Projekt Revolution tour going strong for 5th year

By John Benson

Projekt Revolution is coming to Blossom Music Center.

During the 17 years since Perry Farrell redefined the summer concert experience by creating his genre-bending Lollapalooza tours, there have been plenty of similar-minded outings. One of the strongest direct descendants continues in the form of the Projekt Revolution Tour, which comes to Northeast Ohio for a show Tuesday at Blossom Music Center.

Headliners include tour-founder Linkin Park along with Chris Cornell, The Bravery and Ashes Divide. There’s also the side Revolution stage, which features Atreyu, 10 Years, Hawthorne Heights, Armor for Sleep and Street Drum Corps. While other multiband tours such as H.O.R.D.E., Lilith Fair and now Ozzfest have come and gone, what is it about Projekt Revolution that keeps fans coming back?

“I guess this is the fifth year that we’ve done it, and each year we try to do something exciting for the summer,” said Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda during a telephone conference call. “I think originally we were inspired by the great festivals that happened in Europe and the ones that we’ve played overseas. I think that there is definitely a certain niche that we feel that this tour fills, and a lot of our fans seem to agree.”

Chris Cornell added, “I actually, between Soundgarden and Audioslave, played Lollapalooza three different times on the main stage. And one of the things that I think happens is that, in order to keep these kind of tours happening year after year and to have sort of a traveling festival, somebody has to have their eye on the ball. Somebody has to focus on getting an interesting combination of bands together.

“And which is why I think Projekt Revolution is a great one, because Linkin Park is on top of it. They’re excited about it, passionate about it and that’s what it takes to make it great.”

It’s been an interesting evolution for Linkin Park, which hit it big with its nu-metal defining, 10-million-album selling 1999 album “Hybrid Theory.” Since then the outfit has left behind its rap ’n’ rock roots for more of a hard rock vibe, as evident on its latest effort, 2007’s “Minutes to Midnight.”

Early on, the group realized it had been pigeonholed as a rap rock act, so that played a key part in its creation of the Projekt Revolution tour. In a nutshell, the band wanted to shed its image by touring alongside bands of a different style. Today, it’s this same mindset that actually draws other acts to Projekt Revolution.

“I did six or seven shows with Linkin Park in Australia last year, and it just was great,” Cornell said. “It was a different audience, it wasn’t my audience, and I had to go out basically and do what I do and earn the respect of these people every night. It was really a great, refreshing feeling. It wasn’t preaching to the choir.

“So the idea of putting the two together, where it’s a festival and also I’m getting to tour with Linkin Park, I think was just something that really appealed to me.”

While always centered around Linkin Park’s hard rock vibe, past Projekt Revolution outings have included a rap element (Snoop Dogg, Xzibit and Ghostface Killah), which is missing this year. Shinoda stresses that even without a true hip-hop act, the bill has plenty to offer and, perhaps more importantly, he hopes is different from any other festival out there.

“I see Warped Tour as being a more kind of a screamo-emo-punk thing, and I see Ozzfest as being a more metal tour,” Shinoda said. “And those words I wouldn’t use to describe this tour.

“I think although there are elements of those things in some of the bands on the bill, consistently over time Projekt Revolution has showcased a lot of variety. To come from the beginning to the end of the show you get a lot of different sounds and you get a lot of different experiences, and that’s what makes it fun.”