Date: 18th December 2017
Event: The Prodigy Concert
Venue: O2 Academy
City: Glasgow
Country: Scotland
Support: Stanton Warriors
Tracklist:
1. Omen
2. Resonate
3. Nasty
4. Wild Frontier
5. Everybody In The Place
6. Firestarter
7. The Day Is My Enemy
8. The Day Is My Enemy (Bad Company UK Remix)
9. Roadblox
10. Voodoo People
11. Get Your Fight On
12. Need Some1
13. Breathe
14. Run With The Wolves
15. Poison
16. Invaders Must Die
17. Smack My Bitch Up
Encore:
18. No Good (Start The Dance)
19. Their Law
20. Take Me To The Hospital
Extra info:
Review by Martin Williams, http://www.heraldscotland.com:
There’s a man down the front and he is not dancing. He is not moshing. He is standing still and he is reading.
It is not any old book, either. It’s Pretend You’re In A War: The Who and the Sixties by Mark Blake the writer and music journalist.
In it you learn that the title comes from Who guitarist Pete Townshend’s response when asked how he prepared himself for The Who’s violent live performances.
It’s apt, because while it may not be the Sixties, a war is exactly what ensues as the lords of rave-punk stride onto stage.
As if taking the advice of the Townsend motto, the book is swiftly put away as the early synth chime squawls of Omen cause mayhem, disturbing the initial silence and a sold out venue, stoked up by a cleverly playlisted old school DJ set, explodes in a wave of sweat and violent thrusting bodies.
The Essex electro-rockers arrived to a deafening roar and while their fans may have got older, there was definitely no let up in the intensity of the moshpit as Maxim and a madly staring Keith Flint, looking more and more like a Satan wannabe, cajole the fans into even greater efforts of dancing and screaming.
Maxim says, “I can’t hear you”, a lot. An awful lot.
And if there is one flaw in tonight’s hour-and-a-half it’s that the synths for long periods are too low in the mix. So low in fact, it was difficult at time to tell what song they were playing and a shout of, “we can’t hear YOU”, was apt even down the front.
The long pauses between tracks could have been technical difficulties and may have induced headscratching moments, but the throng of smelly sweaties up front, it was a welcome time to gulp down some distributed water and get your breath back.
It’s incredible to think it is 26 years ago that they truly emerged from the warehouse scene before becoming one of the first dance combos indie kids would not sneer at and really only one of those early rave-influenced tunes remained in tonight’s set, the glorious Everybody’s In The Place. It would not sound out of place on a 90s arcade game.
Their core fans who grew up with them, many will be in their 40s, seem to have retained the energy to last the chaotic pace to the last, which is set to 100mph from the start as the riotous Nasty and Firestarter are belted through within the first five songs.
There is nothing quite like The Prodigy on full throttle, and as there are no slowies or ballads, it remains unrelenting and at the same time euphoric throughout.
This was the fourth of eight pre-Christmas shows which preludes the release of their seventh album due to be released next year.
Intoxicating new songs due on the album such as a heady Resonate that fans won’t be surprised do not sound a world away from the usual high-tempo acid-rockers that have become their trademark, are given an airing before even a teaser on social media or on streaming sites.
The brains behind it all, keyboardist and songwriter Liam Howlett remains firmly concentrate on the tech, an array of computers and synths, save for a gesture to the crowd before an encore, where he thumps his chest and appears to mouth to the crowd that they were the best.
The setting is far more intimate than their usual big arena or outdoor festival appearances, and that clearly adds to the visceral, explosive atmosphere.
It was perhaps apt then that Maxim decided to take a wander through the crowd while on vocal duty to get to know the fans, having earlier distributed some much needed bottles of water to dehydrated fans at the front.
Smack My B*tch Up, their final song before an encore was always misunderstood. Perhaps knowingly controversial, the band deny it is misogynistic and advocates violence. It’s a song about pure hedonism; a call to do things with vigour and intensity.
The crowd and the band, who confirm that they are one of the most energetic live bands still, certainly did that.
Review by Graeme Virtue, www.theguardian.com:
The Prodigy review – teeth rattled in dystopian breakbeat pantomime
Twenty years on from their multimillion-selling album The Fat of the Land, the Prodigy refuse to get nostalgic, nor reduce the energy levels below total pandemonium
In an era when memories can be monetised, most bands – active or otherwise – might hungrily eye the 20th anniversary of their most successful album as an opportunity to mount a special tour to shore up their legacy and top up their Isas. Not so the Prodigy, Liam Howlett’s tetchy but tireless road warriors.
As Britpop shrivelled, their third album, 1997’s The Fat of the Land, took Howlett’s uncouth youthquake of evil techno and hot-wired breakbeats to the world; an astonishingly successful incursion into the US arguably laid the groundwork for the recent EDM explosion. Two decades on, you could forgive these Essex boys a backward-looking victory lap to fatten the brand.
Instead, after yet another year of festival dates across Europe and beyond (judging by their far-flung tour itinerary of the past half-decade, the Prodigy seem to have made it their mission to crack Russia), there is this short UK sprint, culminating in three sold-out nights at Brixton Academy. It may be slap-bang in the middle of panto season but this cacophonous evening of headlong entertainment is not quite Jack and the Glowstick, even if the staging does feel like part of another fine British theatrical tradition: the slightly clapped-out dystopia.
A scrawled backdrop of urban blight and barbed wire is illuminated by spinning red police beacons and gigantic roaming searchlights seemingly half-inched from an internment camp. Once he takes the stage, Howlett is barely visible while manning his command centre of laptops and black boxes while a barbed CCTV pole stands sentry nearby. The overall effect is oppressive, like a set for Children of Men: The Musical.
Staging aside, everything else is much livelier. The default volume level is air-raid siren, and there is a distinct lack of ballads. They kick off with the angular arcade-game squeals and clattering drums of Omen and neither the racket nor energy levels let up for almost two hours of tooth-rattling pandemonium.
The core trio of Howlett, rapper Maxim and aggro jester Keith Flint are now men comfortably into their mid-40s yet they still look as if they could walk straight into a cyberpunk movie. Maxim sports a startling bandit mask seemingly applied using bright spray paint. Flint, his distinctive devil-horn hair still gelled in salute 21 years on from Firestarter, rocks a John McClane vest and hanging braces. Both prowl the stage rolling their shoulders with practised caged-panther menace. On the queasy funhouse blast of Nasty they energetically trade lines and goad each other with grins.
While Prodigy records deliver reliably impressive frontloaded sales – if you include a 2005 greatest hits, they have notched up six UK No 1 albums in a row – they have always been live specialists. Older hits are tossed into the setlist like grenades. The toytown techno of Everybody in the Place ignites a rabid wave of raving; a relatively early outing for Firestarter shakes the Academy’s balcony.
Newer songs are battered and bolted into more angular shapes to better fit the whole. On record, the title track from their 2015 album The Day Is My Enemy is a domino line of tribal drums with a keening Martina Topley-Bird vocal soaring on top. Live, it is now armour-plated with heavy rock riffs. Maxim leaps up on the drum riser. “This shit’s fucking easy,” he yells, with somehow charming braggadocio: “It’s what I do.”
The Prodigy: ‘we should be as important as Oasis or Blur’
Is there any political message within the delirium, apart from the repeated underlining of one’s right to party? The Prodigy’s origin story will always be associated with the rave-inhibiting Criminal Justice Act and the aggression baked into their music has often felt like protest: hedonistic with a hint of malevolence. In full clattering flow on Get Your Fight On, they vibrate with such combustibility that it feels like two fingers to any kind of regulation. Even after more than 25 years, this is a band you would kettle at your own risk.
Before a thrilling final salvo, there is an effort to squeeze in some new material. Need Some 1 slows the BPM but still shuffles with an impressive swagger. Howlett has announced that their seventh album will be released next year, but even if that turns out to be the case – and previously heralded Prodigy records have been entirely scrapped or scuttled – it feels as if perhaps the best way to sample it will be at a dance festival once the highlights have been fully grafted into their live repertoire. That is perhaps the fate of a road band, but it’s remarkable that the Prodigy can still generate and expertly channel this much energy.
Review by Alan Muir, www.thescottishsun.co.uk:
Liam Howlett, Maxim and Keith Flint may be almost 30 years down the road now, but their powerfully pure, raw, high-energy electro dance set is still so fresh – and so are they.
FED up with all those cheesy Christmas tunes?
December becomes just one big long playlist of, let’s face it, a limited number of songs.
Tune in often enough and you’ll find your blood sugar levels rising. These tunes are sweeter than an Advocaat and lemonade.
Well, I have the perfect antidote for you. I know it works, because I took a huge dose of it last night and I seem to be cured.
It’s called The Prodigy. Health warning: This medicine may have side-effects like profuse sweating, partial deafness and tinnitus.Even…and I hate to say this…even Fairytale Of New York?
But I’d rather have a constant ringing in my ears than a constant Jingle Bells.
Liam Howlett, Maxim and Keith Flint may be almost 30 years down the road now, but their powerfully pure, raw, high-energy electro dance set is still so fresh – and so are they.
Bow before the vibrations!
Honestly, it seems as if Glasgow’s O2 Academy must have shifted a few inches in its foundations. The throbbing keyboards and synth drums literally rocked the house.
From The Omen, right through to Take Me To The Hospital, they drove the adoring crowd into a frenzy.
Shirts were stripped off and thrown, beer was hurled, arms pumped the air and a sell-out venue bounced as one.
I’ve seen them about a dozen times now. They never fail to impress. Or surprise.
Even when the roof blew off with their most revered anthems, Firestarter and Smack My Bitch Up, it almost felt like you were hearing them for the first time.
Talking of which, we had Christmas come a week early when we were treated to a track from their new record (due out early next year). Need Some 1 is pure Prodigy.
No-one will be disappointed.
They sandwiched it seamlessly among old favourites, pretty much covering their back catalogue, including Nasty, Poison, Wild Frontier, the magnificent Breathe, The Day Is My Enemy and Invaders Must Die.
They know what their music does to fans, Maxim even lobbing bottles of water into the crowd at the peak of the show.
They (almost) live up to their name. Prodigy: a young person with exceptional qualities or abilities.
They’re not young any more. Who cares!
Review by Kellyanne Tobin, www.themodernrecord.com:
What words can I say about this gig, amazing, mind blowing, electrifying? How about all of them and so much more. The Prodigy is one of the most well-known electronic music bands and has been around since the 90’s. The Prodigy played at the SOLD OUT show in Glasgow o2 academy; they first came out to a roaring screams from their entire warrior fans kicking of the show with “OMEN” from the Album Invaders Must Die which was their fifth album released back in 2009. This show was the fourth of eight pre-Christmas shows.
Keith Flint looked like demon on the stage dancing around encouraging his fans to dance and mosh with the band and believe me, the fans did not disappoint. The crowd were on fire wanting more from the prodigy playing there older songs “fire starter”, “voodoo people” to their newer material from their new seventh album out next year . The crowd consisted of waves and mosh pits to the amazing shouting here we, here we, here we f**king go.
Maxim engaged with the whole arena between songs, he decided to take a wee wander through the front crowd to get to know his warrior fans getting all the them all down on the ground during “smack my bitch up” which was their final song before going in to the encore. The lighting for the show was out of this world with the flashing lights changing colour and speed with the beat of the songs, Keith and Maxim had outlandish coloured microphones to go with the explosive atmosphere of the stage, so even through the smoke and lights you could track the movement of the band.
The Prodigy played their encore which consisted of three songs all together ending with “Take Me to the Hospital”. All in this entire gig was electrifying, with old fans of the prodigy dating back 20 years, to new fans just shows you , that the prodigy are of the most energetic live band still to this very day.
Poster:
Tracklist:
T-shirt:
Photos from the show:
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