With 50 million albums sold worldwide, there shouldn’t be any doubts as to why Linkin Park is the biggest band of the decade.

When they took the stage at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View on Aug. 9 in front of over 20,000 people, they proved exactly why thousands of screaming fans ranging from 13-year-old teenyboppers decked out in Linkin Park gear to 50-year-old metalheads keep showing up to their shows, especially on this year’s Projekt Revolution Tour.

After almost an entire day of terrible to mediocre music that plagued the Revolution stage of this year’s festival, it was solely up to Linkin Park to make up for the bad choice of opening bands such as Hawthorne Heights, 10 Years and Armor for Sleep.

As headliners of the tour, they had to prove themselves as a worthy headlining act over legendary grunge icon Chris Cornell, who served as the frontman for Soundgarden and Audioslave respectively. On this tour, however, Cornell’s job was simple. He was to warm up the crowd and get them pumped up for Linkin Park.

Shortly after Cornell’s set, as the lights dimmed, the entire seating level of the amphitheatre got on their feet and erupted in cheers eagerly awaiting the arrival of the six-piece Grammy winning band from Southern California.

As the last North American tour supporting their latest album Minutes to Midnight, their 19-song set comprised mostly of songs off that album, which sees Chester Bennington taking on a larger vocal role than band emcee Mike Shinoda, which in turn allows Shinoda to focus more on other instruments, such as guitar and keyboards during the show.

Before the band took the stage, the fans were greeted with a pounding climatic intro from percussion group Street Drum Corps, which led right into Linkin Park’s opening song, their breakout hit “One Step Closer,” which on previous tours, was used as a staple closer to their live shows.

Although it was a bit odd hearing “One Step Closer” so early in the set, it is enough to get fans energized for the set that was about to dominate their lives for the next 90 minutes.

They then launched into an old classic off their sophomore album Meteora with “Lying From You,” which got huge pop from the crowd with its angst-driven lyrics and monstrous screams from Bennington.

“No More Sorrow,” a Minutes to Midnight song that is reminiscent of the band’s earlier material was a highlight, as Bennington’s vocal ability showcased that there is still much anger left inside, which was absent for the majority of band’s latter material.

With multiple chart-topping hits to perform, there was a lot of material that eager fans wanted to hear. Their Hybrid Theory hit “Crawling” was one of the most anticipated. With multiple changes to the song, Shinoda rapped a verse of the politically-driven song “Hands Held High” over the Reanimation (Linkin Park’s remix album) version of “Crawling.” Cornell later came out and sang the second verse and harmonies, returning the favor in which Bennington appeared earlier in the day to join Cornell on stage for a rendition of the Temple of the Dog hit “Hunger Strike.”

Right before they launched into “Points of Authority,” Shinoda treated the crowd with a verse off of his hip hop side project Fort Minor, performing the first verse of “Petrified” and “There They Go,” which was done as the outro to the song.

As Cornell exited the stage, they launched right into what is arguably the biggest hit of their career with “In the End.” The catchy hit that brought the band into the mainstream was sung by just about every person in attendance, almost drowning out the two frontmen’s vocals.

A lot of their hits from “Somewhere I Belong” to “Papercut” were performed early in the set, leaving room for even bigger anthems such as “Faint” and “What I’ve Done” to be performed later on, as the first of two encores, with the majority of the crowd singing along to every word.

After the encore, as many fans were ready to leave, the lights stayed dimmed. This only meant one thing. A second encore. The band closed the night with most popular song off Minutes to Midnight, “Bleed It Out,” starting with a five-minute solo from drummer Rob Bourdon, with the band being joined once again by Street Drum Corps; this was the crowd’s last chance to let out whatever energy they have left and that’s exactly what they did.

As they ended the night, thousands of fans exited the amphitheatre leaving satisfied, and those who had any doubts about the band were surely converted by the biggest modern rock band in the world.