2005.12.05 – Brixton Academy, London, England

Date: 5th December 2005
Event: The Prodigy Concert – Their Law Tour
Venue: Brixton Academy
City: London
Country: England
Support: see timetable

Tracklist:
1. Intro
2. Break and Enter
3. Wake The Fuck Up
4. Their Law
5. Breathe
6. Hotride (El Batori Mix)
7. Jericho
8. Spitfire
9. Back 2 Skool
10. Firestarter
11. Action Radar Link
12. Warning
13. Claustrophobic and We Are The Ruffest Link
14. No Good (Start The Dance)
15. Voodoo People
Encore:
16. Climbatize Link
17. Poison
18. Diesel Power Beats
19. Smack My Bitch Up
20. Charly
Encore 2:
21. Out Of Space

Extra info:
Timetable:
19:00 – DJ LABL and Nathan Lee
19:45 – Eddy Temple-Morris
20:15 – Vatican DC
20:45 – Eddy Temple -morris
21:15 – The Prodigy
23:00 – Curfew

Report by Stephen Berkeley-White:
“Brixton people!…London people!…Voodoo people!” shouts Maxim Reality menacingly from the lip of the Carling Brixton Academy stage, moments before dive-bombing into, can you guess? You got it, “Voodoo People” from 1994’s “Music for the Jilted Generation”, near the close of the gig. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.
The Prodigy, here to remind us why we still love them and still need them, are promoting “Their Law”, a collection of the singles from 1990 to 2005. Arriving onstage at 11.30, preceding a club night set up, they begin the cage rattling with “Break and Enter” and go on to deliver their set and ‘Their Law’ to a rapturous crowd, who probably left the awesome gig with a few less fillings than they arrived with.
Its hard to believe how many great tunes they played tonight, but it’s all here from No.1 singles “Breathe” and “Firestarter”, bolstered by “Hotride” and “Spitfire” from last album proper “Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned”, to older faves like “Jericho”, “No Good” and the bone crunching skank of set closer” Out of Space”.
Although you can never see much of the Wizard of Oz-like Liam Howlett, the stage is always filled by the formidable presence of Keith ‘I’ve got a German haircut now’ Flint and the towering Maxim ‘My white stripe is Phatter than Adam Ant’s’ Reality.
Once going the energy never drops, unlike the bassline around the time they introduce “Poison” – leaving me thankful that I was near the back of the cavernous Brixton Academy by then and still with my intestines intact: Gladly able to enjoy the once controversial “Smack My Bitch Up” and the nostalgia of “Charly,” a song about a cat and road safety. Fantastic!
What do you mean that’s not what the song’s about!?”

Review by Betty Blarke, The Guardian:
Bodies jolt, hands stab the sweaty air and Liam Howlett lurches towards a bank of keyboards, as though about to vault out of his voluntary prison. The excitement is intoxicating, the atmosphere euphoric. If dance music is dead, nobody told the Prodigy.
Architects of a scene so feared laws were made to try to stop it, the Prodigy are the sole survivors of dance culture’s first assault on the public consciousness. But the days of raves and superstar DJs are gone. The Prodigy shouldn’t be here, playing the first of five sold-out nights – and they shouldn’t be this good. But Essex’s most subversive sons have always confounded expectation, bringing a scorching nihilism to dance music, and politics and attitude back to pop.
Still, the fact this is a greatest hits tour provokes visions of thirtysomethings in sensible clothing throwing shapes. They’re here, emitting life-endangering shrieks to the proto-techno of Charly, but so too are kids who were learning to walk when 1990s teens were willingly losing their minds in muddy fields.
The reason everyone goes mental for every beat is that the Prodigy sound more threatening, unique and relevant than ever. The fury of Breath and Voodoo People is explosive, Out of Space is unexpectedly menacing. Firestarter is played too fast and Spitfire is Prodigy-lite, yet both crackle with aggression.
Sporting Hitler’s haircut and his own cartoon expressions, Keith Flint is silly yet unnerving. Maxim adds deep shades of darkness to an incandescent Smack My Bitch Up, but it’s the arrival of Leeroy Thornhill – who quit the band in 2000 – that turns a riotous occasion into a special event. His elastic limbs move gracefully to the classic chaos of No Good (Start the Dance) as he writhes around dance culture’s grave. Against all odds, the Prodigy can’t be beaten.

Poster: