tweets to prove it:
Hell fest was fun. Had a blast watching people mosh to In the End and then flip me off when we played Heavy. I blew them kisses?
— Chester Bennington (@ChesterBe) June 19, 2017
After I blew kisses to the guys flipping me off. They smiled and gave me heart hands back.
— Chester Bennington (@ChesterBe) June 19, 2017
I welcomed the huge crowd of condemned souls to HELLFEST in my metal voice then we played Invisible. The look of shock on people's faces??
— Chester Bennington (@ChesterBe) June 19, 2017
All kidding aside…. the crowd was great and handled our set pretty well. Our French fans are awesome.
— Chester Bennington (@ChesterBe) June 19, 2017
Does anyone else find it funny that the same people calling us sellouts are suggesting that we change our set to conform to HELLFEST ?
— Chester Bennington (@ChesterBe) June 19, 2017
It’s a surprisingly chill reaction from the vocalist, whose reactions to hate over Linkin Park’s new sound so far have been pretty aggro. He threatened to punch and/or kill anyone who called the band sell-outs after telling fans to “move the fuck on from Hybrid Theory“ but has since backtracked on the harsh comments.
Watch footage of a fan throwing a jug at Bennington while he sings ‘Heavy’ live at Hellfest below.