Date: 25th January 2010
Event: The Prodigy Concert – Run With The Wolves Tour
Venue: Plymouth Pavilions
City: Plymouth
County: England
Support: Foreign Beggars, South Central
Tracklist:
1. World’s On Fire
2. Breathe
3. Breathe (Dubstep)
4. Firestarter
5. Omen
6. Poison
7. Warrior’s Dance
8. Run With The Wolves
9. Voodoo People
10. Omen (Reprise)
11. Invaders Must Die
12. Diesel Power Beats
13. Smack My Bitch Up
Encore:
14. Take Me To The Hospital
15. Out Of Space
16. Their Law
Extra info:
Review by Mike Thomas:
Here is a story about my time spent at the Plymouth Pavilions on the 25th of January 2010 with my friends Chris, Brian, Charlotte and Steph, watching an English electronic music group who go by the name “The Prodigy”.
Being a Prodigy gig, it was bound to be good. Many people agree The Prodigy are one of, if not the best live acts to go and bounce to… So with that in mind lets talk about the bad points of the performance first.
Firstly I’ve heard other people say this and I wholly agree – The sound system in Plymouth Pavilions just hasn’t quite got enough bollocks. I should be leaving a gig feeling sick from the pounding bass and my head ringing like mad as part of my ear’s audible range is destroyed for life.
Secondly they didn’t play my favourite mixes of certain tracks. I’ve seen many of their live performances on the TV or on good old YouTube and they have extended versions of some tracks exclusively for live events, but they chose on this night to play the album versions of most.
Lastly the gig was too short! I was enjoying my self and it was all over way too soon.
The warm-up acts were just simply DJ sets. Nothing particularly wrong with them but as there was nothing spectacular to see we spent the time wisely… At the bar.
Now, lets get to the good bits.
The Prodigy opened their set with a track from their latest album. As soon as I checked out the lyrics I realised it was “World’s on Fire” – a track that can really pump the format. The track is built with skill and technique, sampling an old house track from 1991 called “The Vamp” by Outlander (back before the days of computers when dance music was produced on synthesizers, drum machines and recorded on A-DAT). A real stormer of a tune to open with!
Next came “Breathe” which is a very evil sounding, bass heavy track from their album “The Fat of The Land”. Keith Flint is the forefront performer in this one, his lyrical form is just as good as it was thirteen years ago, still sends shivers down my spine and clouds on my brainstorm.
The crowd starts jumping, everyone is tightly packed in so I’m forced the jump in time with them. I get hype, trying my best to wave my arms in time to the music as I think thought flow. Brian lifts Charlotte up on to his shoulders like an acrobat as everyone starts to chant the chorus, meanwhile Liam Howlett continues to sink the track and pump the track out over the sea of arms.
Transmissions close like spores and the stage falls silent for a second as the lights raise leaving the crowd in silhouette. My eyes react past these visions and I can see Flint and Maxim swapping places on the stage and they are hurrying to start the next track “Poison” from their 1994 album “Music for the Jilted Generation“. The tempo of this track is much slower although this fact does not reflect on the dance floor as everything is still blowing up and having mad people showing up causing packed crowds in the jam-packed venue.
Extra percussion crashing in signified the end of “Poison”, with the sudden silence it is like the needles collapse, but the atmosphere continues with the crowd chanting.
Next on the set list is another track from their latest album “Invaders Must Die” and a track which has been released in to the UK singles chart, “Omen”. Howlett has created a shreaking synth and he sprinkles that all over some crashing snares and a driving baseline which keeps winning like that, it has the crowd moving like that, because it’s hitting like that, before the next single gets dropped “Warrior’s Dance”.
I didn’t like this track at first as I had heard “True Faith & Final Cut” sample used recently by another artist. However it has definitely grown on me.. The melody is fat, the lyrics are catchy and now I’m on the energy source like the cosmic boss. It’s 1991 again and I’m with Prodigy, given astrology, I can’t see through the smoke, I can’t hear over the screams and I can’t feel anything other that sweaty bodied crashing in to me but still my intellect’s devour the sensations.
At this point Steph drags me over to the so-called mosh pit which neither up us were massively impressed with, as, being a raver I can’t see the fun in ending up with a black eye and Steph being a wreck head found the mosh pit just wasn’t violent enough!
We spun back and rewound to where Chris, Brian and Charlotte stood, pushing through the crowd with diesel power as I now heard the intro to my personal theme tune, “Firestarter”.
This track really does blow your mind. Drastically, fantastically, It has to be, and automatically everyone starts head banging as the bass starts pounding, suddenly it’s 1996 again and I’m blowing up the Jamos once more.
Chris points and shouts ‘Check it out’ as he sees a lad collapses from the fatigue and heat. I’m thinking ‘You better work it out’ before you get squished by the frantic crowd, the lad however must be deep in dreams of another bout as he stays sat as the next track of the evening flows in. Shame Dave Grohl of The Foo Fighters wasn’t on stage to drum along but “Run With the Wolves” continues the fast tempo and keeping the crowd jumping. By this time I’ve been dancing for thirty minutes or more and my techniques, strategies, abilities are starting to fade along with my leg muscles. Maxim, Keith and Liam however are still going strong, they leave cordless mics hanging like spring leads and do a track so fast, Beyond from you and I.
“Voodoo People” clatters in next. As with most Prodigy trackets, it’s not about the lyrical tactics, but more about the vocal gymnastics and this track is no different with the sample ‘voodoo who do what you don’t dare do people!’ in bandpass quality layered over what sounds like violins, pan pipes and a howling electric guitar.
With the Ease and pepped up (google that), you get swept up…
smacked up,
backed up,
now my crew’s all cracked up
Chris and I quickly gather the other three back together before the next track begins.
Starting off very quiet we check it slow as in comes the familiar warp wap wap wap wap warrrrp before the vocal sample ‘we are The Prodigy’ leaves you in no doubt which track this is. Holding on to Chris’s shoulder, Pick choose quick a place to stand as you can’t stick, when the jumping starts again and the crowd sing to the baseline da da daa da da dadadada….. ‘Invaders must die!’
At this point the heat has gotten to Charlotte. My medical range is strange as angles so I grab Brian and the three of us head back to the bar to grab a cold drink leaving Chris and Steph to get tangled and continue to twist inside a fraction, hitting those shapes to the onslaught of big-beat music.
At the bar I collect a pre-drawn Carlsberg in plastic cup and head to the til where I hear the channels repeat, complete and the intro to “Smack my Bitch up” I know I can’t complete so we decide to sit the next couple track out to cool down.
I check the hour and texture, it’s only 10:20 so there’s plenty more time yet to continue on this mind adventure and exploit the point into tracks to devour and let my intellects proceed
Brian and Charlotte head off for a comfort break so I stand at the back and attack the wack, wondering why some people are milling around looking bored, why they came to a Prodigy gig they might as well have saved a Pack and given the the fax to me (Kiff would have made much better use of their ticket if they don’t want none).
Still, next track up is “Take Me to the Hospital” another High-quality action b with plenty of visual effects bright lights and smoke (albeit slight out of time with the music), at this point I’m just glad I’m still standing, the cool Carlsberg is disappearing at an alarming rate and I wish I had another damaging my other manner. Brian and Charlotte return and we go for a quick reverse refreshed and as potent as the first verse. Trying to work out where we left Steph and Chris the music from the amplifiers blows on my worlds, higher and I hear a familiar sound…
Euphoric synths cut through with the noise of a scratching record and followed by a piercing jingle which sounds like its being played on a xylophone, it’s the only track to be played from the album “Experience” and one of the best known from that album because of the sample taken from the reggae tune “I chase the Devil” by Max Romeo.
With the words being treated as a sire, the crowd’s chant cuts the air like barbed wire. You can barely hear the record play as everyone sings ‘I’m gunna send him to outter space, to find another race!’
I pull up on the energy, wishing I had some Red Bull to keep me going. The crowds fast-forward so we move and swing towards it. The exit-load puts your brain in right mode as everyone pushes to dance once again and Hewlett plays his selective mix in the form of “Their Law” the man will perfect the fix, the bass guitar chugs in and it doesn’t rain through heads lightly. Bite me, I wanna dance again but we’ve completely lost Chris and Steph and Charlotte is ringing people, playing the gig down the phone to her friends. At this point Maxim has his only interaction with the crowd from what I can remember and during the break in “Their Law” tells everyone to get ready to jump. Exactly how I remember from listening to a live recording of this track from Pinkpop, almost an exact copy or Xerox, Maxim yells JUMP and I get smashed by the capacity crowd of 4000 it feels like getting copped by a pile of sand blocks but they can’t knock me out of there, I keep lifting, shifting and persisting like and intelligent kingpin we all bounce along when the track draws to a close we realise it’s all over, I have been given the results of my astrology and they were as expected – Awesome.
And that, basically, is how I roll with Prodigy.
The end.
Poster:
Photos from the show:
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