CityLife

The Prodigy

EVEN if the multi-million selling dance trio still identify themselves as underdogs it seems they can still command an arena-sized army of followers with ease.

After a five year trough The Prodigy are well and truly back, with recent album ‘Invaders Must Die’ rocketing in at number one in the charts, but whilst co-frontman and bundle of energy Keith Flint can’t quite scare grannies and red top readers as he did a decade ago he and his colleges are still as mesmeric.

2005’s singles retrospective collection ‘Their Law’ dictates most of the Essex group’s setlist for the evening, and whilst that might not leave much room for surprises there’s never a dull moment either.

Whether it’s during such '90s dancefloor classics as ‘No Good (Start The Dance)’, the menacing duet assault of ‘Breathe’, the hyper beat of ‘Voodoo People’, the Maxim led ‘Poison’ or when slipping in newer get up numbers such as ‘Warriors Dance’ and ‘The Omen’ few are left static- even those in the nosebleed seats.

Though lynchpin Liam Howlett is for the most part hidden behind racks of synths and laptops he controls the energy with a masters touch, whilst it’s left to tag-team ringleaders Maxim - full of threatening stares and glares - and Flint’s Duracell bunny hyperactivity (strangely consisting of jogging on the spot for the most part) that keep the atmosphere electric.

But unsurprisingly it’s from mainstream breakthrough hits and Britpop dance fodder of choice ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ and ‘Firestarter’ that are met with the most feverish of cheers, and whilst the latter doesn’t quite deliver the same passion after a decade of over-saturation it doesn’t slow the revellers down.

There’s no room for any of the Maxim-Flint-less material on 2004’s indifferently met-but storming-nonetheless ‘Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned’, nor their punkier leanings on ‘Baby’s Got a Temper’ (not such a shock given Howlett outspoken distaste for it) unfortunately.

Bowing out to the reggae sampling, early rave bouncer ‘Out Of Space’, with the packed arena leading the “I’m done gone into out of space - to find another race” repetitive chants, the trio leave to thunderous applause.

Make no mistake The Prodigy are still a live force to be reckoned with, and whilst the arena is no substitute for being huddled with the unwashed masses during festival season, or when an early Good Friday finish threatens to put a dampener on the evening, neither are capable of spoiling this crowd's fun.

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