2005.05.15 – Pinkpop Festival, Landgraaf, Holland

Date: 15th May 2005
Event: Pinkpop Festival
Venue: Megaland
City: Landgraaf
Country: Holland
Support: see timetable

Tracklist:
1. Wake Up Intro
2. Their Law
3. Wake Up Call
4. Warning
5. Breathe
6. Spitfire
7. Back 2 Skool
8. Firestarter
9. Action Radar Link
10. Mindfields
Encore:
11. Poison
12. Smack my bitch Up
13. Out of Space

Extra info:
Mainstage timetable:
21:15 – 22:30 The Prodigy
19:00 – 20:15 Within Temptation
17:00 – 18:00 Beef
15:00 – 16:00 Sick Of It All
13:00 – 14:00 Molotov

Review by Johny L.:
That was one long day! It took me 4 hours to get to Pinkpop from my home in Amsterdam. On the way in the train I was listening to some old prodigy stuff that was not gonna be played live just to get used to the sound that was about to get me jumping for every single second of the concert.
When I arrived there it was nothing like I expected. It was huge! Took me about 5 min just to get from one stage to another. The weather was shity at this point. First performance I’ve seen was Sick of it all, not really my kind of music but still I enjoyed jumping around and getting warm for The Prodigy. Next one was a Dutch band called Beef, the sun was starting to shine and I took the time just to lie down on the grass and get a rest. At 19:00 Within Temptation got on stage with a great performance. I realised The Prodigy are the next ones to perform so I started to get closer to the fens. I watched their performance from the second raw and as soon as the finished I took the first raw stand from a guy who was standing right in front of me. They finished their performance with a massive explosion which almost blew our heads off and as they were leaving the stage Sharon added: Have a great time and enjoy The Prodigy.
One hour was left before the show kicks. I was getting my 4.2 pixels digital camera ready and was remembering the first 2 times that I’ve seen The Prodigy live. Back in Israel in 1998, when I was only 15 years old. It was then that they really got into me and I became a fan. The second concert was in HMH in Amsterdam just half a year ago. This was the best show ever. No offence but it was even better than Pinkpop. I was standing on the first raw with my brother who was only 13 years old. Something The Prodigy were surprised to see but liked as well, as they came both to the front and gave my brother a hug.
The press were coming in front of the stage and the cameramen were getting ready. That was it. The lights went on and the Intro was played, which I simply love. It gets you in a mood of waiting for something scary and interesting.
Liam came on stage and everybody was screaming. Then the drummer and the new guitarist appeared on stage. Something I was expecting since I just read that the old guitarist Jim has decided to leave the band. I looked at the program earlier and realised that they won’t play a full show because it was at least 10 min shorter than the usual set.
Suddenly, Their Law started to play and Keith was running al over the stage, Maxim appeared just seconds before they started to sing. The crowd went wild, people jumping and crushing the people on the front rows. It was a great idea to start with this track because not all the crowd were Prodigy fans and many of they probably didn’t know Wake up Call.
So as soon as I thought that they skipped on this one, they started to play Wake up Call, which got us jumping even higher. Maxim looked very confident as usual and Keith was running around like hell, he did look good with his new haircut and you couldn’t even see the scar on his forehead that he got in Amsterdam during the concert when someone through handicaps on stage hit him on the head. I know many people think it was a bottle but was on the first raw and I’ve seen it all happened, even when the security took them off the stage.
As Maxim was leaving the stage, Keith got himself ready for Warning which sounded better than ever before, I think it was changed since the concert in Amsterdam. The crowd didn’t really know this one but got to learn it very fast as they were screaming with Keith at the highpoint at the end “I’m just a cunt”!
Now they photographers left the stage and we left alone with The Prodigy as Maxim and Keith confronted each other on Breathe.
As Maxim was talking to the crowd, a big sound explosion started Spitfire, which I liked the most so far. It was the ’05 version like in the video and Keith got really crazy on this one, rocking with his head into the camera. At this point it was so crowded, security started to get some girls out of the crowd just above my head.
Back to school was the next one and at this point I realised that they took Girls/More Girls and Dead Ken beats out of the show. I felled a bit upset cause I really wanted to get funky on More Girls which is great. Back to school was another unknown song for the most of the crow but they really like when Maxim was screaming “one, two,three” and Keith would do his old school moves. This time Maxim was singing “We’ll bring you back to school and teach you how to build bombs”.
After Maxim left the stage Liam kicked in with Firestarter which was really cool and everybody loved the new version, the drummer went crazy on this one.
Action Radar started smoothly at the end of Firestarter and Keith was singing “A little action is all I need”. Then he left the stage and Liam was giving us some great mix with Action Radar and some other fills.
Mindfields started unexpected and by the time Maxim got back on stage everybody was clapping their hands. This was a track everybody could sing alone. As Keith appeared on stage Maxim got down to the crowd and everybody was trying to catch him with their hands. Great ending on this one with another unknown fill by Liam. All 3 of them came to the front and thanked the crowd after which they went backstage. Everybody kept screaming we want more and they soon came back.
Poison was the next track with a very long ending which almost sounded like another track. At this point we all got a little bit tired and calmed down. But this was not for too long.
Smack my bitch up was starting to play on the background of Poison and everybody was getting ready for the jump of their lives. This was the best track played live and everybody absolutely adored it. Something I would never forget. Just before the highpoint of the song after the break, everybody took a deep breath to scream it out one more time “SMACK MY BITCH UP”…. It was so loud I thought Amsterdam would hear it (I recorded this one on video along with some other songs on my digital camera). Keith left the stage before the end of the song while Maxim was at the front shaking hands with the fans. At the end of this one I wasn’t sure they will be playing more because the time was finished. But Maxim stayed on stage and it was there when he really got a long eye contact with me. He pointed at me and was looking right into my eyes for about 30 seconds; I kept showing him to play one more track and even screamed “Out of space”. He smiled at me and the music kicked off for the last time.
Everybody was very surprised to hear this old track but they liked it very much and even the security people were singing to this one. At the end of the song Keith came on stage once again to thank the crowed and all of them left the stage.
I was left breathless! God, what a great evening.

Kieron Pepper couldn’t be on this gig so there was a new drummer. it was the same guy who played drums for Clever Brains Fryin’ a couple of time as the end of 2004.

Spitfire video of this gig is on Their Law: The Singles DVD.

Poster: