Review: Limp Bizkit at Dreamland in Margate, June 2024
Durst - dressed in hi-vis jacket and baseball cap - shouted ‘It’s just one of those days…”
When crowds of people are scouting the floor for lost possessions or standing chatting to new friends and staff, rather than flooding for the exits, you know it has been a good gig.
When Limp Bizkit was announced as part of the Margate Summer Series at Dreamland, it was an opportunity for not just their legion of fans and admirers of the nu-metal to see some genuine icons of the era, but a chance for a giant shot of nostalgia. But, with this, there is always one question - will they be as good as I remember?
The unequivocal answer is yes, yes they were. And Dreamland was pretty much the perfect spot to witness it.
The outdoor Scenic Stage setting has the open feel of a festival about it (with several thousand in attendance), but intimate enough for it to remain a band-specific gig. Its amphitheatre nature means that fans have got a pretty flawless view from everywhere. There are places to take a seat at the back of the venue, there’s plenty of food vendors and bars (we didn’t queue for longer than 5 minutes for a drink), and this time, even the weather held!
Margate’s Fragile DJ opened up the night with an early 2000s nu-metal and rock set, which got an ever growing crowd pumped up as they filtered into the arena area. Manchester rockers Hot mIlk were a lively support act, for an audience that was hugely diverse in age. However, the universal enthusiasm for Limp Bizkit was there for all to see, especially when Fred Durst - dressed in hi-vis jacket and baseball cap - shouted ‘It’s just one of those days…” and cracked into iconic single ‘Break Stuff’ straight off the bat.
The mosh pit ring rust didn’t hang around and there was soon a bubbling ball of limbs at the centre of the crowd which filtered out across the arena - you’d be a cold b*stard for the hair not to have stood up on the back of your neck at that moment (see video below).
Wes Borland’s discarded plectrum
The hits kept rollin’ (sorry, not sorry), with masked guitarist Wes Borland shredding plectrums and casting them into the crowd, while DJ Lethal added the wax from his turntable crows nest atop an impressive stage set-up.
Fred Durst’s energy and voice was as intense as it has ever been. The call and response with the crowd was insanely popular in every song. We had huge ovations from ‘Hot Dog’, ‘My Generation’, ‘Nookie’ and Limp Bizkit’s tribute to George Michael with their much loved version of ‘Faith’.
When Fred took to the mic to say “you guys are crazy” about halfway through the set, you could feel the gas spark again. It felt like a one-off event, it felt like a ‘you had to have been there’ type gig.
When leather-clad fan ‘Johnny’ was pulled from the crowd, before puking into his own hands and, to be fair, regaining composure to co-sing ‘Full Nelson’ with Fred, you knew there was something slightly unique about the evening.
The slightly more chilled ballad ‘Behind Blue Eyes’ was the opportunity for the crowd to get their phones out and video, without the risk of dropping it in the melee before the final run-in of Mission Impossible-associated ‘Take A Look Around’, smash hit ‘Rollin’’ and a second rendition of ‘Break Stuff’ that sent the crowd wild.
Being a couple of rows from the front, the excitement and vigour of the crowd was intense - as it should be. All in all it was a really f*ckin’ good rock gig. The band was on top form and the crowd was unified - if someone fell down, four people would pull them back up.
Under the shadow of the big wheel and the historic Scenic Railway rollercoaster, the setting was perfect. It’s a gig that will live long in the memory.
