The "
Limp Bizkit
craze" seemed to hit Europe a bit later than it did the U.S. Looking back now, the tour in support of their third album, 2000's
Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water
, was when you could start seeing cracks in the band's armor. Besides the fact that rap-metal was finally on its way out, this would prove to be the start of the on-again, off-again relationship between the band and guitarist
Wes Borland
(the only element that many took seriously in the band in the first place), resulting in the group's popularity taking a nosedive on subsequent releases. But overseas in the time frame of 2000, the
Bizkit
boys could still headline enormoudomes, and get the teens bobbing up and down in unison to rage and rubbery detuned guitar riffs. And it's all on display on the 2008 DVD
Rock in the Park 2001
. Filmed in Nurnberg, Germany, all the
hits (
"Break Stuff,"
"Nookie,"
"Rollin',"
etc.) are here, as well as gimmicks galore:
Borland
's upper body covered in paint; a chap dressed as one of the bloated-belly zombies on the
Chocolate Starfish
album cover making an on-stage appearance; frontman
Fred Durst
doing a portion of the set out in the audience, hoisted up by a group of security goons; etc. And of course, there are plenty of appearances per minute of the F word. But the problem here is
Durst
(what a surprise!), who seems not all that interested in working the crowd or putting his heart into the performance at hand. He even goes so far as to pass the blame, criticizing a girl for coming on-stage and dancing during the song
"The One,"
and for "ruining" it. Er, no
Fred
-- that would be you who ruined the proceedings, with your cheeseball tough-guy posturing and rap-singing antics. Perhaps it's best to look at
as
John Waters-esque
footage that, years from now, will either become an underground hit due to its absurdity or an inadvertent "time period relic" a la
Heavy Metal Parking Lot
. ~ Greg Prato