It was a scorching weekend at Tokyo’s Chiba Marine Stadium this past weekend, where the annual Summer Sonic festival took place. The festival delivered some of the world’s most sought out acts to their Japanese devotees. While DJs were scarce on the ground, the main stage arena was reserved for artists such as Muse, Metallica, Fall Out Boy, Linkin Park and Tokyo’s own superstars Mr Children.
At the strike of 10pm, inside the booming hall where the Sonic Stage was housed, it was time for Aoki to kick off the all-night run of dance acts. From his first drop, the dancefloor that was scattered with exhausted bodies – was pogo-ing with rejuvenated energy. Aoki cycled through his electrifying hits, each synchronized to its official music video on the screens behind. Cake was thrown and inflatable rafts bounced across hands, before Aoki cut the music to introduce some special guests to the stage.
Linkin Park’s frontmen Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington appeared on stage, and together the trio performed its collaboration “A Light That Never Comes” for the first time. With an earworm chorus delivered by Bennington, it has fetched a positive reaction from the fans with its simple yet effective vocals. It felt like a hit-in-waiting. The trio marked the moment with an “epic group photo” snapped by Aoki’s videographer Cobra Snake.
Mike Shinoda revealed on Twitter that the full collaboration will be unlocked via Linkin Park’s “Recharge” Facebook game, set in a dystopian future. He also revealed that the song won’t be sold via iTunes, physical singles nor on-air rotations. Mike stated during a quick Q&A session with fans:
“Steve and I met up like a year ago, maybe more,” . “It happened pretty organically, just shooting ideas back and forth.”
