Hordern Pavilion, Sydney
Thursday March 7, 2013 :
You can always tell you’re at a Prodigy concert by the look of the crowd. Dickheads in animal onsies wearing Future Music Festival bandanas stand side-by-side with married couples reminiscing about their raver youth. Thursday night’s Future sideshow at the Hordern Pavilion was no different. Despite relatively poor ticket sales (perhaps everyone was at the NRL season opener next door at Allianz Stadium), the crowd was full of devoted Prodigy People of all ages and with no new album to promote since 2009’s Invaders Must Die, expectations were high for a night of nothing but big beat hits.
After a 30 minute delay and a stock-standard set from Israeli dubstep producer Borgore (anyone else well and truly bored with dubstep now?), Liam, Keith and Maxim took to the stage and from the first track our expectations were confirmed. The unmistakable opening riff from Music for the Gilted Generation’s ‘Voodoo People’ triggered mania in the crowd as Keith Flint and Maxim Reality sprinted across the stage, screaming, “Where are all my Voodoo People?” Five tracks in and they’d already dropped hits spanning three of their five records and showcased the almost title track from their upcoming sixth record How to Steal a Jet Fighter, ‘Jet Fighter’, but there were no signs the show would peak too soon.
With the temperature in the Pavilion rivalling that of the Boiler Room at the Sydney Big Day Out in 2009 when I last saw the Prodigy play, it’s no surprise that the highlight of the set came midway through when Flint took centre stage for ‘Firestarter.’ Jacking off his fluorescent microphone and leering at the front row, his blonde double mohawk looking more like devil horns, as usual Flint seemed to revel in looking so demonic.
The latter half of the set was geared more toward later material ‘Run with the Wolves’, ‘World’s on Fire’ and ‘Invaders Must Die’ featured as well as another possible new track from the forthcoming record, ‘Eagle Break’ before finishing up with the whole crowd on the floor for ‘Smack My Bitch Up’.
The four-track encore would have pleased the aforementioned aging ravers with 20-year-old tracks ‘Hyperspeed’ and ‘Outer Space’ from Experience appearing at the tail end of ‘Take me to the Hospital’ and ‘Their Law’.
Crowd favourites ‘Girls’ and ‘No Good’ were sadly missing from the night but when you look at the hit-packed set list, we really would have just felt spoilt had they have played them too.