Mitsubishi Electric Hall, Düsseldorf, Germany 30th November 2023
The Prodigy - Army Of The Ants European Tour 2023 - Support: DJ Eskei83
With over 20 million albums sold worldwide, THE PRODIGY are the undisputed superstars of British club culture. Their unique blend of Techno, Rave, Big Beat, Jungle, Drum’n’Bass, Acid House, Punk and Electronic Hardcore has been finding millions of fans across the scene for three decades. However, the tragic death of their charismatic front man Keith Flint forced the band into an extended hiatus. Two years later, the band announced that they were continuing to make music and to tour.
DJ Eskei83
The opening act of the evening was a DJ, which normally is a bit of a bummer, as this is a lost chance for a hopeful newcomer band to present itself. Shortly before 8pm, DJ ESKEI83 started his set, and actually did a pretty entertaining job in slowly but gradually warming up the audience. The song and sample selection were super-wide and genre-defying, similar to the main act of the evening. https://www.facebook.com/ESKEI83/
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 5
Sound: 6
Light: 6
Total: 6 / 10
The Prodigy
The band from Braintree, Essex, UK with its genre-defying mix of electronics, breakbeat, and metal, was welcomed back on tour by thousands of fans in an almost sold-out Mitsubishi Electric Hall. https://theprodigy.com
Music & Performance
Around 9:15pm, the stage lighting began to awake with gloomy red lights and an alarm sound, which slowly was replaced by a stroboscope lighting thunderstorm, to which the band entered the stage and kicked off their opening song ‘Breathe’, which sent the crowd into frenzy.
Clearly all worries that the band would only be a shadow of itself after the tragic death of Keith Flint were blown away in an instant, and clearly starting the show with one of the biggest bangers the band has in its magnificent repertoire, helps a lot here. Maxim as the lone front man is incredibly insistent on maintaining a high energy level. He fired up the people in the pit in front of the stage, calling them “warriors” and “my people”, and as he spotted people in the back sitting on the tribunes, he coaxed them to stand up. However, the memories and spirit of Keith were omnipresent. For ‘Firestarter’ the hoody-wearing giant effigy in the back of the audience room came to life and lasers from its eyes projected the well-known devil-horned silhouette of the former front man onto the sides of the stage, coupled with frenetic cheers from the audience. Things came to a rather abrupt halt after a scorching version of ‘Smack My Bitch Up’, after which the band left the stage.
However, the audience did not have enough, and kept screaming, whistling, and clapping. Thus, THE PRODIGY returned for an encore, containing a total of five songs, which made sure that a lot of people had this spent look of euphoria in their eyes, while walking out into the cold night.
Setlist
01. Breathe
02. Omen
03. Voodoo People
04. Light Up the Sky
05. Climbatize
06. Everbody in the Place
07. Firestarter
08. Roadblox
09. Their Law
10. No Good (Start the Dance)
11. Get Your Fight On
12. Poison
13. Need Some1
14. Smack My Bitch Up
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15. Take Me to the Hospital
16. Invaders Must Die
17. Diesel Power
18. We Live Forever
19. Out of Space
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 10
Sound: 8
Light: 8
Total: 8.5 / 10
All Pictures by André Wilms
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