by neko: 21st April 2005 - Hamburg Alsterdorfer Sporthalle Finally. I'm on my way to Heathrow. I only just left the office 2pm this afternoon and now ahead of me are 3 days in Germany with 3 shows by Prodigy. Yeah! I land at 6pm, get to hotel and meet my friend Yuki, then we're off to venue before 8 already. The Sporthalle' is quite huge, and still very empty. There's a DJ on though, he's so bad that it's almost funny again. I've heard him nicknamed as the priest' because he looks like one, talks like one (yes, the little man is talking german words to us) and his music sounds like it as well. So, not too exciting yet. It's an early show, so at around 8.30pm the DJ is leaving. I look around, it's still daylight outside, the hall is huge and half-empty, surely they cannot come on now? A very familiar Exterminator' is played though and I know too well what that means: they're just about to come on indeed. Personally I'm not quite there yet, haven't quite switched into the whole Prodigy thing yet (it's been a long five weeks). The band are then on at 8.45pm, with the very familiar Wake Up Intro and then Wake Up Call. Even the following Their Law doesn't feel quite right. It's great to see the band back on stage but somehow the whole energy gets quite lost in this massive hall. I must admit, I'm never as receptive to the whole thing when I just come from work. Spending the afternoon at some beach in Australia somehow worked better for me usually :). So, yeah, objective review as ever. Anyways, next on is Warning, well received actually, as many must have downloaded it somehow by now. Tonight there's actually 2 or 3 very subtle, short new samples in it, not very obvious though. Also there's the extended ending, lots of beats. Cool. It's still a very weird vibe in this venue though, the place seems much too big for the band and the stage looks really little and lost in the middle of it. I can't really put a finger on what's wrong, it's just a bit strange. Probably a combination of venue not being ideal, funny sound, shite support DJ and it being the first show the band are playing for a while. Breathe is the first time tonight I start to get into it now, it's a great performance of the track and that familiar Prodigy energy comes back. Ahh, great to see them back! Spitfire is next and then Girls / More Girls, and with that the show gets a bit tamer again. Now Back to School, an excellent track, features a bit of a fuck up, which is quite funny actually. Maxim does his big on the count of three' then goes 1,2,3' and then the beats are supposed to come in, but Liam is actually still in the middle of the build up, ha ha ha. (I guess you had to be there). Firestarter then, doesn't do it too much for me tonight new is a very subtle a little action is all I need' sample in the middle of it, very nice. The Action Radar link then is excellent, still loving this one and tonight it features a very nice link to Mindfields, featuring great drums a la Pepper. Now, you guessed it, band leave stage, return back, continue with Poison, then an excellent Smack My Bitch Up and close with Out Of Space, which is quite well received. And then that's it, it's all over. Hmm, not sure what to make of this one, a bit of a weird one. The rest of the night then is a bit of a blur, but in a good sense. My turn to lead people astray. Mmmhm, Caipiroshka. 22nd April 2005 - Berlin - Columbiahalle Next day have to wake up relatively early (well, 10ish) to get a lift with the German promoter of the shows. She's been very nice and offered to take us along to Berlin , so that's really cool. Poor Yuki though isn't feeling too great today and goes for a nap as soon as we get to Berlin at about 4pm. I can't rest and instead go for a very compact 90 min tour of Berlin , it's a great city. At about 8pm then we're off to the Berlin Columbiahalle. Very nice change, Columbiahalle is a great venue. Small, intimate, with a size of about 3k it's perfect for Prodigy. I have been here once before about 2 years ago to see Rancid and it was one of the best gigs I've ever been to, so it's great to be back. The fact that the warm up DJs are really cool tonight helps a lot as well and as soon as we walk into the venue I can tell it's a much better vibe than last night. So, the setlist then goes something like this: Wake up intro I'm not going to go into each track separately here (mainly because I don't remember), but this is an absolutely amazing show. Despite the fact that there's a slight setlist change, we don't really hear anything new tonight, but the intensity of it all, whoah! This gig is now definitely up there with the Australia solo shows the band have done recently. It just all feels so right tonight, the sound, the atmosphere, and the gig as a whole is one of the kind you never want to end. 23rd April 05 - Leipzig Arena By the time we get to Leipzig on Saturday afternoon I'm a bit knackered, was a long one again the night before. There isn't really that much (or should I say nothing) to do in Leipzig , so we just chill a bit, have room service etc. The show is another early one and we get there around 8pm again. It's a big venue again, but somehow it doesn't really matter tonight. Nice support DJs are on again tonight and the venue is actually pretty packed. Cool. I have a good feeling about this one. So, unusually punctual once again the band come on around 8.30pm, yet another time of course start with the Wake up intro But then it immediately kicks in with Their law , just as last night already. This is just the most intense start to a show you can imagine and my favourite one as well. It's slightly weird with it being between the wake up intro and the wake up call track, but the intensity of it makes up for it all. To get back into Wake Up Call then Liam has a couple of new intro beats to the track, which works quite well. The gig as a whole works really well actually, it's strange, tonight's venue is just as big as the one in Hamburg but it doesn't actually even matter tonight, the whole vibe is great! Also performance wise the band are at their best tonight. Nice one. Same goes for the next few tracks, Warning, Breathe, Spitfire. From Spitfire to Girls / More Girls then a cool link between the two, first some new electronic sounding samples, then the james bond fill. I believe Gils / More Girls also features new and different beats in the beginning. The link to the next track, Back to School consists of some new electronic sounding samples. Maxim then shows of his German skills and counts eins, zwei, drei'. Very heavy beats in the track, as usual, nice. Then Firestarter and a really excellent Action radar, followed by Mindfields leading us into a quick break. The show is great so far. There are a couple of extra new bits to the usual' setlist, which just adds that extra bit to an already great show. The whole vibe is great as well and the fact that it is a large venue does not matter tonight at all. The band return and as usual come on with Poison and then SMBU. At one point during the track Liam plays the same hip hop sample he had used in Kuala Lumpur to replace the smack my bitch up' sample due to censoring. It sounds nothing like the SMBU sample but very hip hop-ish. In fact I heard a very very strong rumour that it is actually a sample taken from the Wake Up Full Vocal version with Kool Keith. During the track Maxim not only climbs the rail between stage and audience, but actually jumps into the middle of the audience and has a little wander around while continuing with the track. Nice one. But with the excellent SMBU the encore isn't finished yet and peaks again with the fantastic Dead ken beats, which was finally brought back into the set at last night's show. But yet another and last peak follows with OOS. Can an encore get any better at all? So that's the end of this short German tour and despite a bit of a difficult start in Hamburg it turned out to be a great weekend. Fortunately not long to wait until the next shows see you at Coachella! back to prodigy live [go home] (If you copy this, please link back to this URL) www.nekosite.co.uk - copyright © 1998-2005 by neko - all rights reserved |
