| Doors: 6 pm | Show: 8 pm | Tickets: 41.95 Euro + fees |

LIMP BIZKIT have a bit of the same issues as Nickelback: a band innovative and extremely successful, at least in the late 90s and early 2000 yet heaped with malice, scorn and hate on them. Especially front man Fred Durst was used to be a target for such kind of hostility. Sure, the band’s unique mixture of Hip Hop/Funk/Rap, Techno DJ and Nu Metal holds a lot of potential for conflicts when it comes to its fans. Lovers of those genres usually do not like each other. A band so much hated, loved and discussed at the same time needs be checked out a little bit closer. I got the chance and so I did. And here we go. Let’s get into my first LIMP BIZKIT experience.

The huge millennium success of the band was followed by many up and downs, the exits and re-entries of guitarist Wes Borland and some solo projects, while LIMP BIZKIT itself became a rather quiet entity. The for 2015 announced sixth full-length, Stampede Of The Disco Elephants, is a long time coming and meanwhile could easily be named Chinese Democracy. But LIMP BIZKIT come around regularly and sell out the big venues. They are still a guarantor for a full house. As for the show at Dortmund’s :: Westfalenhalle :: there were a handful of fans missing for the official “sold out” sign at the door.

:: pics :: BLVCK CEILING ::

The evening was opened by the DJ Daniel Cuccia (alias Dan Ocean).under the name :: BLVCK CEILING ::. This man seems to be a multi-talent. As musician and producer he has his fingers in many pies but beyond that he is a mysterious person. No one knows much about this guy from Spokane, Washington. Musically he is often described as Witch House and I agree when it comes to his darker tracks. Those I actually like. Unfortunately, BLVCK CEILING remixed and/or improvised his songs live on stage so that they sounded completely different and were hardly recognized. I guess, BLVCK CEILING sounded tonight like Limp Bizkit’s DJ Lethal in a solo performance. This was interesting for two or three minutes but then nit became quickly boring. Hooded and masked Mr. Cuccia hid behind his laptop and did his job. He started ten minutes later and finished on time, means, 20 minutes playing time. No action on stage, hardly any lights. Odd performance. Disappointed me.

:: pics :: LIMP BIZKIT ::

A thirty minutes break to clear the stage and some groupie-crossing to watch. A flock of chicks entered the stage left-hand. I first thought of live dancers, but no. Maybe a fan club or VIP ticket holders? Who knows. They just stood there and watched the show.
However, on time lights went out and ear-battering screams set in. The audience directly freaked out, although there was not anybody to see on stage yet. As for that, the Durst-approved photographers were “rewarded” with a proper beer shower. Once the band appeared and started with Show Me What You Got, :: LIMP BIZKIT :: delivered a highly energetic and awesome show and tore the roof of the Westfalenhalle off.
Instead of his famous red cap, Fred Durst wore a floppy hat and flowery harem pants. Um, well… might have been comfortable but did not look any stylish. As for that, there were many red caps seen within the audience, and many logo shirts but there was no merchandise sale at all around the hall.

Guitarist Wes Borland, however, looked completely different: Dressed in a black suit with ghoulish make-up. Quite bizarre. The rest of the band played a minor role. Drummer John Otto and DJ Lethal disappeared behind their instruments with a background singer in between. Tsuzumi Okai replaced Sam River live on bass and tried to be as inconspicuous as possible. All in all a rather inhomogeneous looking band picture.

Fred Durst talked a lot between the songs, always again thanked the audience for being “absolutely amazing” and repeated the joke: „This is the first song of our new album“. Of course, there was no new song. Instead, LIMP BIZKIT played it safe, delivered a best-of set, focusing on their multi-platinum record, Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water, plus many cover versions and medleys. Snippets of Metallica, Megadeth and Pantera (among others) graced the Metal medley. Nice. For Nirvana Fred Durst sang with dropped trousers. Smelled like teen… erm… forty spirit ;) But seriously, do they not have enough own songs?
In between, one hit followed the other. The fans were extremely agile.They always again hunkered down, just to jump up at special moments and then started aggressive circle pits right after. Seems to be a common procedure during a LIMP BIZKIT show ;) But looked awesome from where I sat. Both, Fred Durst and Wes Borland were constant whirlwinds of energy, motivating the audience to their best in response.

When it came to Behind Blue Eyes Durst introduced this song as a joke and later edited the text line from “My love is vengeance, That's never free“ to “My love is vengeance AND THE BEER IS FREE”. The bill was nonchalantly handed over to Wes Borland. But he was not fancy to take it. Instead, Wes got that guy on stage, who was holding up a huge paper sign all the time with: „Wes, let me play My Way” written on it. No sooner said than done. Durst was “sent home”, that dude, by the name of Benedikt Laumann, got a guitar and Wes took over the micro and there they went to perform My Way. Apropos… Wes Borland cannot really sing, can he?

I liked Fred Durst’s statement to Donald Trump during Take A Look Around, and even more that Wes Borland absolutely ingenuous jumped into the crowd. First, there was a bit of hecticness, because Wes disappeared as to crowdsurf and play guitar at the same time did not work. Then his guitar was to hear again, he just played from anywhere among the audience. Cool.
After a high intensive 90 minutes run my very first LIMP BIZKIT show came to an end. No encore was given. I cannot say if this show was a better or worse one compared to others. As a photographer, I would say there could have been better lights. Sound was ok for such a big hall. I, anyway, had a lot of fun this evening, watching the band the band, and watching the crowd going crazy and could not help myself but dance.

Setlist: Purple Rain Intro (Prince), Show Me What You Got, Hot Dog, Rollin' (Air Raid Vehicle), Nookie, Full Nelson, My Generation, Eat You Alive, Faith (George Michael cover), Behind Blue Eyes (The Who cover), My Way, Boiler, Metal Medley (Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera… more), Nirvana Medley (Smells Like Teen Spirit and… more), Killing In The Name (Rage Against the Machine cover), Break Stuff, Take A Look Around

story & pics © Dajana & Dajana Winkel • Photography