It’s back at Halifax’s wonderful Piece Hall for the final run of gigs for this summer and it’s going to be a lively one. Tickets tonight were possibly the hardest of all the season to grab, I dare say they could have probably sold out an entire weekend residency but unfortunately it’s a 1 night only affair so thousands of Nu Metal fans were left disappointed in the scramble to get tickets for tonight’s performance.
Joey Valence & Brae
For a second I thought I’d turned up on the wrong night and Beastie Boys were playing. Slight issue into the 1st song where the backing track packed up but they managed an instant recovery and they’re off again
For a pair of “kids” (I suspect they are in their 20’s) who haven’t been doing this very long as Crank It Up, their 1st song was “only written 2 or 3 years ago” they have done a superb job of getting the crowd on their side and commanded the stage as well as being very entertaining, they grabbed this opportunity by the balls and absolutely smashed it!
Kenny Hoopla
So we’ve had White Boy Hip Hop and now it looks like time for a bit of Emo.
Think Kenny would have been better opening up and Joey and Brae following as the party atmosphere they created is waning and bar the very front middle he’s struggling to keep the crowd on his side and bouncing, that said if it was Val Doonican on stage they’d probably still be having a good time.
Unfortunately Kenny needs to stick to shouting, not sure if he was having trouble with in-ears or the monitors because when it came to his singing it is as flat as Ian Browns and sadly the crowd is losing interest. Shame really because the drummer is excellent but I can’t really hear the girl on guitar as she’s well down on the mix which is also rather muddy, the whole thing sounds like a bad soundcheck I’m afraid.
Limp Bizkit
It’s the 1st night of their summer tour and it lasted about 3 mins, barely into Show Me What You Got before the venue went mental, Fred Durst still runs the crowd from the off but even he’s surprised about the energy in the place tonight “What an incredible vibe right here – this might just be my favorite new spot. You guys are on fire!” he proclaims before jumping straight into 9 Teen 90 Nine, Following, he states “Do you want to party like 1999!” as the band fires into My Generation and the place erupts again before stopping suddenly as the band are up for some fun and are playing with the crowd by stopping just when the crowd expect them to kick in and kill it, they resume and do just that.
The hits just keep on coming, Hot Dog, Rollin’, My Way to name but a few during which Fred calls out “Next 45 seconds all the alcohol is free and the water is $10” in reference to the infamous Woodstock 99 event. and by this point the pit is almost back to the sound stage and across nearly to the bar, Fred’s clearly blown away by the crowds energy “Feels like it’s 1999, fucking crazy!” he calls out.
We’re off into My Way which I reckon must be around the halfway point of the gig by now and then a curveball is thrown and the band kick into Nirvana’s Heart Shaped Box which the crowd respond by singing along at the top of their voices only for the band to respond by throwing a Guns N Roses riff in and then jumping back to play Smells Like Teen Spirit too which goes down equally well. It’s back to the back catalogue once more as Fred asks Wes the guitarist to play something “Tom Cruise would like to listen to” as Take A Look Around’s “Mission Impossible” riff begins to ring around the wonderful Piece Hall.
Upon seeing the craziness going on before him “Got my camera lets record some of this” Durst says to the crowd “Before I put it away can I get a big fuck you?” and the fine upstanding folk of Halifax duly oblige willingly.
“Going to send that to my mum, she loves that shit!”
he responds before firing the crowd up once more with fan favourite Nookie which got Durst to comment on how fantastic the venue is to which brought on the Yorkshire Yorkshire chant – “Nauseous?” Durst asks struggling with the Yorkshire dialect, Wes butts in with thinking we were shouting “Bullshit.”
The 1st real rest from the manic action going on comes up next Behind Blue Eyes, the Who song covered for the film Gothika but once again the crowd take over right from the off and Durst leaves us to it only joining in towards the end. “Who knows whats coming next?” Durst asks the crowd, “Who’s got the balls or vagina to come up here and do it?” and after a few wrong answers a girl from the crowd is picked and up she comes onto the stage only to confess she’s forgotten the words but Fred says “Just follow me, Just pretend I’m your grandpa…”
The Song is Full Nelson and yet again the poor security guys on the front are having to deal with bodies flying over the top of the crowd at an incredible rate and even right down to the last song, Break Stuff the guys and girls down the front just don’t let up…
And with that it was over, a 90 minute set that seemed to have passed in seconds. I can’t recall the Piece Hall ever experiencing anything anywhere near as crazy with no mention of any trouble or issues, everybody was there for 1 purpose – to have an amazing time in front of not only one of Rock’s greatest live acts but one of the greatest live acts altogether and boy did they deliver once again.
Trust me, There ain’t no party like a Limp Bizkit party.
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