2005.08.13 – Smukfest Skanderborg, Skanderborg, Denmark

Date: 13th August 2005
Event: Smukfest Skanderborg (also called as Danmarks Smukkeste Festival or Skanderborg Festival)
Venue: Beech Forest (Beech Tree Stages)
City: Skanderborg
Country: Denmark
Support: see timetable

Tracklist:
1. Intro
2. Wake Up Call
3. Wake The Fuck Up
4. Their Law
5. Warning
6. Breathe
7. Spitfire
8. Back 2 Skool
9. Firestarter
10. Action Radar Link
11. Hotride (El Batori Mix)
12. Memphis Bells
13. Voodoo People
Encore:
14. Poison
15. Method Beats
16. Smack My Bitch Up
17. Out Of Space

Extra info:
Bogescenerne timetable:
11:00 – 12:00 The Powls / Tylleflojten
12:00 – 12:15 Go`Morgen /  Soren Rislund & Omar
12:15 – 13:15 Hush
14:00 – 14:45 Hookah
15:30 – 16:45 Johnny Madsen
17:30 – 18:45 Ana Johnsson
19:30 – 20:45 Good Charlotte
21:30 – 23:00 Kashmir
23:45 – 01:15 The Prodigy

Review by Zumo:
I was at the festival 5 hours before the gig started, and i went to check out the sound of the main stage. It was pretty low, and i was a bit afraid that they wouldnt turn up the volume. All the music was boring as hell, and the 5 hours seemed like days. Talked a bit to 3 guys from nekos (danes) and had a beer or 4.
When the gig started, i was at the front row, and the sound had been tuned up! GREAT!. It was allright there… Untill the music started! There was no security fences in front of the stage to prevent pushing, so people were pushed 2 meters to one site, and afterwards 2 meters to the other, all the time. A few people behind me fell, and started fighting, so i decided to walk a bit futher backwards. One couldnt concentrate on the show and the music, so i found a more quiet spot around 10 meters from the stage.
“Wake the fuck up” really woke people up! It has some fast and heavy beats. Really good stuff. Not sure if it had the length of a normal track. It was more like an extension to “wake up call”
Before “their law 05” was a “no good” filler. Something people recognized, and could sing along to. I was hoping they were going to play “no good”, but like the previous shows, it was only to lead into “their law”. Wich wasnt bad at all
“(new) warning” had ben changed a lot! theres a few breaks in it now, and the synths has been lowered a lot. Was really hard to hear them sometimes. I agree that the track could need something new, because it was pretty much the same all way through, but this total rework is too much.
During “breathe”, the new guitarist was like flying, and ran back and forward across the stage the whole time. The guitar has also been turned up, so you can her it much better now. Damn he had some energy to add. He almost smashed his guitar right in the face of keith. And this was what really started the crowd. Finaly something they know. A lot of people were like “oh year! its the “breathe” band?!”
“back 2 school” had been updated a little with some new samples. You can hear a bit in the video, if you can stand the disorted bass
“action radar” link has imo become too long. It seemed like forever before “hotride” started. Messed a bit with the crowd energy. It wasnt the regular version of “hotride”, but new, bit shorter, with more beats, and more guitar. Most of the lyrics had been taken out and changed too. After that long “action radar” fill, people were waiting for the music to start kicking again, but already like 1/2 a minute into “hotride” was a big break, wich seemed to cause a bit fustration to the crowd. Else it was a very good live track. Especialy with the new beats.
The new “memphis bells” live had also been added beats, samples and the tempo had been rised a bit. But it was still a bit too slow for most people to groove with it. Especialy after the new fast “hotride”. But i liked it! was much better than the album version!
But then came “voodoo people”! This is my fav prodigy track, and it really kicked people up again! Its the new 05 version with more beats, and definetly more crazy! I couldnt imagine this old track could be any better, but this was superb!
Then the band left stage for a few minutes. And when they came back, The dirty heavy beats of “poison” kicked in. Was a massive crowd moover! everyone was rocking. I have never heard such loud and deep a beat before. It was amazing. Even the old people couldnt stop moving. And people could sing a little along.
And “smack my bitch up” was something else people remembered. The climax of the gig. And the new sample in the break took people by surprise.
“out of space” has been tuned up since experience. Got some mastering and tweaks, and the beats are more kicking and heavy. I really enjoyed this track. I never liked it much, but the tweakings and additions to it has really made it up to date. And again the crowd could sing a long with “i was send to out of space, to find another race” And then the gig ended, and everyone was pleased.
A lot of people didnt know who prodigy were, but they definetly know now. They surely got a lot of new fans now. Great gig!
Met up with the guys from neko’s, and neko after the gig. Was bit tired though, so i left.
Didnt get to record much. Was bussy doing other stuff, and the camera ran out of batery. And besides, the bass was so heavy, that the sound is pretty fucked anyway.
a little sidenote:
I really like how the AONO tracks has been updated and tweaked. Makes the albumversions look kinda boring. It would be cool with a complete AONO (05-version) album even though its pretty unlikely. But maybe we will get some of the goodies as b-sides?!

Review by Lectro:
A mate and I had travelled by train to Skanderborg (We come from Viborg). It didn’t take that long time (only 60-70km) so when we arrived at the festival, going with a girl we meet in the train, we were all quite fresh even though it was like 9-10 in the morning. My mate and I found a place to put our tent (took us ages as the festival had been on for a few days already. Anyway… after raising our little house we meet some people and drank some beer with ’em… -you know… had a lot of fun!
Now on to The Prodigy, haha… We came to the stage where Prodigy were to play in like 2 hours. A danish band called Kashmir were playing… -VERY boring music indeed! Totally stoned me. But we got to talk with some other danish Prodigy-fans up front. There was 3 girls standing in front of me and then some guys around me drinking I talked to – all Prodigy fans they were! One of the girls (a good looking blonde) was touched on the ass by one of the drinking blokes – she got pissed off at them and said: “Such things you just don’t do!” and then the guys turned to me and said I did it… -Luckily she smiled at me and said that she didn’t believe them (I was waiting for a slap, hehehehehe)… But she was a nice girl (to me at least).
Listening to Kashmir we were all just waiting for some beats to dance to. The music playing while waiting was absolutely goolish (or how do you spell it, hah!). But something got my attention. About 1 hour before Prodigy were to play I saw Liam Howlett on the stage we were waiting at. He was talking to some blokes on stage and they took photos of him. I tried too but all I got was a black picture with some flowers and a metal-box which the organisers had plased 2 of on stage.
So then Kashmir stopped and there were now only 45 mins to Prodigy. Some music were played (quite cool actually) and then the music stopped and some dude went to the drumset to hit on it to see if the sound was alright… Nothing wrong with the sound but that bloke didn’t know much about playing drums… 1 hit 2 hit 3 hit 4 hit… DAMN BORING, hahaha, but funny. Always good to have someone you can laugh off while pointing your finger (or whateva).
Kashmir’s long done, the pause music too and now the soundcheck it done too… What can be next? More pause music? -No… It was time for The Prodigy and a new intro started. It was… hmm… very dark sounding. More long tones than actually music – it sounded like something lurking in front of you ready to strike – and something was ready to strike – namely this band, my favorite band of all times. Suddently all the guys came on stage and the crowd greeted them with a lot of yelling, clapping pointing and so on. Liam, Keith, Maxim, Rob and Kieron in front of me again…! Awsum I thought and a fucking good place I was standing at. Could see it all.
To “Wake Up Call” it’s usual that the crowd goes nuts because it’s the first track played and you can jump and dance to it easily, so of course all did go beserk. It was cool standing amongst other Prodigy-fans ’cause usually you don’t get to talk to many fans in the real world – I know I mostly just talk about Prodigy here on the net. -So my point is that it was a very cool experience, as it also was when I saw the band last year. Also another thing I notised was that about 10.000 – 30.000 or whateva was at this stage looking at Prodigy – must have feelt good for the guys since they only attracted 1500 to KB-hallen last year.
After “Wake Up Call” I was confronted with the first surprise for me in this show. A new track basically with the same lyrics as “Wake Up Call”. -Some people call this track “Wake The Fuck Up” and that title fits it good ’cause it is like an extension of “Wake Up Call” – it was like they were saying: “People who aren’t awake yet, wake the fuck up!” I don’t really remember much of how the track sounded but I remember thinking it was cool and fresh. -There were some nice synths etc.
Then my second surprise came. They fucking started playing “No Good (Start The Dance)”! -I remember Liam said he’d never do one like this again so I actually thought he hated it, but you know Liam… Unfortunately it was only a fill before they played “Their Law”. The crowd started jumping again and we feelt the vibes. I’m sure Prodigy also feelt it. There was a lot of contact from the crowd to the band and also the other way around of course. I remember Keith almost flirting with the blonde girl next to me – he looked in her eyes many times and blinked to her, hell, he mutherfucking pointed at her and sang to her, hahahaha. -Fucking horny lad!
After “Their Law” I finally got to hear the new “Warning” a lot of people on the forums has been talking about and dissing. At the gig this track totally rawked for me and the beats were very cool. I dunno if I like this more than the old one though… Haven’t heard the new one enough to decide. -I mean… 1 listen while being a little drunk vs. the old version I have on many mp3’s is not a fair match. -So gotta wait with my desission on which one I like the most, but they both rock live! -If the new single for the new album is “Warning” I hope they will release an “Original Mix” as a b-side on the single if they use the new version as the a-side track. After “Warning” the girl in front of me (a danish-indian girl) asked me which track it was… I told her what it was called and that it hadn’t been released yet. Then she said she didn’t know it but it did sound very good… -This reminds me that a lot of people were talking about how crap AONO was (just a little sidenote)!
Now came the point when people really started pushing and go nuts! “Breathe” came on and now it was very difficult standing like you wanted. You got pushed around – at least we did up front and people were holding on to each other not to fall from the pushing – some even grabbed my neck and the next 2 days it fucking hurt! But I had fun anyway. I’m a strong boy so I pushed the mutherfucking people back while dancing. -It’s funny, at a festival people wont be offended if you push them and it seems you are dancing – very good camouflache indeed, hehe! So in 1 danish word to describe the mood now: “AMOK”! -If you don’t know what it meant buy a dictionary :p
“Spitfire” had almost the same effect as “Breathe”. Kinda cool a new track can do that much. Even though a lot of people don’t like AONO that album has a lot of good tracks on it. And it’s cool that Prodigy now make so many changes to their tracks – it all evolves all the time which I think is really cool! Not much else to say about this one. -It was one of those tracks you just go beserk to and have a lot of fun viewing, so cool!
Then “Back To School” came on after a little interlude sound. I managed to drink some more water here. The guards handed out much water which I really apreciated. It was hard standing at the front. -You had to use you muscles all the time… man!
Anyway “Back To School” sounded better than all the recordings I’ve heard (of course, hehe, top quality here). But I mean… It sounds like a whole track and not so much like different parts put together. It sounds really cool. I think it might be one of the best Prodigy tracks ever. It will be in my top 5 when it’s released I’m sure depending on how the studio-version sounds. Also I remember at this gig when Maxim whispers: “I’ll bring you back to school and teach you how to build bombs”, he was looking at me. I feelt it was really cool, I think he tried to scare me a bit but it didn’t work. I looked straight back into his eyes singing right back at him, hehe. But yeah this track was defienently one of the highlights for me ’cause it’s new, fresh and a very good Prodigy-track! It’s just pure music, damn!
A funny thing that happened at this gig was when a guy from the crowd threw a plastic bottle at Maxim. Maxim was yelling to him while looking him in the eyes: “Do you wanna fuck with me!?” like 5-10 times before Maxim emptied a bottle of water all over that crowdmember. Haha very funny indeed.
So then we have “Firestarter”. Also one of the best ever Prodigy-tracks imo and on a mainstream-view. At the minute we heard the Firestarter-guitarsound the crowd went nuts. A lot of people knew this track, probably also people who weren’t fans of the band. The pushing began again but it wasn’t as crazy as before as I remember it. Probably because it was the new version, dunno. It seemed like people were very happy to hear it but they didn’t go that much crazy. Also I remember it was a bit difficult to hear Keith Flint singing – at least it was for me (Liam turned the volume of the mic down)? I dunno, it’s a very good track this one but why not just play the old version. I mean that’s the one people know and it’s better than the new one. It was good of course but the old version would have been better for the majority of people here I think. Or maybe it’s just me wanting to have something to moan about, haha!
Then the “Action Radar” fill provided the crowd with some more time to get water etc. A little pause was needed. Then a slightly changed version of “Hotride” were playing. I was a little surprised that they still played this one but then I remember Liam also played it in Russia after he’d said that they weren’t going to play it no more. I was quite happy when I heard the intro-sound to this track ’cause I like it a lot – especially with Keiths punk-style vocals on it: “You’re a passenger… Just another passenger!” People went quite crazy to this one too but at this point the crowd was so warmed up that it’s pretty obvious that they would be going crazy to the beats and everything. But I think it did sound good and it worked well on this festival, yes!
Then the biggest surprise of the night! “Memphis Bells” live! A new version with heavier drums and a cooler buildup etc. I really loved hearing this one. Didn’t know it could sound so good. Before this gig I’ve really hated this track and thought it shouldn’t ever have been released as a Prodigy-track. Mainly because of the bells who always change key and that sounded very awfull to me… Now when I’ve heard it live I quite like the track actually. I find it cool now. It’s a Prodigy track now I’ve heard it live. It fits into my idea of The Prodigy. Very cool!
And then “Voodoo People (’05 Version)”! This track I was expecting. And I must say it blew me and the rest of the crowd away. I needed water but I just keept on moving and pushing and yelling and… FUCK ALL! This was RAW! Simply amazing hearing “Voodoo People” live. When I saw the band last year I was very dissapointed that they didn’t play this track so now I’m feeling very lucky to have heard it afterall. It’s really a good thing that they’ve played such different tracks at the 2 gigs I’ve seen with ’em. PURE ENERGY!
After “Voodoo People” the band-members left the stage. People started yelling: “We want more, we want more”. After a little while Maxim and Liam came back on stage laughing. Then Maxim went: “Do you want a little more!?” and of course we did. So now we were getting “Poison”. Also one of the best Prodigy-tracks ever. Even though this track seemed very long with the extra “Method Beat” afterwards etc. it works. This track is good enough to last for 10 mins the way they’ve put it together for the live-show. Also I like the part were the beat slowly builds up to go faster while Maxim sings: “I’ve got the poison, I’ve got the remedy…”
Then came the must-have track: “Smack My Bitch Up”! Everyone knew this too and again everyone went mad. It’s cool though ’cause I managed to keep my space for the entire gig so I could see everything on the stage from a close range. Also it was a good spot for getting water, heh. What can you say about this? It’s just good! You all know it…
And as a kinda extra-track they played “Out Of Space”. They’d probably agreed to play this track before the gig (also they usually play this as the last track to other gigs) but to me this just feelt like an extra-track they played ’cause Maxim yelled: “Do you want more!?” and I’m pretty sure they played longer than they were supposed to. But this was just so cool too. Listening to “Out Of Space” live! -Even though it’s the new version it was very nice. And everone was singing along. Seemed like they knew this one well, hehe.
Anyway I feelt really happy after this. It feelt unreal and I can’t wait to see them again. -That will probably just be next year though but wtf! I can wait if it’ll be as good again. Also I can hope to hear some new tracks for the next show I’ll attend. No point for me in travelling around watching the same setups being played in different locations. Then I’d rather wait a year for something new. Of course if I had the money sure I’d travel around the globe to see them but I don’t!
This was my 2nd gig. Some of you have seem more than 20 gigs with them or even more. Up ’till now this is the best show I’ve seen and it really was fucking intense and very good communication between crowd and band. I’m sure they were happy to see so many people too.
That’s all for now
‘Lectro

Poster:

Photos from the show:

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