Well. The Foo Fighters and The Prodigy on the same bill. Surely you can�t go wrong.
We arrived at about 7:30 to find the Foo Fighters already on stage. Fuck. And that for some reason the organisers in their infinite wisdom, had reserved a rather large space in front of the stage for people who arrived really early, and were letting no-body else in there. Fuck Fuck. And the people who had arrived really early and were in there didn�t even seem to like the Foo Fighters. Fuck Fuck Fuck. However, we did like the Foo Fighters, and they were jolly good. New guitarist Franz Stahl fits in well, far more focussed and into the music than his predecessor. �This Is A Call� and �For All the Cows� were as good as ever. �See You� was another great sing along, and we finished with �I�ll Stick Around�. Wot no �Big Me�... Must have played it before we got there.
By this point the entire thing was starting to resemble a mini-festival. Exorbitant drinks prices. Hot potatoes for sale at the back, muddy floor, massive crowd, even bigger queue for the toilets. I was actually starting to feel a little jaded at this point. It was just a bit too big. I don�t go in for the crowd thing at the best of times, so I wasn�t sure how much I was going to enjoy what was to come...
...And the Prodigy certainly know how to milk a crowd. By the time Liam strolled out and got set up, the crowd were already in state of hysteria. Over the next 2 minutes of build up, the rest of the band appeared one by one to rapturous cheers. Then Smack My Bitch Up Happened. Complete with banned video being shown on giant video screens. Yet another big �Fuck you� from the Prodigy to the system.
So it was to continue. Their Law is the soundtrack to the end of the world, with Gizz throwing himself into the on-stage madness. During Voodoo people I noticed another revelation. The Prodigy pushing things one step further. Tucked in at the far side of the stage - Live Drums. The Prodigy sound has just got bigger! Gizz remained onstage far longer than expected, playing on a lot of non guitar songs such as Serial Thrilla. An inspired performance. Admittedly they probably do gigs like this in their sleep by now, but for the rest of us, the sight of the worlds best live band refusing to play safe and just play the biggies true to the record was mind-blowing. The Fat Of the Land songs (a lot of which I found quite lifeless on record) were transformed. Taken in, added to, and reconstructed with whole new sections and songs within songs. Maxim and Keith were as mad as ever, and the chemistry between the onstage members just seems to get better and better. They finished with Fuel My Fire and my faith was confirmed. On this kind of form they just can�t go wrong.
The Prodigy have just provided gig of the year, and the crossover continues.
PS - I bet this gig is reviewed in Kerrang by Jason Arnopp