Dusseldorf Germany 2004

Saturday 13^th March at the Philipshalle, Düsseldorf, Germany.

Opening act: Tape

Real and myself arrived at the hall around 4 pm, only to find already about 2 - 3 hundred people there. So there went the dream of being first in line…. But never mind, after waiting outside the hall for 2 hours and then another 2 hours inside the hall, finally “Tape” entered the stage. As you all know, “The Revolution Smile” had to cancel, and Tape filled in on very short notice. I have to say, I was impressed, I hadn’t heard much of them before except for their single “yeehaw”, but the band really managed to warm the crowd up for limpbizkit, especially the female lead singer she was an instant success with all the guys in the audience, as she was really good looking and wearing a shorter than short mini skirt. About half way through their 30 minutes set the guys therefore started shouting “ausziehen, ausziehen (undress)”. For me though it was only important that they really rocked :D And even more important - by now we had managed to come very close to the stage and had a great view.

When Tape left the stage a long black curtain came down, so we couldn’t see what was happening behind it. After a while “someone” was checking the mic as well as the instruments, which was enough to make the crowd cheer and the first “limpbizkit, limpbizkit” shouts could be heard. The tension raised even higher when suddenly you could see a blue light behind the veil, coming from Sam’s bass!!! Finally “re-entry” started and the audience went wild - but the curtain remained where it was… Everyone was singing along and all kinds of cameras and mobile phones (those “cool” ones that take pics) were held up - but still the curtain remained down. When “Re-entry” finished and Fred sang the first words of “My Generation” (if only we could flyyyyyyyyyyyy…) the hall seemed to almost crumble down from all the noise the crowd was making and FINALLY the curtain came down and we could see the band.

From the very first second I felt a connection between the audience and Fred. I know that sounds sort of corny, but that’s exactly how it felt. Fred was in fantastic form and the crowd reacted to every little thing he said and even on the stands at the far end of the hall everyone was standing and jumping and clapping and singing along! I don’t know just how he does it, but Fred is like a magnet, the crowd followed each of his moves. The set list was fantastic, I cant recall the exact order (I wonder how people do that - do they sit down and take notes???) but these were the songs they played: Re-entry, my generation, break stuff, eat you alive, nookie, re-arranged (great new arrangement on that one), hot dog (!!), faith, gimme the mic, almost over, build a bridge, behind blue eyes, a nirvana cover (allegedly “you know you’re right“), never mind, my way, take a look around (which was fantastic) underneath the gun (which was one of my personal faves), haunt dog (yessssss the Elvis song lol) and rollin (no bizkettes, but still got the audience going). The only ones I really missed were counterfeit and boiler, but hey, no complaining. They even played some interludes and a little bit of 50 Cent’s “in da club”!!!

Twice Fred left the stage and went right in the middle of the crowd, first with “eat you alive” which made the people go crazy, and then later with “behind blue eyes”, which really was a highlight in the true meaning - dark blue lights, everyone singing along, lighters up in the air - *sigh* lol. Its amazing how he always finds a way to address every single person in the crowd, whenever he moved from one side of the stage to the other people would move with him, and when he went to the middle of the hall no-one was watching the band onstage - everyone turned around and looked at Fred and tried to grab him. I guess that’s what makes him the great front man he is, he just has that quality. OK, him saying over and over again how great an audience we were, how much he loved Germany and that we made him feel home away from home maybe didn’t hurt either lol. Each of these sentences were met with big cheers and I have to say, although we all knew he says that every night to every crowd, it still felt real (he even changed the words of the 2^nd verse of “nevermind“ and sang about Germany!). But, he would of course be nothing without those great great musicians in his back. I was standing in front of Sam, and although he doesn’t move as much as for example Wes did, he still is great to watch and he always smiles to the crowd and seems to enjoy standing on stage. Mike was banging his head all the time and basically he gave an awesome performance, Lethal had some solos with the interludes and John - well John as usual couldn’t be seen, he was perfectly hidden behind his drum kits and the only thing of him visible were the drumsticks which whirled around in mid air lol. But as Fred said in his introduction of the band - he’s simply the best drummer in the world. Cause YES, Fred introduced the band!!! The played Elvis’ “haunt dog” and everyone of them had a little solo with Fred saying their name. I found that a great gesture, really cool - I don’t think I’ve seen him doing this before? Oh and of course Fred let some people (mostly young, pretty girls but also 2 or 3 guys) on stage for two songs, he asked all the girls to get on a guy’s shoulder for “faith” and yes, once again they finished with “rollin”. After about 100 minutes it was all over - an unforgettable night with very positive vibes which left me on a high for at least two days. And the best thing…. When he said goodbye Fred said “see you in august” which means you will most probably read another gig review by me in august :D

Mellix, Germany