28-05-2010 The Prodigy

Venue: Jahrhunderthalle, Frankfurt (Germany)
By: Nina Mende

Tonight we went to Jahrhunderthale in Frankfurt to see an awesome show with fast electro beats and fast electro lights: The Prodigy were playing in Frankfurt tonight.

The Prodigy is an English electronic dance music group established by Liam Howlett in 1990 in Braintree, Essex. Along with Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers and The Crystal Method, as well as other acts, they are pioneers of the big beat genre which achieved mainstream popularity in the 1990s and 2000s, and are known for high-quality live performances. They have sold over 20 million records worldwide which is unequalled in dance music history. The group’s brand of big beat music makes use of various styles ranging from rave, hardcore techno, industrial and breakbeat in the early 1990s to electronic rock with punk vocal elements in later times. The current band members include Liam Howlett (composer/keyboards), Keith Flint (dancer/vocalist) and Maxim (MC/vocalist). Leeroy Thornhill (dancer/very occasional live keyboards) was a member of the band from 1990 to 2000, as was a female dancer/vocalist called Sharky who left the band during their early period. The Prodigy first emerged on the underground rave scene in the early 1990s, and have since then achieved immense popularity and worldwide renown. Some of their most popular songs include “Charly,” “Out of Space,” “No Good (Start the Dance),” “Voodoo People,” “Poison,” “Firestarter,” “Breathe,” “Smack My Bitch Up,” and “Omen.”

Long before doors open many people were waiting already. Most of them were drinking beer to get into the right mood. The audience was very mixed, not only age-wise. All The Prodigy fans came from different styles: Punks, Goths, Ravers, people in between and people you could not match any genre. Many people were wearing band shirts. Tonight was not sold out but it was close.

As opening act The Prodigy had a DJ that hyped up the people inside. The DJ had his set on stage and played electro club music with a lot of bass. The audience had fun and danced along but the wait was getting a little long for them so they clapped and shouted for The Prodigy.

At 9:15 pm The Prodigy was supposed to go onstage, they came on 10 minutes later though. Strobe-lights were set up from top to bottom all over the stage. As The Prodigy entered the stage everybody went crazy, cheered out loud big time and began to jump along to the music. Maxim and Keith were jumping all around on stage getting the audience even wilder. Jim Davies, the bass and guitar player,, went from side to side on stage as well, having fun fights with Keith and playing with the audience. When the headlights came on JIm’s performance somehow reminded of a big rock show. Then the flash lights came back on and you got reminded that you are still at a The Prodigy show dancing and jumping your mind away. The light show itself already created an energetic atmosphere that would let anybody go along a lot, and with the band playing to the light, there was no way to not move along. Everybody jumped and clapped. For one song there were even several circle pits going on in the crowd, and for another song everybody sat down. As they played hits like “Omen”, “Firestarter”, “Smack My Bitch Up” or “Invaders Must Die” hell broke lose and the floor was shaking because everybody jumped along. Maxim and Keith kept on animating the audience to keep on going and to go even crazier. And even if you thought that was impossible, somehow it always became more. They played for 90 minutes but came back for an encore of three songs. It was an amazing show. It kept you going all the way through, even if you danced and jumped along throughout the entire show you didn’t feel tired at all. The music, the performance, the lights and the atmosphere in the venue gave you that much energy and power to keep going. The Prodigy put up an amazing performance, simply amazing. A must see for everybody!

Links:
The Prodigy Official