Date: 27th May 1997
Event: The Prodigy Concert
Venue: The Warfield
City: San Francisco
Country: USA
Support: Superdrag, DJ Alika & DJ Nikola
Tracklist:
n/a
Extra info:
The artwork was done by Carolyn Ferris. The concert was moved from The Fillmore to The Warfield.
The Rolling Stones Mag review (cutted):
Talk about making a crowd move. The Prodigy had the floors of San Francisco’s Warfield trembling from the weight of bouncing bodies even before they made their explosive entrance onto the stage. Abetted by the bass-heavy sounds of the house DJ, the audience could hardly contain its anticipation for one of the most touted bands of 1997.
Making their first Bay Area appearance since signing a multi-million-dollar deal with Madonna’s Maverick label and garnering heavy alternative-radio play for their “Firestarter” and “Breathe” singles, the Prodigy wasted no time living up to their boisterous reputation. Inspired by the caustic first strains of the show’s opener, a new song titled “Smack My Bitch Up,” wild-haired frontman Keith Flint climbed onto the speakers and dove into the vast mosh-pit by way of saying hello. And as the group’s members — Flint, keyboard wizard Liam Howlett, MC Maxim Reality and lanky mime dancer Leeroy Thornhill — appeared one-by-one from the side of the stage, they looked like a band of hooligans that had escaped from Ringling Bros.
Driven by Howlett’s high-volume metal-breakbeat confections, Flint, Thornhill and Maxim Reality worked up the crowd relentlessly with taunts, capers and mock violent competition for the spotlight. The dancer’s adrenaline-charged behavior was infectious; fans throughout the venue leapt out of their seats and into the aisles.
Though the music itself was mostly canned, the group’s performance had plenty of drama. They even brought out a spiky-haired Sid Vicious clone named Gizz to play screaming guitar licks over a few songs, including “Law of the Land” and “Firestarter.”
It was the latter song that best captured the essence of the Prodigy’s show. Strobe lights and white smoke enveloped the stage as Flint recreated his paranoid dance moves from the song’s spastic video and Howlett jumped around so much he barely kept his fingers on the keyboards. The excitement level was so high even the security guards were shaking their hips.
The Prodigy’s live set contained so many climactic breaks that it felt like the whole place could go up in smoke at any moment. As the band charged through old hits (“Poison,” “Voodoo People”) and songs from its hotly anticipated new album, “Fat of the Land” (“Funky […]
Poster:
Ticket:
Entrance pass:
Photo from the show:
Backstage photos:
Leave a Reply