March 14 & 15, 2026 - Sydney, Australia: From Zero World Tour

Photo by: @radnomadvisuals​

Linkin Park’s Oceania tour is starting back up this weekend with a two-night stop in Sydney, where the band will headline Qudos Bank Arena. These will be the band’s ninth and tenth times performing in Sydney, respectively, and the final dates in Australia for the From Zero cycle, with one Auckland, New Zealand performance following this. In spite of the unexpected curveball of Adelaide’s cancellation, the band looks poised to come back for their final dates in Australia with as much vigor as their previous ones.

The band will be taking the stage back-to-back at Qudos Bank Arena, which opened in 1999 as the Sydney SuperDome and is Australia’s largest indoor venue. Opening for them—as they have for all the previous dates in Australia—is Australian metalcore act Polaris. These Sydney shows will also be a homecoming of sorts for Polaris, who hail from the Sydney rock and metal circuit. The band’s inclusion of Polaris as part of their show gives these Sydney shows especially a local angle, and they are sure to give great performances for their return to their home city.

Like the rest of Australia, Sydney has not seen Linkin Park in over a decade, but before that did receive at least one visit per album cycle. Their first Sydney appearance was also their first time ever performing in Australia, on May 2, 2001, when the band played the Enmore Theatre. At the time, they were still a rising act on the heels of Hybrid Theory, and stopped in for a three-date Australia run with support from alternative rock band Sunk Loto, hailing from the state of Queensland.

The closest date to Sydney 2001 in circulation is the band's May 14 performance in Tokyo, 12 days later. The setlists are mostly similar, so this can give a rough idea of what the night in Sydney was like.​

The set featured every song from Hybrid Theory save for “Cure for the Itch,” as well as deep cuts “High Voltage” and “And One.” One of the most iconic pieces of lore from this show came from Mike Shinoda tour diary: the crowd’s intensity reportedly caused part of the floor to sink into a visible circular depression during the show. Quite an encouraging way for the band to start their live career in Australia.

Linkin Park returned to Sydney on October 11, 2003, during the Meteora cycle, coming back to Sydney as festival headliners for what turned out to be the final edition of Australia’s Livid Festival. The band played at all three dates of the festival across Melbourne, Brisbane, and Sydney that year, ripping through their Hybrid Theory and Meteora material. In Sydney, the band played a setlist quite similar to what they had played across the summer opening for Metallica, opening the show with Meteora album opener “Don’t Stay” and continuing through a setlist that quite fairly balanced their then-current two studio album. Many of the Hybrid Theory tracks included featured elements of their Reanimation counterparts worked in, with “P5hng Me A*wy” even being played in full over the original 2000 recording. That song and “Figure.09,” also part of the setlist, would not appear again after the end of the Meteora touring era. This Australia and Asia run was also the last life for “By Myself” outside of its singular performance in 2014 to celebrate Hybrid Theory’s birthday.

The final two songs of the night in Sydney from the band's 2003 Livid Festival performance.​

Sydney would see the band again for the Minutes to Midnight era, with the band returning almost exactly four years later on October 20, 2007 (overshooting by nine days). The band’s Australian presence had stepped up in a major way, with two headlining nights at the Sydney Entertainment Centre on their Australian/New Zealand run, alongside Chris Cornell. Those shows brought some of the band’s most classic live renditions of the era to New South Wales, such as the piano version of “Pushing Me Away,” a full performance of Minutes to Midnight deep cut “Hands Held High,” or the melancholic “The Little Things Give You Away” with its long keyboard intro.

“The Little Things Give You Away” was played both nights in 2007, though it seems likely this was the first night when it opened the encore set. Audio recording with fan graphic.​

Linkin Park then returned to the arena stage in December 2010 for another two-night stand, bringing A Thousand Suns to Acer Arena. These double Sydney dates were, interestingly enough, not in sequence, with two Melbourne dates in between. The later date also included the second-ever LPU Summit event beforehand, notably featuring an acoustic performance of “The Little Things Give You Away.” During that second show, two fans—brothers—were invited to play bass and guitar on “Faint,” giving Brad and Phoenix a song off. One of them, a fan frequenting the LPLive forums, also played on “Faint” several nights prior. Night two in Sydney was one of only three dates where “Iridescent” was cut during the entirety of the A Thousand Suns World Tour, likely due to the new additions of “Blackout” and “Burning in the Skies,” which had just debuted at the previous show in Melbourne.

Audience recording of the second-ever performance of "Blackout," during the band's second Sydney performance in 2010.​

Sydney last saw the band during the LIVING THINGS era, again for two dates, in February 2013. First came their Soundwave festival appearance on February 24, then a headlining show two days later on February 26, at Sydney Entertainment Centre, where they also played in 2007. Both dates had issues surrounding “Points of Authority,” with Soundwave having a fan injury and the headlining date featuring technical issues for both Brad and Joe. The latter show ended up being Linkin Park’s most recent Sydney performance for more than a decade. The band did not visit during the touring cycle for The Hunting Party, and nothing had been announced past the Japan shows in October for One More Light before the band ground to a halt in 2017.

Barricade audience recording of “With You” at Soundwave 2013.​

After Melbourne and Brisbane getting their long-awaited return visits from Linkin Park, it is finally Sydney’s return. The previous Australia dates have not let down in terms of setlists—both “Unshatter” and “Let You Fade” returned to the setlists after fans were beginning to presume they were lost. The From Zero bonus tracks finally returned for the first time since mid-September last year, with “Unshatter” performed for Brisbane night two and “Let You Fade” for Melbourne night one. Both were last played in Portland, Oregon, and didn’t appear at all for the South America, Bahrain, UAE, or India dates.

“Unshatter” performed live for Brisbane night two.​

Also returning for the first time in a while—also since Portland—was the lone representative of The Hunting Party this touring cycle, “Keys to the Kingdom.” The band rotated the song in for the “heavy” rotation slot mid-set for Melbourne’s second night, making the Portland returnees all night-after-night.

Linkin Park performs “Keys to the Kingdom” for Melbourne night two, completing the trio of songs last performed in Portland.​

Melbourne’s second night was also plagued with some difficulties later in the set, with Emily having some vocal issues that became apparent during “Lost.” Both “Stained” and “Heavy Is the Crown” were on the setlist for the night, but were skipped for presumably the same reason, likely due to vocal challenges both songs would present.

“Heavy Is the Crown” performed for night one in Melbourne. Sydney should see the triumphant return of this regular number!​

It seems likely the issues presented at Melbourne night two were related to the illness the band announced they were cancelling their show in Adelaide for. There is a bit of irony to it, considering that Adelaide was the last Oceania date announced. Nevertheless, it seems likely that Adelaide’s unfortunate cancellation has given the band time to recover and come back for Sydney at full strength before closing out this leg in Auckland.

With live streaming becoming more accessible than ever, fans at home have been able to watch shows on social media via YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram livestreams from attendees. While we are not asking our readers to livestream the show, if anyone reading this finds a stream or is streaming it themselves, let us know so we can watch along with you!

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Remaining shows:
March 18, 2026: Auckland, New Zealand

 

Seems to me like they wanted to add some more vocal rest. They dropped really scream-heavy songs.

 

Exactly the songs that I was questioning them leaving in if they needed to chill on screams. Makes perfect sense.