Turn-of-the-century nu-metal hitmakers Limp Bizkit had one of the most buzzed-about sets at last weeknd’s Lollapalooza festival, trending on Twitter for essentially the rest of the weekend after their Saturday night (July 31) performance. The attention the band received for their performance could be seen not only in social media chatter, but in overall consumption of the band’s catalogue, which was up across the board in the days following the gig.
Over the Sunday and Monday (Aug. 1 and 2) after their performance at the Chicago festival, Limp Bizkit posted a combined 1.9 million on-demand streams, according to MRC Data. That was up 27% from the Sunday and Monday from a week earlier (July 25 and 26), when the band accounted for a combined 1.5 million on-demand streams. In addition, their song sales were up 100% over the same period, though on a significantly smaller scale — from 500 songs sold to 1000.
Limp Bizkit drew wide attention for their Lollapalooza gig in large part due to the unlikeliness of the booking — with the band being 20 years removed from their commercial heyday, and often used as a punchline for critics in the years since. Leader Fred Durst also went viral due to his recent rebranding (debuted earlier in the week on social media), with the formerly fratty-dressed frontman appearing in more grown attire, and now with entirely grey hair. At the end of the festival, the band also debuted a new song, appropriately titled “Dad Vibes.”
In addition, the band served as the subject of much media discussion in the week leading up to the performance, thanks to the Woodstock 99: Peace, Love & Rage documentary that had debuted as part of HBO’s Music Box series the weekend before (July 23). At the 1999 festival, which took place at the height of Limp Bizkit’s popularity, they performed an inflammatory Saturday set — one that the festival’s co-founders, John Scher and Michael Lang, subsequently blamed for setting the tone that led to the rampant destruction of property and physical assault (particularly against women) that consumed the festival the following night. (The band recalled events differently, as do several interviewees in the new documentary.)
Limp Bizkit topped the Billboard 200 albums chart twice in their original run, with 1999’s Significant Other and 2000’s Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water. The band’s most recent LP, 2011’s Gold Cobra, debuted and peaked at No. 16 on the chart.
