Linkin Park makes surprise appearance on Kai Cenat's "Mafiathon 3" stream

Linkin Park has just revealed themselves as surprise musical guests during Kai Cenat's "Mafiathon 3" Twitch event. Cenat has rented a mansion in Los Angeles and taken up residence in one of its massive bedrooms for the subathon, setting a lofty goal of 763,000 gifted subscriptions for viewers to get the promised mystery performance. To nobody's surprise, his considerable audience obliged and met the goal 17 hours and 18 minutes into this livestream. Linkin Park, meanwhile, teased their appearance with a Story post on Instagram just minutes earlier, and their instruments, though mostly hidden from view, were already set up throughout the room in advance.

"Mafiathon" is a big subathon event which Cenat has become known for hosting once a year since the first in early 2023. The second edition, "Mafiathon 2", took place during November 2024, and this current run, "Mafiathon 3", kicked off on earlier this month on September 1. It is currently on its 25th consecutive stream. Per the stream title, 15% of the revenue from the subathon will be used to fund a school project in Nigeria. Linkin Park's performance is one of many goals; the highest one is an appearance by LeBron James if Cenat's viewers can get his channel to 1,000,000 subscriptions.

After crossing 763,000 gifts, the members of Linkin Park came out in view of the multiple cameras capturing the scene and forcefully announced their performance, while Cenat and his AMP cohorts stood in the background to watch. The band kicked things off with "What I've Done", followed by the From Zero hit "Heavy Is the Crown". "In the End", which came after, suffered from a slight technical issue as Alex Feder's lead harmonic line was inaudible for a few bars during the first verse. The short set was then closed out with "The Emptiness Machine" and "Faint", complete with the usual set-ending extended outro.

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This is Linkin Park's first appearance on Kai Cenat's channel and the first time they've performed live for a Twitch streamer in this manner at all. Aside from the couple of occasions where "The Emptiness Machine" has been played with a stripped-down arrangement in more intimate spaces, none of the From Zero songs have been performed in this kind of setting before. The band was not the least bit deterred, though, and brought the energy just like they would for an arena show. By the end of the set, there were over 96,000 viewers tuned in and cheering in response.

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Linkin Park only just finished up their considerable North American leg of the From Zero World Tour, playing the final show in Seattle yesterday before appearing on Cenat's livestream in Los Angeles at around 3 AM local time. After wrapping up their performance for the stream, the band members signed a PC that will eventually go to a randomly-picked viewer. They then had a brief chat with Cenat and took a group photo to mark the occasion, before finally going to get their well-earned rest after their big tour.

At time of writing, you can re-watch the performance via the VOD of the current livestream. The stream's chat is seen hitting the 763,000 sub goal at around the 17:17:50 mark, and the members of Linkin Park then make their dramatic entrance at about 17:20:30.

Setlist:

1. "What I've Done"
2. "Heavy Is the Crown"
3. "In the End"
4. "The Emptiness Machine"
5. "Faint"

 

Individual songs:











Full appearance:

 

If I hadn't known ahead of time that this was happening, I would have completely missed it. I tuned in when they were about 200 subs out from the goal and, just minutes later, it was on

I don't watch a lot of Americans and I don't follow Kai Cenat but he's obviously well-known in the world of music so it's hard not to know him by reputation.

EDIT: I liked hearing WID because it's one of my favourite live songs right now. I kind of wish they'd done "Two Faced" instead of HITC, but I guess HITC is one of their big hits from this cycle

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