Chester Responds to Hellfest Projectile

Fan response to Linkin Park‘s poppy single “Heavy” is still as strong as ever, as seen during the band’s recent appearance at this year’s Hellfest in France. During their performance of the track, a member of the audience tossed a projectile at Chester Bennington, catching him off guard momentarily. Watch footage above.

It seemed to rile him up for a second, motioning a “bring it” to whoever tossed it from the audience, before calming down and having a laugh about it. Bennington finished up the song in a pretty good mood, and you can hear audience members sing along with the song.

The singer would later post on Twitter, voicing his feelings on what happened, and recounting the events from his own perspective.

It’s been a strange and interesting few months in the Linkin Park world, both for the band themselves and their longtime fans. After the band’s poppier new single “Heavy” was met with a polarizing response, singer Chester Bennington responded to the criticism by telling fans to “move the f– on” and stating that he would punch out people “in the f–king mouth” for calling the band sellouts. It created an ouroboros of anger as fans and peers weighed in. Slipknot’s Corey Taylor was among those responding, telling Bennington to “be fortunate for what you have.”

It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few months as One More Light settles into the rest of the band’s discography. Despite the uproar over it by some fans, the shift in style did seem to pay off for the band, as the record shot to No. 1 on the Billboard charts.

Introducing these songs to their live show may have the potential of bringing out a new element that one might not hear from the way the songs were produced. Time will tell how history looks back upon this period of time for the band.