Gig Guides, Music Concert Tickets at Livemusic.fm

Dizzee Rascal, The Prodigy at Manchester Evening News Arena Review

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. Mike Caulfield http://www.citylife.co.uk/music/rock_pop/reviews/16248_the_prodigy_are_s...

Was this post useful?

Yes No

38 out of 80 users found this post useful

Were you at this gig?

Yes

More reviews of this band

Reviews by the same author

Add a Review

Find a past gig

If you want to find details of a past gig and maybe see/write a review of it, then use this little widget.

Top Reviewers

  • bennyboy

    bennyboy

    Last post 25 June 2010
    147 reviews

  • bigcheese

    bigcheese

    Last post 18 March 2009
    134 reviews

  • johnbeyer

    johnbeyer

    Last post 12 May 2011
    94 reviews

If It Ain't Live It's Dead

Nothing, but nothing, beats a live concert. And nothing, but nothing, beats livemusic.fm for bringing you the latest gigs, the cheapest concert tickets, the fastest updates, the sharpest reviews, the juiciest music gossip and the wittiest blogs. So make sure you keep up with what’s going down in your backyard at livemusic.fm, the site that keeps you in love with everything live.

You can browse thousands of gig listings, concert tickets, venue listings & bands We have listings and tickets for Nottingham Gigs, Birmingham Gigs, Swansea Gigs, Newcastle Gigs, Plymouth Gigs, Manchester Gigs, Bristol Gigs , London Gigs , Reading Gigs , Oxford Gigs , Liverpool Gigs , Brighton Gigs , Leeds Gigs , Glasgow Gigs , Nottingham Gigs , Edinburgh Gigs , Bournemouth GIgs , Southampton Gigs , Leicester Gigs , Kent Gigs , Wolverhampton Gigs , York Gigs & the rest of the UK.

With Livemusic Presents, we put on gigs across the UK.

Read the latest music news online or log in to submit your own gig reviews and receive Gig Alerts for the Bands you are following.

These data sources were utilised to provide some or all information for this page.

Connect with Facebook