2017.12.19 – Civic Hall, Wolverhampton, England

Date: 19th December 2017
Event: The Prodigy Concert
Venue: Civic Hall
City: Wolverhampton
Country: England
Support: Special Request

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. Invaders Must Die
16. Poison
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 Rebecca Stanley, www.expressandstar.com:
Last night Essex electronic pioneers The Prodigy invaded Wolverhampton’s Civic Hall for an unforgettable show.
The venue hosted a sold out crowd from the minute doors opened – from people in neon parkas to hard rockers – eager to get the party started.
The hot and sweaty crowd erupted as the lights dimmed and Liam Howlett, Keith Flint and Maxim bounded onto the stage with neon microphones.
“Are you ready Wolverhampton?” Maxim bellowed to the roaring crowd – and the crowd most certainly weren’t.
The first notes of Omen signalled the start of the raucous party and the varied set The Prodigy had weaved together. From early hits such as Everybody in the Place to Nasty, from smash hit Breathe to Need Some 1 – the varied set explored the entirety of their glittering 27 year career in expert form.
Each roar of the synth and keyboards, boom of the drums and ferociously executed lyric sounded radio perfect at all times – yet this didn’t detract away from the raw and visceral stage show The Prodigy put on.
Both Maxim and Keith Flint didn’t remain stationary for even a second on stage – throughout hits such as Voodoo People, Poison and Everybody in the Place the duo danced across the stage, waved their arms in the air enticing the crowd to jump along with them, and leaned over the crowd ominously.
“Is this Wolverhampton or f****** what?” Maxim shouted repeatedly, riling the crowd into a frenzy of sweaty, dancing bodies.
The electric atmosphere that the crowd created contributed to the overall wonder of the show, as well as the band on stage. The exuberance they showed encapsulated the powerful energy The Prodigy have always channelled through their music, with not only a section of the crowd moving, but instead the entire room.
The electricity of the crowd was almost physically tangible, and not just because the room reached scorching hot temperatures.
Hits Voodoo People and Invaders Must Die took this passion and vibrancy to another level as the whole room exploded into a sea of waving arms, soaring glow sticks and flashing lights at the drop of each song.
From start to finish The Prodigy were a feast for all of the senses. The dazzling light show that accompanied the set was truly a sight to behold, with strobe lights and flood lights transforming the venue into an underground rave setting.
Notably, the lighting during smash hit single Firestarter plunged the band into the song’s famous music video. Though bathed in red light instead of black and white, the band were lit as ominously as the video which added spine-chilling depth to the track’s performance.
Ending the set on Smack My B**** Up, Maxim implored the crowd to all get down and jump up simultaneously to the start of the last set of lyrics – which was astounding to see from up on the balcony as the whole crowd rose and fell like a tsunami.
This wasn’t enough for the crowd who weren’t ready to say goodbye to The Prodigy yet, and the band were happy to oblige to their cries for more as they stormed the stage once more for a rip-roaring encore featuring No Good, Their Law and Take Me to the Hospital.
Rather than their energy waning towards the end of their 90 minute set, The Prodigy upped the ante for one last time and left the Civic Hall in a blaze of glory accompanied by strobes and booming electronic sound effects.
The crowd at Wolverhampton’s Civic Hall are unlikely to forget The Prodigy any time soon, as they brought the energy of an arena show into the intimate venue in breath-taking fashion.

Review by Gurdip Thandi, http://www.kidderminstershuttle.co.uk:
THEY have been around for 30-odd years but The Prodigy proved they remain fresh and relevant as ever with a blistering set in Wolverhampton.
The electronic punks rolled into the Civic Hall last night (Tuesday, December 19) ready to battle and produced a two hour aural assault, lapped up by the pumped up crowd.
It’s been 20 years since the release of their hugely popular ‘Fat of the Land’ LP – but this was no nostalgia trip. Their set was full of newer material with a healthy smattering of classics.
The Prodigy have always been a brutally brilliant live act and the trio – alongside a drummer and guitarist for added energy and firepower – did not disappoint last night.
‘Omen’ lit the blue touch paper when it kicked off proceedings and was breathlessly followed by newer tracks including ‘Nasty’, ‘Wild Frontier’ and ‘The Day Is My Enemy’.
Early airings of ‘Everybody In The Place’ and their first UK number one ‘Firestarter’ drew huge cheers of adulation from a crowd whose ages ranged from 12 to 60.
MC Maxim wasn’t happy though. Demanding more noise and more appreciation and the sweat-drenched fans happily quenched his thirst.
Liam Howlett, the genius mind behind the band, orchestrated proceedings with quiet menace while vocalist, dancer and band jester Keith Flint was like a jack-in-the-box bouncing around the stage with the enthusiasm and stamina of someone half his age.
Howls of worship greeted classics such as ‘Voodoo People’, ‘Poison’, ‘Breathe’ and ‘No Good’.
But the Civic was also positively rocking to the beats of ‘Invaders Must Die’, ‘Run With The Wolves’ and ‘Roadblox’.
If I had one small gripe? They didn’t play rave anthems ‘Out of Space’ or ‘Charly’. Or even 2010’s ‘Warrior’s Dance’.
But that’s just nit-picking really. The Civic Hall felt like the centre of one glorious universe last night and cemented the electronic pioneers place as dance legends.
They ended with ‘Take Me To The Hospital’ but it could be argued the The Prodigy’s “pulsating, rhythmical remedies” are the best medicine for anyone. Despite the side-effect of aching limbs the day after for a 41-year-old journalist who couldn’t stop pogoing!

Review by Giles Logan, http://counteract.co:
The Civic Hall is a cracking venue but we found the Checkpoint Charlie security a bit disconcerting, according to the police, yes there was an actual police presence with undercover officers inside, this is normal for Wolverhampton. Should we feel reassured or frightened walking past the row of concrete blocks, steel fence and through the airport style scanner? Hats off to the security guys though, friendly and efficient, and once inside there’s no problems, but rather presciently part of The Prodigy’s stage dressing includes banks of CCTV cameras.
Inside, the renown Civic acoustics are already getting a battering as Paul Woolford aka Special Request begins a warm up set. He rips though a barnstorming hardcore session with a definite old school flavour getting a burgeoning crowd into a rave state of mind. Woolford is possessed of a furious energy, he doesn’t stop moving for some two hours and his enthusiasm is infectious. Everyone is revved up for the main event.
A few strains of Walter Carlos’ unsettling score from A Clockwork Orange seep through the PA as The Prodigy take the stage. It’s an appropriate intro, there’s an intimidating simmering almost violent edge to The Prodigy’s sound. A punked up theatre of aggression that informs their music and style, after nearly three decades it’s an edge that has sharpened notably. Most recent album The Day is My Enemy is a raging slab of nightmarish ideas and angry noise, we get two versions of the title track tonight.
Maxim and Keith prowl the stage unremittingly, fiery human bundles of muscle, sweat and scowls, when Maxim exhorts ‘bring the fucking noise Wolverhampton’ no one would dare argue. The live onslaught is ratcheted tenfold by Brummie guitarist, Rob Holliday. This is what sets The Prodigy apart from many of their peers, artists hidden behind banks of buttons and equipment can be a stultifying live experience. Yes, Liam does exactly that but around him are the buzzing chainsaw riffs of Holliday and the jackhammer percussion of long time live drummer Leo Crabtree. It’s a ferocious mix.
Set highlights include crowd favourite Firestarter, cue a three-thousand voiced Keith singalong and heaving mosh pit, an intense Breathe and opening track Omen, which set the tone for the whole show as a clued up crowd switch into full on punk rave mode and stay there. Front to back a mass of movement and energy. Absolute standout was Smack My Bitch Up, with a tortuously teased out intro from Maxim and Holliday building tension to unbearable levels before the beat dropped in a cacophonic seizure of strobes and bass, this was the moment The Civic’s roof came off.
There were a couple of new songs, the industrial breakbeat power of Resonate and the anthemic banger Need Some 1, which bode well for a new album, their seventh, due out in 2018. The Prodigy are a unique live beast, an enduring sinewy mass of homicidal pantomime, miss them at your peril.

Review by Glenn Raybone, http://www.brumlive.com:
So to the final gig (for me) of 2017 and there couldn’t be a better way to sign off than seeing The Prodigy in a small venue. Its twenty years since The Fat of The Land came into our lives, an album which shook the music scene much like the Sex Pistols had done twenty years prior. The techno boys had come of age and it would’ve been very easy for them to play the album in full, as is the fashion these days, but of course this is The Prodigy, who don’t do things as standard, they can’t be second-guessed.
The Civic is going through a never ending refurbishment and I believe the latest development was that the roof need replacing, so it seems apt that the Prodigy are here as the roof was certainly taken off tonight, starting with the intro music including the Liquidator which whilst is no longer played across the road at Molineux as the Wolves take to the pitch, it gets sung loudly including the taunting of rivals in West Bromwich.
From their huge back catalogue it is some feat as to what songs to play. Opening with Omen it’s the full visual and aural assault (as expected). The stage is industrial with spray painted backdrop, barbed wire effect lighting rigs and rotating police style lights behind the orchestrator Liam Howlett, who for large parts of the gig is lost amongst the lights, the chaos.
Front of stage is Maxim, entering in a fur hoody, white tribal make-up over his eyes asking “where are my people Wolverhampton” and then of course there is the punk jester, Keith ‘Keef’ Flint, white vest, more heavily tattooed than when we last saw him, marching, pointing, gesturing.
The crowd are a mixture of ages, and there is even a Father Christmas in here, but in the main we are here for a good time, and we are not disappointed. The set-list will follow at the end, but the older songs get the biggest roar, whilst the Fat of the Land era gets the biggest sound, which pummels every organ in your body. Firestarter is particularly good, which sees Keith centre stage, mimicking the video for the song, bathed in red light it’s a visual feast and a reminder just how good the songs on that album are.
There is one new song aired, Need Some 1, and we are under the impression a new album is due to reach us in 2018, but from past history you can’t believe a new Prodigy album is coming until it’s in your hands and ears, just think of the Castbreeder songs, which to this day is still not confirmed if this was a fake or not.
They have been playing Diesel Power (a particular favourite of mine) on previous dates but sadly not for us tonight, but we do get set closer Take Me to The Hospital, which seems to take the bass to a whole new level and makes your body rattle.
This really was a superb set, full of songs but in doing so they had edited each song and I’m not sure this is a good thing. Should they play less songs but in full, or more songs edited?? It’s a hard call but 3000 people were left happy and it was good to see the local Police in the venue also dancing.
An incredible end to the year, a gig with sweat dripping from the ceiling, as loud as ever, blinding lights, just what we want.

Poster: