Limp Bizkit

To think that this band were booed off the stage only three short years ago is a warped notion. An even more jading fact is that tonight Limp Bizkit will play to 12,000 people. Even one year ago the Red-Capped one would be hard pushed to sell out the infinitely smaller Brixton Academy but here we are - 12,000 people on your debut UK show. Fred’s not done bad for a guy who seems so passionately hated by so many people.

Makes you wonder what support band Godsmack think of it all. They are an incongruous proposition tonight, bearing in mind it’s all about the nookie and such stuff this evening and not about an Alice In Chains tribute band. Fair enough, Godsmack have a solid groove here and there but if you’ve ever heard Layne Staley and co. then it’s obvious where it’s all come from. And five minute instrumentals are not a good idea when you’re headlining, let alone stuck in front of 12,000 of the Limp Bizkit faithful.

Godsmack are just insignificant come nine o’clock when the biggest musical star on the planet and his backing band hit the stage tonight. This isn’t even about Limp Bizkit, it’s about the one and only Fred Durst. Whether you think he’s a god or a buffoon if you put the man in front of a crowd of any size, he will convert them and have them ‘throwing there hands in the air, like they just don’t care’. This is never more evident than inside Wembley Arena, where Fred is everywhere and adored by all and sundry. You know the guy’s made it when he has an ego-ramp into the crowd ala Axl Rose, but he’s never in the same place long enough for it to notice anyhow. Yeah, and they played some songs tonight too! Sugar-coated pop coated with just enough guitars to entertain that ever elusive ‘metal’ tag, the set is comprised of selective tracks from ‘Chocolate Starfish’ and ‘Significant Other’ (‘3 Dollar Bills’ is completely disregarded), and is as smooth as any babies behind (Apparently). Fred, in a move as calculating as ever, chooses to sprinkle dancing aliens and pyro onto the songs which are quite, well shit, distracting all from the fact a lot of tonight’s material is bog-standard if you’re being generous. One to tell the kids about for sure.