Limp Bizkit - July 14, 1997, Kansas City, MO

Limp Bizkit - 1997-07-14, Kansas City, MO, 7th Heaven

Video and Audio, 27 minutes

It seems difficult to remember that there once was a time when Limp Bizkit was not openly scorned and ridiculed like no band since Winger (despite their huge album sales). To give them credit, their debut album Three Dollar Bill, Yall$ was quite innovative at the time when rap-rock or nu-metal was emerging. This Ross Robinson-produced effort was much more raw then later albums, with a gritty, rough guitar sound. What I have for you here is the earliest full-length live recording of Limp Bizkit known to exist! The quality of both the audio and video of this recording is a solid A. This was a free in-store performance in the parking lot of 7th Heaven Records in Kansas City on an off date on the early part of their first tour as part of the 1997 Warped Tour. The show was preceded by an album signing session inside the store. Limp Bizkit was very cordial and friendly with everyone and spent a lot of time talking to their fans. Aimee Echo from Human Waste Project (and later TheSTART) was dating guitarist Wes Borland at the time and she also hung out during the signing. This event took place less than two weeks after the release of Three Dollar Bill, Yall$, and captures the band during a time when they were just trying to make it like any other baby band. I remember seeing Fred Durst walking around the tents at the Warped Tour show the next day in Lawrence, Kansas and nobody knew who he was or would give him the time of day! It's pretty funny to hear Durst announcing to the crowd while introducing "Counterfeit" that "we're at the Days Inn in Lawrence, Kansas, know what I'm sayin'?" He also tackles bassist Sam Rivers while playing during the end of "Faith" and drop-kicks the drum kit. Their first full-length album with guitarist Wes Borland in ten years, Gold Cobra, should be released this summer while playing a number of festival dates. The link for downloading the audio and video of the complete show is below.

Click to watch Limp Bizkit play "Counterfeit".

Click to watch Limp Bizkit play "Faith".

Set list:

1. Counterfeit

2. Nobody Loves Me

3. Pollution

4. Stuck

5. Faith

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=6SH6WJBI

Feel free to share, but please link to this posting rather than distributing the link to the text file above.

Limp Bizkit will be playing at Rock Fest in Cadott, Wisconsin on Sunday, July 18 with Alice In Chains, Drowning Pool, Trapt, Sleeper Cell, and Black Valentyne.

UPDATE: I'm pleased to see the huge positive response this post has quickly generated online, and there's already a discussion thread about this show on the limpbizkit.org website. Thanks! Go check it out: http://www.limpbizkit.org/index.php?showtopic=31444. I thought I'd address some of the initial comments I've seen. This is the oldest full-length Limp Bizkit show I've seen online after some pretty exhaustive searches. If anyone knows of any older footage please let me know! I've only embedded two of the videos here, but go to my YouTube channel and you can view videos for all five songs if you don't want to download them. I was 25 years old when I shot this. I also have some old Limp Bizkit memorabilia (passes, concert flyers, signed CD, ticket stubs) from around this time that I'll try to post soon. Keep checking back!
UPDATE X 2: I've now posted some Limp Bizkit memorabilia (passes, concert flyer, ticket stub) from 1997 and 1998. Check in out here. Thanks to Marcelo, webmaster for The Armpit, the largest Limp Bizkit fan site community for his comment alerting me that he posted links and the video on the main news site of The Armpit. Some comments in their forum speculates that the band or record label is responsible for posting this footage. That is not true, and I am not (and never was) associated with the band or label in any capacity. I taped this show myself on a VHS-C camcorder, and digitized it directly from the master tape. The reason this footage has never been circulated is that I never was one to participate in the tape-trading world. I've moved too many times to count over the last ten years, and this tape sat in a box with my VCR and a large pile of shows I recorded around 1997–1999. I've only now had the luxury of time to start digitizing them. I decided to post it now because Limp Bizkit has a show coming up in the area in July.