Footage of Limp Bizkit playing an unreleased track during their 1997 live run has made it online.
Around the release of their full-length debut – Three Dollar Bill, Y’all – the arena-filling nu metal band gave four performances of a song fans came to call Breaking My Back or Strain. However, it never materialised on the album.
Last week, Landgraaf, Netherlands festival Pinkpop uploaded pro-shot video of a 28-year-old Limp Bizkit performance to YouTube. It included a professionally mixed recording of the unreleased song, footage of which has since been clipped and shared by other users.
Watch and listen below.
Little is known about this mysterious Limp Bizkit song, but according to setlist database setlist.fm, it was played four times in 1997 before being retired. It had its live debut at Pinkpop on May 18, and continued to grace the occasional show after Three Dollar… came out on July 1. Its last airing was at a show in Toledo, Ohio, on November 4.
Three Dollar…, produced by nu metal kingpin Ross Robinson (Slipknot, Korn, Deftones), was released via Flip and Interscope, and it gave Limp Bizkit their first taste of commercial success. The album peaked at number 22 on the US charts, while the promotional single and George Michael cover Faith made it to number 28 on the US Alternative Songs chart. The album was promoted on a tour supporting alt-metal beloveds Faith No More.
Limp Bizkit released their latest album, Still Sucks, via Suretone in 2021 and appear to be working on a follow-up. The band have been posting updates from the studio to social media since November.
Singer Fred Durst is currently leading a lawsuit against Interscope’s parent company Universal Music Group, seeking $200 million in allegedly withheld royalties. Parts of the suit, including copyright infringement claims against Universal, were thrown out by a California judge in January.
