I saw a live version of Numb from Linkin Park’s latest tour and Emily might be a great singer but she does not get the song the way Chester got it because she was smiling and giggling while singing it. As a teenager in the 2000s when Linkin Park was the first internet native band this song has a special place in my heart and watching Emily sing it like it is just another random song does not feel right.

She hits every note with perfect pitch and flawless technique but singing Numb like she is announcing a mall grand opening while cameras catch her joking with the drummer between verses and grinning while the line I have become so numb slips out like foam from a latte. For those of us who downloaded Hybrid Theory off LimeWire while our parents yelled about phone bills this song was not about vocal control because it was salvation and we turned it up until it hurt and Chester was not just singing but screaming raw jagged pieces of teenage despair and you could feel the pain in his voice. Watching Emily bounce across the stage in pristine high-tops hitting the notes but not the scars makes the song flatten into something polished and safe with no weight.

I do not blame her because you cannot erase the sound of desperation from a generation with a new singer and you cannot reboot grief with a MacBook Pro and some songs are not covers because they are scar tissue and if you did not live through the bleeding the graft never takes.

Let me know if you feel this too on Twitter. I am @troysk704.