Limp Bizkit: Loserville Tour 08/03/2025

Rating: ★★★★

OVO Hydro Rating: ★★★★

Where I stayed: Radisson Blu Hotel

SETLIST:

Break Stuff
Hot Dog
Take A Look Around
Nookie
My Generation
Livin’ It Up (with two fans onstage)
My Way
Rollin’ (Air Raid Vehicle)
Behind Blue Eyes (The Who cover)
Boiler
Faith (George Michael cover)
Break Stuff (again)

I added Limp Bizkit to my list of must-see bands after watching the 2022 Netflix documentary, ‘Trainwreck: Woodstock ‘99’. It retells the events of the doomed 1999 festival which took place thirty years after the original Woodstock. The ‘69 festival famously celebrated peace, love and music. Interestingly, none of the original bands returned to perform for the thirtieth anniversary. Instead, festival-goers were treated to angsty rock and metal bands such as Metallica, Rage Against The Machine, Korn, Megadeth and, of course, Limp Bizkit. The documentary focused on whether LB’s anger-filled song ‘Break Stuff’ incited the majority of the riots, when attendees began to actively destroy everything within reach. The festival was poorly run with unsanitary conditions, extortionate food and drink prices and no shade from the sweltering summer heat. It is no surprise music fans began to lose their heads. LB stood out to me mainly because of their energy and stage presence. I saw them on ‘MTV’ in the early 2000’s but this was the first time I had really paid attention to them. I even looked up their full festival set on YouTube, out of curiosity. Before I knew it, I learned the words to most of their songs. I joined the presale for Glasgow but ended up in one of the highest sections, as general admission sold out almost immediately. I might have found a better seat if I had waited for the general sale but I didn’t want to risk missing out completely. I reached the venue at 6pm and found the seated queue with relative ease. I was impressed with the staff members directing people to each queue. The system hadn’t changed since I had been there last, so I didn’t need to approach anyone. A lot of people wore red New York Yankies caps backwards, like Fred Durst (frontman) had often worn. Someone even turned up in a giant hot dog costume because of their song ‘Hot Dog’. Once inside, I used the upstairs ticketing system to buy an Irn-Bru. I had avoided the machines on previous visits, as they seemed unnecessarily complicated. Ordering from a machine and collecting from the kiosk next to it still makes little sense to me. I don’t think it speeds the process up much, if at all. I reached my seat in time for the first opening act at 6:45pm and felt a little dizzy from how steep the rows looked.

I noticed there were no asterisks on the tour poster to indicate who would be playing which venues, as there normally is when several opening acts are announced. We ended up getting all five. The host, Jon Carnage, came out every time the stage needed to be reset and irritated the crowd until they booed and hurled plastic cups at him. His jokes, if you could call them that, quickly became insufferable to everyone within earshot. He talked a lot without saying anything of substance. One of his gags was stripping down to his underwear and repeatedly stumbling over the barriers. The tour is named ‘Loserville’, which explains why he was acting so pathetically. His sense of humour didn’t go down well with the crowd, who were growing impatient to see their heroes. Karen Dió, from Brazil, came onstage first. It was refreshing to see a female fronted rock band and I was pleasantly surprised by their explosive sound, as I expected all of the opening acts to be rappers. KD had a great sense of humour and a lot of charm. Her cover of Chappel Roan’s ‘Casual’ was a personal highlight, even though I hadn’t heard the song beforehand. N8NOFACE (pronounced ‘nanoface’) was second. To say I didn’t understand his set would be an understatement. He spent a lot of time sitting on the floor and I couldn’t make out any lyrics, even though his songs featured heavy topics such as high school murders and coming off of crystal meth. He is definitely one of the most unusual musicians I have ever seen. He thanked FD for giving him a shot, which was nice. Ecca Vandal leaned more towards rap and were a much better fit for LB. They might have left a bigger impression on me if I was closer to the stage, as I felt very far from the action. They received a mixed reaction from the crowd but undeniably livened the place up after N8NOFACE left most people bewildered. I was looking forward to Bones, as there was a lot of hype surrounding the rapper before the concert. However, I realised I wasn’t going to become invested when they were two or three songs in. I struggled to identify which rapper was Bones as there were two individuals taking turns with the microphone. I did like the skull prop they had lit up in red in the background. It was a completely bizarre line-up and I think one or two opening acts would have worked better.

JC dragged out the introduction of LB for far too long. People around me started wondering if something was wrong, or if the band had even turned up yet. It was approaching 10pm and there was no sign of them, which is highly unusual. Most headlining bands come on at around 9pm, in order to finish up in time for the 11pm curfew. The curtain eventually lifted at 9:40pm and Riff Raff, who I am counting as the fifth opening act, appeared. He did a couple of songs but I forgot to take a photo of him as I was disappointed we still weren’t being presented with LB, as promised. LB came onstage five minutes later and had a very short set, of only twelve songs (or eleven, since ‘Break Stuff’ was performed twice). I found out from their recent setlists they have started opening and closing with their biggest song. It is my favourite of theirs, so I wasn’t complaining, though I bet fans who have seen them dozens of times were begging for more variety. They stuck to their biggest hits, which was exciting for me because I had never seen them before. I looked at the setlists for the following nights and they did thirteen songs in Dublin and fourteen in Birmingham. I put the short setlist down to this being the first night of the tour, though it would be far better if they’d cut two or three of the opening acts and performed for longer. The atmosphere in the arena completely changed once they started, with everyone screaming, jumping up and down and forming mosh pits. I think they chose puzzling opening acts so fans would be even more excited when they finally came to the rescue. Seeing the whole floor move to the sound of the music was incredible. I even filmed some of it, as I had never experienced anything like that before. It looked rough in the centre of the floor and I heard reports of stolen phones afterwards but I imagine almost everyone had the time of their lives. Being seated didn’t ruin the experience for me but I did envy those who could be fully in the moment. I had a drunk girl slouching over me for half of the performance, which was frustrating after paying so much for my ticket but not unexpected for a Saturday night in Glasgow. Two girls held up a sign asking to sing ‘Livin’ It Up’ with the band. FD brought them onstage without hesitating and made their dreams come true. He was very courteous and told everyone to take care of each other and pick people up if they fall down. He said it’s not a 1999 party without George Michael, leading into their unusual cover of ‘Faith’, amping up the crowd even more before the night came to a sudden close with a repeat of ‘Break Stuff’.

I was relying on the fact there would be large screens at the stage but there were none. My photos didn’t turn out very well and I could hardly see the band members from where I was sitting but I did the best I could, under the circumstances. The lack of screens might have been to discourage people from taking photos, which would make sense as it is such an energetic show. I would have appreciated being able to see close-up shots of the band, to save me squinting. The stage was also partially obstructed, as I had a side view. Wes Borland (guitarist/backing vocals) always wears fantastic costumes which are creative, dark and sinister. This time he wore a colourful skull mask with a pink mohawk, which I could only make out under the bright spotlights. All of his looks over the years are worth checking out on Instagram, if you are looking for a way to pass the time. It was a more disappointing experience than I expected, overall. I’m glad I got to see LB live but I would prefer to see them in a festival setting next time, instead of one of their concerts. It wouldn’t have been so tedious if I was with someone else, if I had arrived later, or if LB extended their set. At least you more or less know what you are getting when you buy a ticket to a festival. I do like to catch all of the opening acts to get the most of my money and broaden my musical knowledge but five bands proved to be too much for me. The atmosphere in the arena was horrible until LB cheered everyone up. JC’s antics didn’t help and I honestly thought the concert might be cancelled at the last minute because of how badly people were reacting to the whole thing. Some fans even left before LB came on, which is a bit extreme but not impossible to understand. It was difficult to get into the spirit of things for most of the night. I was amazed by how similar the band sounded to their albums and how FD’s voice hasn’t changed over the years. Despite all of the negativity, I would absolutely recommend seeing LB live. I strongly suggest listening to the opening bands on Spotify first and planning your schedule accordingly. I’m still interested to see what their future tours will be like, as they certainly know how to make a night memorable.

GALLERY