2003.06.11 – Scala, London, England

Date: 11th June 2003
Event: Flint’s concert
Venue: Scala
City: London
Country: England

Tracklist:
n/a

Extra info:
Review by neko:
So it’s Flint at Scala tonight, the ‘first official gig’ of the band, just 13 days after the real first one and even in Kings Cross again. Keen as we are we get there punctually at 7.30pm when the doors are supposed to open. As we get in, there are already a few even keener people already queuing in front of the stage to secure the best spaces. Now we’re queuing at the bar a bit instead and the only downer of the evening have got to be the amazingly high beverage prices. So there goes my money.
Since the band aren’t on until 10pm and there’s no support, apart from a rather average DJ, it gives us a bit of time to look around. The audience is a very interesting mixture of people. There are a few Prodigy shirts being walked around, a couple of Pitchshifter followers, the obvious “Keith Flint ’97”-double and apart from that a rather mature audience. You can even buy your own FLINT merchandise already and purchase one of the black shirts with the pink ‘FLINT’ logo on the front and ‘COOLKILLS’ at the back. I’m not all that impressed with the shirts, but that’s details. My money has already gone for vodka anyway. Apart from the prices, the Scala as a venue is really cool, quite small (capacity of about 500 people) with a good size stage and all little balconies and stuff.
So towards 10pm there’s a really good, excited and still relaxed, atmosphere in the audience. I’m definitely not the only one looking forward to this gig. So the band get on stage and start with Asteroids again. The sound is good, but as at the last show you get a bit of a feeling that Keith’s voice almost dissapears behind it. There are a lot of photographers taking photos, so I guess this one is going to be reviewed in the press quite a bit. I think one of the next songs is Laughs and Aim 4 quite in the middle of the set again. After now having seen the full video and heard the full studio version to that song, it is very cool to hear it live again. It does come across quite a bit different than on the studio version though. But I’m loving it again, almost more than at Egg. The atmosphere in the audience is great, too. There’s a proper moshpit, and everyone’s jumping around and getting into it. Keith is simply amazing at this gig. We all know he isn’t Pavarotti, but as a performer you cannot beat him. Especially in this small venue, he’s got the total audience control. I don’t know how well this will work at huge festivals, but in here it really does. Kamikaze and especially Prescription sound great and are my favorite tracks, together with Aim 4.
There’s not a single word to the audience in between songs, and in this aspect they definitely have that same attitude as The Prodigy: just come on stage, play short and intense and leave again. No long speeches needed in between.
I think the setlist is quite the same as at Egg, they go through all the album tracks, including that mysterious original version of BGAT, and end the show with their version of mOBSCENE.
So I had a reallly great night and so did everyone i went with. Lets cross our fingers that there are going to be more of these small gigs by this band soon!

Review by Ben Lewis, www.counterculture.co.uk:
After spending well over a decade in The Prodigy, one of Britain’s biggest dance bands, co-vocalist Keith Flint is now fronting his own band who just happen to be called Flint. Only last summer Keith was touring with The Prodigy, and proved that the band are not to be forgotten with a headline set at last year’s Reading Festival.
This show also happens to be Flint’s first official gig, at a club with capacity of a mere 500. Minutes before the show starts, Keith Flint is seen wondering around between the stage and bar with an extremely attractive lass. The band is made up of Keith on vocals, Prodigy live drummer Kieron Pepper, Tony Howlett (no relation to The Prodigy’s Liam) also on drums, live Prodigy (and former Pitchshifter) guitarist Jim Davies and bassist Rob Holliday.
Kicking off with the charging tracks Asteroids, Piggy and Vacation, frontman Keith proves that without The Prodigy he still has a lot to offer, and with this band he sounds as raw as ever. One of Keith’s strong points is that in addition to his singing, he is able to also express himself with his body by hyperactively charging around on stage, interacting with the audience. Keith also manages to make the crowd a part of the show by constantly focussing on the dozens on fans as they enjoy the show.
Any comparisons to The Prodigy would be unfair due to the fact that where as The Prodigy are a band who have shifted between dance genres, Flint is simply a highly charged Brit flavoured punk rock band. As they continue with tracks such as the current single Aim 4 and Razor (the original version of The Prodigy’s Baby’s Got A Temper), the audience demand more and get it in the form of a live rockier version of Marilyn Manson’s Mobscene to finish.

Fan review by old_fart:
I didn’t enjoy the gig … Cool, Keith now sounds like a clone of John Lydon, it was a shame that you just couldn’t hear his vocals. Some of the trax started off with wicked riffs, but quickly turned to same-old, same-old …. The fact that Flint were billed to appear with ‘Special Guests’ is a bit of a mystery … or was the DJ who played for two hours the ‘Special Guests’ ? (OK, so I shouldn’t have expected much for a tenner …) Anyhow- I am a retired Punk, who went along to the gig with an open mind but came away wishing I’d spent the night at home with me knitting and a glass or two of cream sherry….. I really wish I’d felt motivated to pogo, but despite being ‘up for it’ I couldn’t get enthused!

Fan review by Inflicted:
I went to scala last night to see flint, it wasnt a bad turn out and flint were amazing, i wasnt happy with the support though as all there seemed to be was a guy dj-ing right in the top corner and no one was paying attention..
it seemed like keith had his own security guard who had a big ego and told my mate to put his camera phone away or he would take it off of him even though loads of people had cameras….. met keiths window cleaner and his new girlfriend who was called Jenty or something anyway managed to get a flint t shirt and it had an ace time…….

Fan review by Skinny_Bint:
I went along as well and thought I’d add my quick thoughts on the gig.
Pity they had no support as waiting around til gone 10 for them to come on was pissing all the folks I went along with off a bit. But I guess it was a good chance for a catch up with old mates.
Keith – born front man did his thing to the max – shame you couldn’t pick out the vocals too much as they’re pretty proud of their lyrics. Makes it a bit of a waste if you can’t hear them. Jim and the bass guy rocked their socks off and the drummers… well pretty damn tight and provide and excellent sound and show. Nice that they work together and don’t just play exactly the same beats – makes it different to any other band I’ve ever seen with 2 drummers and more beats is never a bad thing.
All I went along with agreed the sound (from where we were standing) wasn’t too good and spoiled it a bit. Will be very interesting to hear what it sounds like from the studio.
I’d say the first 3 or 4 songs sounded great and then after that you had to question a bit wether you hadn’t heard that one before – it all started to sound a bit samey. Hence why it’ll be good to hear studio versions. The sound might have distorted them a bit too much.
But all’s said and done it was a rocking good night – interesting to see and await the album release…

Ticket: