2004.12.04 – Brixton Academy, London, England

Date: 4th December 2004
Event: The Prodigy Concert – AONO Tour
Venue: Brixton Academy
City: London
Country: England
Support: see timetable

Tracklist:
1. Wake Up Intro
2. Wake Up Call
3. Their Law
4. Warning
5. Spitfire
6. Breathe
7. Dead Ken Beats
8. Girls / More Girls
9. Action Radar Link
10. Firestarter
11. Hotride (El Batori Mix)
12. Back 2 Skool
13. The Way It Is
14. Mindfields
Encore:
15. Poison
16. Method Beats
17. Smack My Bitch Up

Extra info:
Timetable:
21:00 Nobby N James
21:45 Clor
22:15 Eddie Temple Morris
22:45 Youth of Britain
23:15 Eddie Temple Morris
23:45 The Prodigy
01:20 Leeroy Thornhill
03:00 Curfew

Review from ww.rarefm.co.uk:
The return of The Prodigy has been long-awaited (7 years if not counting Reading Festival) and they didn’t disappoint. The night in question was Saturday 4th December, at Brixton Academy, from 9pm until 3am. The venue was packed with people with an average age of 30 (I may be exaggerating). I was feeling slightly out of place here being only 21 and sporting a very high Mohawk, but I was accepted with my love for The Prodigy, so all was good.
The crowd was receptive to the supporting acts, but the tension grew as it came closer to the time of explosive dance/rock beats and demanding lyrics of The Prodigy. They eventually came on stage at midnight to roars of joy from a very packed Brixton Academy. The two frontmen, Maxim and Keith worked the crowd with such power and energy that it was impossible not to dance, or at least bob up and down if you were too old or drunk to be energetic.
They smashed through a range of songs from their most recent album “Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned” as well as songs from previous albums, including the fantastic ‘Firestarter’, ‘Breathe’, and the classic ‘Poison’. They saved the legendary ‘Smack By Bitch Up’ for their encore for which the crowd went crazy.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and they sadly left the stage with the crowd wanting more. But wait…..who came on stage next? It was of course the former member of The Prodigy, Leeroy. He continued to play a DJ set for those still with energy to carry on, me being one of them.
Overall it was an amazing gig for a returning band which has been greatly missed. Let’s just hope they don’t stay away too long ever again!!!!

Review by neko:
This isn’t exactly my favourite day ever as the punishment for last night is very evil but by 9pm I finally manage to eat a bowl of porridge (very rock n’ roll) and am steady enough to go to this late night Brixton show. Tonight I’m dragging along my younger brother for a change, so should be good fun.
We get there halfway through Youth of Britain’s set and I still like what I see a lot, definitely not a bad choice for supporting Prodigy at all. Next on is a DJ again and then the 2nd support act, Clor. Not really my cup of tea I’m afraid, some nice tracks, but a bit too little energy for a band supporting a band like The Prodigy.
Now on is Eddie Temple Morris DJing again and the anticipation in the venue is rather massive. It’s almost midnight and we all want The Prodigy to come on, now!
Predictably then, the Wake Up Intro. I’ve made my way to the front row, on the very far right in front of the speakers, from where I’ve got a very good view of the whole stage. Wake Up Call then opens the show, lots of energy and you can it all works just fine.
Their Law then the next great track, of course it being one of the older ones and a live favourite it goes down particularly well with the audience. I look back and all I can see is hundreds of people behind me jumping up and down, waving their arms, going crazy.
Warning as a new track goes down very well too. I’m loving it. Maxim returns on the stage now for Spitfire and then Breathe.
Although up to here the setlist and tracks are quite similar to what they’ve been for the last couple of shows it all seems fresh still. There’s also some new lights around Liam’s keyboards, making him look more prominent on stage. He’s now got two laptops instead of just one, and also has stopped giving Apple free advertising by covering the logos with black stickers …. The drums look different than before as well, and if I’m not mistaken there are more lights than there used to be.
Next on is this new track debuted in Amsterdam less than 2 weeks ago. Apparently Liam only just wrote it in the afternoon before the Amsterdam show (I mean, what else is there to do when you’re in Amsterdam … ). This track so rocks though. It keeps getting quieter, then builds up until it erupts into these amazing hard beats. Cool!
Now Girls / More Girls, as usually goes down well. Then the Action Radar Fill. Oooooh, how much am I hoping that Paul Jackson, the guy who does the vocals on the actual track, will turn up and they’ll do the full thing, but that’s not happening unfortunately. There have been so many rumours about collaborators appearing with the band for the Brixton shows… Paul Jackson, Liam Gallagher, Juliette Lewis … I can understand Liam though, he needs to bring back the band for what they are first now. A performance of collaborator after collaborator would have overshadowed the fact that The Prodigy are back and strong as what they are, so it’s probably a good thing. I love the Action radar fill though, great highlight of the set.
Now next is Firestarter, a slightly different version from the one in Birmingham, sounding more like the original, but still with some additional beats. I personally prefer it to the original, but that might be just because I’ve seen the original so many times now. Not sure whether someone who hasn’t seen the band since ’97 would feel the same! I definitely think that it’s a shame that the Firestarter Intro from B’ham has gone though, that was amazing, worked really well with the guitars and all!
Hotride has been slightly ‘refreshed’ as well, definitely a different version than before the UK tour and possibly even slightly different here now than in Birmingham already. I love the hard beats that the track has been reduced to and it does work better live now than the El Batori mix they used to play, BUT on a negative side it has also lost a bit more from its original Hotride vibe now. Maybe it had to, because it was never going to work live with that vibe, it just doesn’t sound enought like Hotride anymore, as a trade-off to making it a better live track.
Big highlight for me now of course Back to School, oooh, this track is just so good. The track alone is great to hear, Maxim’s vocals then make it even better and watching Keith do his old skool dance is just the icing of the cake. It’s also great to see how it goes down so well with the London audience, of which almost no one would have ever heard this track before.
Now The Way It Is, it’s not a secret that this isn’t really my favourite live track, probably the least favourite one. I do like the track, it’s just slightly too long. Much better then of course Mindfields, which once more shows Maxim at his best. Keith also remains on stage for almost the entire set today, occasionally walking through the front rows to see the fans.
The band then leave and return to play the encore: Poison, some Release Yo’delf beats and Smack My Bitch Up. The latter is of course as usual a very strong final song, leaving everyone behind wanting more.
oooh, sooo good! I’m struggling to make up my mind which one’s the ‘best show’ now. Barcelona, Amsterdam, Zurich and the Brixton shows definitely all deserved to be called exactly that, so I think I’ll stop doing any rankings now.
Right… 6 more to go this week, watch this space …

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