Prodigy live at “I Love Techno” – Flanders Expo, Ghent, Belgium – 13/11/2004

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I spent most of my time in the Green Room.

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I spent most of my time in the Green Room.

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On Saturday the 13th of November I found myself travelling down to Belgium. Well to Ghent, if you must require such detailed information and not just for any old reason – nope, I was on my way to see the Prodigy! They were playing at the Flanders Expo’s "I Love Techno" event, along a number of high profile dance acts; Felix da Housecat, Miss Kittin and Dr. Lektroluv included with Carl Cox, Dave Clarke and Milo and a host of other well known technoheads completing the line up. The event was divided into a kind of 6 room complex, each with its own colour coding and musical programme. I spent most of my time in the Green Room, A) because that’s where all the electro would be and B) because the colour green suits me so well. I made sure I was there on time as well, (You can’t find your way round Haarlem but you can get to Ghent ok? :Ed) because I wanted to check out Felix da Housecat. Well, we wouldn’t want to miss that now would we? After Felix’s set, it was time for the Prodigy.

 

They started in blistering fashion with a ‘Wake-up Call’ from their new album ‘Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned’; which as a true fan you should definitely have in your collection. It has a sound that is new and refreshing and I for one like it! Then, after this first song got us all warmed up and excited; the plug was pulled, the house lights were turned on and the band left the stage. What the? I swore in Dutch and English for a few minutes and was just about to lose lose my temper altogether when, after a break of about half an hour, the room went dark again and the band returned to the stage.

 

It wasn’t until the day after that I found out that this had happened because of there was a large number of people still trying to get in at the entrance. It was getting too crowded and therefore too dangerous. Thankfully for me, a lot of others left the green room (obviously flushing red with anger) and the band were allowed the band to return. They kicked off again with ‘Their Law’ which was a great success and the crowd started dancing, in fact everybody in the Green room was out on the floor. They played a lot of their new songs and Keith and Maxim sang them perfectly, even though they hadn’t participated on the new album’s recording. My new personal favourite is ‘Spitfire’. What a song!

 

Incidentally, the band looked great. Maxim had a bright white stripe across his eyes which matched the white sleeves on his top. Very coordinated.I was able to tear myself away from the crowd for a minute to replenish myself with some water (got to keep drinking!) (What, just bloody water?? :Ed) as for the first time that evening there wasn’t a queue at the bar. Unfortunately this was the moment that they began playing ‘Firestarter’ so I had to hurry back to the floor. Bugger!When the encores came around, ‘Poison’ was blasted out, followed by ‘Smack My Bitch Up’, which of course couldn’t be left out of any Prodigy set list. 

 

The Prodigy have always seemed to be more of a rock n’ roll band than an electronic dance act to me, so I wasn’t surprised to see that they had brought a real guitarist and featured a live drummer behind a real drumkit; but despite the standard rock n’ roll equipment; one of the great things about this show was that there were only few interruptions (except for that half hour interval at the beginning of course). They didn’t talk much and kept the beats going constantly, which made it possible to dance non-stop and which is, of course, such a wonderful thing! Just like the Prodigy.