Limp Bizkit playing at the Academy is surely one of the biggest coup’s the venue has ever seen. This is a band that would surely put a considerable dint in ticket sales should they play the Arena having sold out Milton Keynes bowl in not so distant history. The fact that tickets were a very reasonable £20 meant that it’s no surprise the gig was sold out and one of, if not the the busiest I’ve ever seen the Academy.
The Kerrang tour is famed for bringing a selection of bands to the masses and having already been warmed up by Nekrogoblicon and Baby Godzilla the crowd exploded when Bizkit hit the stage. Given the hype surrounding the room for a band who for many had formed their adolescent musical taste, hitting the stage to a new song, Ready To Go was intelligent of the band so as to avoid that mid-set lull a new song so often brings about. The fact they didn’t stop for breath before bursting into their biggest commercial hit, Rollin’ meant that what was an enthusiastic crowd was now an exuberant one. Rollin’ is one of the few tracks of respectable origin (Naturally, I say that with a pinch of salt,) to have a recognisable dance routine and the main dancefloor bounced with arms swinging from side to side.
Those of us geeky enough to hunt setlists from rest of the tour before heading to a show were excited to have seen some of the off handed covers Bizkit had broke into earlier in the tour, and we weren’t disappointed with versions of Guns ‘N’ Roses, Wham and a Nirvana medley and in fairness to frontman Durst the Guns and Nirvana covers were not only pretty loyal to their originals, but the covers of Axl and Cobain were pretty decent.
The setlist was heavily weighted towards older tracks which kept the audience happy, it’s largely agreed that Bizkit were at their prominence across their first three albums and whereas I’d seen the band perform ‘greatest hits’ sets at outdoor festivals on several occasions I’d never seen them take to the stage themselves as the headline act and feared they would take to the terrifying ‘artistic merit’ set featuring all of the tracks that lets face it, no-one wants to hear. They didn’t, the set was laced with hits, My Generation, Livin’ It Up and My Way particular highlights before whirling an enormous mosh pit for the suitably titled Break Stuff. I don’t think I’ve seen a bigger proportion of an audience head to the ‘pit’ at an Academy gig than for this tune, and even as a seasoned gig-goer I can confess my exuberance to be involved. It was a chance to blow off steam and remember the good old days of my early teens, and I think given the average age of the audience it was effectively the same for the majority. As the band rolled out to the Mission Impossible theme Take A Look Around those of us who now were quite exhausted not quite teenagers anymore did our best to catch our breath while applauding the band out.
A gig far better than most expected as Limp Bizkit really did their legacy no harm, and allowed us all to feel that little bit younger, even if it was just for the one night, as trust me, I definitely felt my age the following morning.
Words: Ian Mason
Photo: B.J.N.
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