Date: 19th March 2005
Event: F1 Pit Party 2005
Venue: KL Tower
City: Kuala Lumpur
Country: Malaysia
Support: Reshmonu, DJs Goldfish and T-Bone
Tracklist:
1. Wake Up Intro
2. Wake Up Call
3. Their Law (censored)
4. Breathe
5. Spitfire
6. Back 2 Skool (censored)
7. Firestarter (censored)
8. Action Radar Link
9. Mindfields
10. Poison
11. Smack My Bitch Up (censored)
12. Out Of Space
Extra info:
Review by neko:
I’m leaving Jakarta on Friday morning and it looks like the rainy season has just come back again as it’s pouring it down. Can’t say I’m too unhappy about leaving here (except that dodgy flight with “air asia” to KL ).
KL itself is amazing. Already the fact that their airport actually looks like an airport and our hotel looks like a hotel! With the F1 on the same weekend the whole city is totally buzzing. Our hotel is totally in the middle of everything, can see the KL Tower from the window and close to the supposedly two main going out areas. It’s very hot though, 36 degrees and super humid, so as soon as you step outside the heat is just killing you. Gets me a bit worried about the band, the gig is outside, so at least Kieron and Keith are going to really feel this.
The venue is unusual, to say the least. KL has got this tower on a hill in the city centre and that’s where they’re going to play, outside. After some cocktails in town we get there about 9pm, still all super hot. The tower has a visitor area and at the other end of a very long and quite narrow standing area is the rather small stage where they’re going to play. The event itself is a Renault F1 Pit Party, so it’s heavily sponsored by Mild Seven cigarettes and has a slightly corporate feel. Lots of security as well.
A support ‘DJ’ and an ‘MC’ come on. Holy shit, what is this? ‘DJ KITT’ is playing all kinds of slow ballads and the other guy is singing along to it. Ha ha. With it being in this rather warm setting and all the palm tress and KL skyline at the back I suddenly feel like on some random package holiday party. Not that I ever do package holidays, but that’s what I imagine it to be like. In a way I quite enjoy the cheesiness of it, it’s funny.
I’m looking forward to this gig now. I know that it will be a slightly different one tonight as the band are not allowed to swear at all. Yes, no ‘fuck’, ‘smack’, ‘bitch’ or whatever so in the days before there had been talks by band about not playing tracks like Their Law at all and I wonder how they will make this one work now.
Thank god that support singer is leaving the stage after 10 and now makes room for Prodigy. Despite the event being slightly corporate there seems to be a quite a big Prodigy fan base here, waiting in anticipation.
Shortly after 11 then the familiar Wake Up Intro marks the start of the show (no Exterminator tonight – will I ever be able to listen to this again without thinking the Prodigy are about to come on?). Then of course Wake Up. “It’s been a long time … ” Has it? the band have never even played here before!
Then it gets really interesting…. they actually start playing Their Law. Everyone who’s ever heard this track live knows that obviously the “Fuck ’em, and their law” is one of the main samples used and the f-word is generally quite heavily featured, so how in the world are they going to make this one work? Basically it seems like Liam’s changed some stuff around and it just goes “Crack down at sun down” everytime you usually hear the “Fuck ’em and their law”. I dont think too many people even notice, but i can’t help cracking up when I hear it. Maxim obviously also has to go along with this and goes “Crack down at sun down” over and over again. You can see in his face that he is very focused not to say any of what he usually does. I later mention this to him, but he has none of it. “I am always very focused”, he grins. oooo-kay!
There’s no Warning tonight (more due to time restrictions than anything else I hear) so it goes straight into Breathe. No swearing in this one and they can play as usual, same as for Spitfire. Audience reaction is quite impressive throughout. The audience area is very narrow but quite long, but people are jumping up and down way until to the back. There seem to be quite a fair amount of people from the UK here with lots of people appearing to know most of the album tracks played.
There’s no Girls tonight either, so we go straight into Back to School. I dont remember the exact lyrics, but there definitely is no “build bombs” in it tonight! Maxim makes it work very well though and it sounds really cool as well.
Then on to Firestarter, minus the “I’m the bitch you hated” line, which Keith simply leaves out. Again, I dont think anyone really notices. Now, on to a personal favourite again, the Action Radar Fill. Liam has started mixing the main Firestarter riff into the beginning of this, so that it all fits nicely together, very very cool. Mindfiels then, very cool as usual and the band go straight on with Poison, no time tonight for the whole leaving the stage and coming back thing.
Then it gets very exciting again, will they or wont they? oooh, it’s the beginning to Smack my Bitch Up. Or should I say, Change My Pitch Up? Ha ha. Respect due here to band for making this one work. Basically what they do is, they just go ‘Change My Pitch Up! Change My Pitch Up!’ Ha ha, this is great. Also, there’s twice a build up to a huge breakdown and instead of using the ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ sample, Liam just uses a random hip hop sample instead, not sounding like SMBU at all, more funny than anything else. the audience are well into it though, again I dont think too many realise what’s going on here!
They then stay on stage and play the intro beats and Out Of Space, which is extremely well received again by the audience and then it’s all over already.
The End
I guess all good things come to an end and as this tour was an extremely good thing it’s probably time for it to end else I’d get too used to all this well too easily. Had such an amazing time travelling around and on this tour, ….. oooooooh, getting all emotional now….
Soooooo, big big thanks have to go to the whole band for having been so cool with me every single time I saw them and of course also massive thanks to John Fairs and Mike Champion.
Back to London the next day …
Review by Zack Yusof:
Fresh from assaulting audiences in Australia and Jakarta with their infectious blend of ball-busting techno, snarling electric guitars and block-rocking breakbeats, chart busting British dance outfit The Prodigy descended upon Kuala Lumpur to lay down the law and read the riot act at the F1 Pit Party 2005 at KL Tower last Saturday.
Providing polite local flavoured support on the night were Reshmonu, and DJs Goldfish and T-Bone; but in the end, the night truly belonged to those wild boys from Essex as they delivered a blistering set that had partygoers dancing frenetically from start to finish.
Live, The Prodigy are truly a sight to behold with vocalist Keith Flint and rapper/MC Maxim Reality, adorned in full war paint, prowling the stage with snarling intent while main man Liam Howlett worked his mojo behind an arsenal of keyboards and high-tech gadgetry.
Doing a sterling job of beefing up the band’s live sound on the night was former Pitchshifter guitarist Jim Davies and Flint drummer Kieron Pepper, who have been regular fixtures in The Prodigy’s live set up for several years now.
With a meaty live sound backing them up and an enthusiastic crowd ready to lap it all up, the band were in the mood to take no prisoners on the night and rocked the sweat-drenched dancing bodies in front of them for the best part of 60 glorious minutes. Short and sharp their set may have been but it was top draw entertainment while it lasted.
With all five members giving it loads of energy on stage in front of a delirious, capacity crowd of around 3200 enthusiastic revellers, there was lots of interaction between band and audience to keep the pulses racing and the sweat flowing.
With Flint and Reality in the forefront constantly urging the crowd to get excited, The Prodigy live experience was similar to that of watching a kick ass live rock band strut their stuff on stage.
Certainly, the band can more than hold their own in a visual and musical sense with any live band, rock or otherwise.
For their set on the night, The Prodigy mainly drew their material from 1997’s seminal Fat of the Land and current album Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned.
Predictably, the kids went ballistic as soon as the opening strains of the ever-popular Firestarter filtered through the warm KL night.
Other Fat of the Land choice cuts like Breathe, Smack My B***h Up, Serial Thrilla and Funky S**t ably demonstrated the enduring quality of the tunes from that classic long player.
Judging by the crowd’s frenzied reception to the tunes, it would appear that they have managed to withstand the test of time with no worries. Certainly, the still glorious Breathe (this writer’s favourite cut on the night) still packs a hefty punch seven years on and sounds even better live.
Elsewhere, anthemic new album tracks Spitfire and Phoenix provided ample evidence to suggest that The Prodigy have still got what it takes to get any party pumping.
Minor gripes? KL Tower, while a wholly impressive structure to look at and visit on a day trip, is simply not a conducive venue for a live show for a band like The Prodigy, whose audience tends to want ample room to dance the night away. The narrow way in which the party area was set-up simply did not give enough room for people to move about, let alone dance. Also, given the sweltering conditions and huge amount of people present, it was a major effort just to find a decent spot to settle down and watch the show.
Also, The Prodigy’s surprise arrival on stage at the rather early-ish time of 11pm sharp meant that a lot of fans, who were stuck in traffic due to the various F1 related events happening around town that evening, missed a large portion of the show. With The Prodigy playing for only an hour, this meant that late-arriving fans missed out on what was a fantastic live show.
In retrospect, they definitely should have finished the night instead of the local DJs.
Despite their early start, The Prodigy came, saw and tore the roof off. But while the band kept their word and delivered an incendiary live show last weekend, one can’t help feeling that given a more suitable venue for revellers to really get deep down and funky in and a later stage time, the gig really would have been truly an unforgettable event.
Still, there’s always the next time. It’s official: The Prodigy are back, funkier than ever.
Ticket:
Photos from the show:
Photosession:
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