2001.08.18 – Bizarre Festival, Weeze, Germany

Date: 18th August 2001
Event: Bizarre Festival
Venue: Niederrhein Airport (known also as Airport Weeze)
City: Weeze
Country: Germany
Support: see timetable

Tracklist:
1. Army March Intro
2. Their Law
3. Trigger
4. Breathe
5. Smack My Bitch Up
6. Climbatize Link
7. Mindfields
8. Nuclear (v.2)
9. Poison
10. Firestarter
Encore:
11. Charly (Alley Cat Mix)
12. Fuel My Fire

Extra info:
Mainstage timetable:
23:00 Prodigy
21:20 Stone Temple Piltos
19:40 New Model Army
18:20 Queens Of The Stone Age
17:00 Green Day
16:00 Apocalyptica
15:00 BS 2000
14:15 Staind
13:25 Blackmail
12:40 Boy Hits Car
12:00 Psycho Path

Review by Sushy:
This is the story of good music, nice security staff, fucked up cameras and stupid girls that put their hands in front of the camera. But lets start with the beginning’
So here we are – in the middle of nowhere with 40.000 other rock music followers. It’s still three hours to go until the Prodigy finally rock the main stage @ Bizarre, but we (that’s my brother, me and some guys we met at the festival and we became friends with) already leave our tents and head of to the stage to get as close to the band as possible.
When we arrived at the main stage we queued up to get into a special area directly ahead of the stage. There are many securities around who keep telling the crowd to move back. Actually they want us to go back so that they can let some V.I.P.’s in. The first little riots come up and people start to push each other. After one hour of struggling trough the mass we finally made it to the second row of the queue and start chatting up one of the securities. I told him that I’m only at Bizarre to see the Prodigy and that I have a website about their mastermind. I thought it’s always useful to have a friend at the security staff ‘ and I was proved right later on.
When I was still talking with the security guy something happened that completely drove the crowd crazy and some guys kept pushing and pulling very aggressively so that the security had to react. Many guys come out and start dragging the mass back and trying to calm them down. After an hour of constant trying to stay on my own feet I realize that I lost my brother and the other guys and ended up in one of the last rows. Next to me stands a guy that I’ve been talking to before. He smiles at me and says ‘I think it’s time to introduce myself since we’re going to be stuck next to each other for another hour until the concert begins. I’m Alex.’ I start to laugh and tell him who I am and we start talking about the fact that we’ve been standing in the second row before. The securities keep coming out to the mass and tell them that no one will get in if they don’t stop pushing. But the crowd gets even more aggressive when they hear that the Prodigy have started their sound check. Finally the security supervisor starts saying: ‘Ok, that’s it nobody will get in anymore, this is an police arrangement!’ I feel completely fucked and start looking for ‘my’ security guy. Alex tells me that he got hurt in one of the bigger riots. This moment the whole thing was over, it was just the end of something that could have been a good night. We decided to wait for another ten minutes before we finally leave the waiting mass of people. Suddenly someone keeps shouting: ‘Your brother is over there.’ It’s the security I’ve been talking to before. I go to the point where he shows at and find my brother there. Then Alex, my bro and me went over to the security guy and I tell him that there’s no more chance to get in. He just smiles and says: ‘I’ll let you in!’ We went in and the night eventually started to get good’REALLY good!
We get in and a few seconds later the Prodigy already start their show. Within five minutes I made my way to the first row, Alex standing right behind me. The Prodigy start their show with a new intro which sounds kinda like a marsh consisting of different drum sounds. The intro ends and the Prodigy start to play Their law. The crowd starts to jump around now and celebrates the Prodigy. The next song is some of the announced new material. It contains a hard bassline and a piano sample and Keith and Maxim sang something I actually didn’t understand. The new song is followed by Breathe. When Breathe is finished Liam starts to play something that leads to Smack my bitch up. The crowd is still going crazy only the people around me seem to be not so enthusiastic at all because I probably ended up standing in the area where all the V.I.P.’s are. Due to the adrenaline that keeps pushing itself through my body I don’t even feel stupid being the only one jumping, dancing and screaming like a lunatic. To my complete surprise Keith realizes that and comes down to somehow show me gesturing that he sees ‘my show’. After that he sets off to run through the crowd. This guy is totally crazy and I respect him for being like that. Now this night completely rocks! Liam starts to play the beginning part of Climbatize and since it sounds so weird Alex asks me if everything with the sound system is ok. The Climbatize part is only a intro to Mindfields that follows. Keith is back on stage now and starts to sing the lyrics. Mindfields is one of my very favourite songs and I enjoy every beat very much. After that Keith took some time out to grab a bottle of water, drink some of it and spit it into the crowd. Liam starts to play another new song where Maxim and Keith sing something with ‘Action ‘ Reaction’. Now Maxim starts to cheer up the crowd and when he says ‘I see your heads but I don’t see the motherfucking poison’ there’s no more question which song is played next. When the song is finished they guys start to leave the stage. The crowd keeps shouting and the guys come back on stage. Then something happens that I’ve never expected. Liam starts to play Charly! Again I completely freak out and start to jump the fuck out of myself. Charly just comes over really good through the big sound system and everyone can feel the bass pumping in the heart. It’s just great. Liam only plays a shorter version of Charly and so the song ends up after two minutes. The next song that is going to be the last for this night is Fuel my Fire. The song is good but does sound a bit harder as on the album which I somehow don’t like. When the songs is ended the Prodigy leave the stage again. The crowed waits a few seconds but when the rowdies start to take the keyboards off stage the people start to leave the area. We stay for a few more moments until we get thrown out by the security.
On the way back to the tent I get to talk to a polish reporter who shows her ‘Access all areas’ bracelet and tells me that she saw the show from the side of the stage. She said that she got in a fight with Keith as he discovered her tape recorder. I told her that this was ok because the Prodigy had announced that they didn’t want any reporters to be around their gig. She just said that she her press agency didn’t tell her about that and that she slapped Keith when he was trying to get her tape recorder. But he won the fight and gave the recorder to one of the securities. This should show one more time that the Prodigy are never going to be a mainstream band that wants any kind of public promotion. They’re going to stay underground as good as they can. Thinking about that I get satisfied. It was just a great end for a great night ‘ one of the best things you can imagine.

Review by neko:
9. 20pm, Stone Temple Pilots. I can’t say I’m a fan, but their performance isn’t bad at all. Definitely the best performance apart from Prodigy we’ve seen in the two days.
But now the stage is being prepared for Prodigy and of course the excitement gets bigger and bigger. Bizarre is so huge compared to the small festival in Switzerland last night, the banner actually does fit at the back here. Also, next to the stage some new banners, some with the new star symbol on a green flag and some with a rocket with the ant symbol on it.
Surprisingly quickly the stage is being prepared for The Prodigy, and right on schedule just before 11pm the lights turn off and an excited crowd is shouting for Prodigy to enter the stage.
Shortly after 11pm they enter the stage, again with the same new ‘army march’ intro which then leads into the cheesy sample and kicks off Their Law.
The crowd reaction is huge! Everyone is jumping around and going completely crazy, and so is the band on stage. yeeeeeh, I get the feeling as if i could go to a Prodigy gig every night now, all the tiredness from driving is gone and Their Law gives me the ultimate adrenaline kick!
Again this is followed by Trigger, the new track with the “one…and the two to the three”. This then followed by an amazing Breathe and next that new link again. Its is instrumental and sounds very downtempo, only at the end you can hear Maxim should something like “we keep it alive!”
The link then of course leads again to SMBU and after that again Cilmbatize and Mindfields. This time during Mindfields Keith also stays on stage and with a waterbottle goes to the front and spits water into the crowd.
Now again Nuclear is played with the ‘action – reaction’, and I really start to love this track, it absolutely rocks!
Now another link is played, and Maxim concludes it with a speech that goes something like: “I can see the heads, but I can’t hear the noise. I can see the bodies, but I dont get a reaction. I can see the faces, but I can’t see the poison.”
This, of course leads into the beginning of Poison! This is followed by Firestarter and although Keith doesn’t get the lyrics completely right, the track still rocks!
Now they all leave the stage and the audience is shouting for more. As they return I am pretty damn sure that they will just play Fuel My Fire now and then leave. But, holy shit, something completely else gets played now: CHARLY!!!!! Infact, just about 10 years after it was released, we get to hear Charly (alley cat mix) at this gig! this is quite a sensation, since to my knowledge they haven’t played this track since 1995. It is great seeing them play Charly and the crowd actually goes quite mad when it is played.
Charly is being cut a bit short though and of course followed by the expected encore Fuel my Fire now. Again, this gig is short and intense, only about 60 minutes, but i guess thats what The Prodigy are about … “one…and we shoot you in the face!

Poster: