On Monday night, I saw a band live for the first time that I have been checking for more than a decade. I have been listening to The Prodigy since elementary school, in fact their classic The Fat of The Land was one of my first albums that I bought on my own. Last month, when I caught word of them doing a short run in the states to support their recently released Invaders Must Die including a DC stop at the 9:30 Club, I had to jump on it (no Sir Mix-A-Lot).
DC area native Tittsworth opened up for The Prodigy, spinning a dope 1.5 hour set that ranged with everything from dubstep to fatboy slim. Once Tittsworth was done spinning from the corner balcony, it was time for trio known as The Prodigy; Keith, Liam, Maxim along with their guitarist to hit the stage. With Nostalgia thick in the air (35 year old dudes trying to relive college days, I see you!), hit they did. There wasn’t much time for feeling out the crowd as The Prodigy blasted out Worlds on Fire & Their Law, which was shortly followed by my personal favorite, Breathe. Let’s just say there wasn’t a person on either of the clubs 2 floors that wasn’t jumping up and down (for pretty much the rest of the night after that point). They proceeded to run through a bunch of notable songs including The Omen, Poison, and Voodoo People. The Prodigy were pretty much recreating their Greatest Hits album (which stayed in heavy rotation for the good part of my Freshman year of college) live. Halfway through the show Maxim did something I’ve never seen done before at any of the numerous 9:30 show I’ve been to; he performed from on top of the bar while quickly downing a drink, a true performer! The last song before their encore was Comanche (complete with Keith twirling like a helicopter (no Petey Pablo), needless to say that song was one of my favorites of the night. When the Prodigy came out for the encore, they saved one of their biggest songs, Smack My Bitch Up (how many rappers would love to be able to have THAT as a title for a single?!). But they didn’t end on that particular song, perhaps as a sign of more adrenaline pumping Electronica to come in the future for the Trio, they finished off with Take Me To The Hospital & Out of Space.
(Ed Note: Updated some song titles @ 5/20 8:48PM ET)
I was impressed with the sequencing of their set, they spread their most well known songs through out their set instead of saving them for the end like a lot of live acts tend to do. The last electronic act I saw at 9:30, Justice, left me pretty disappointed, this show was the complete opposite, simply put The Prodigy live is full of energy and kicks ass.
Don’t miss out, here are the remaining dates of the The Invaders Must Die Tour run:
05/20 – House of Blues – Boston, MA
05/22 – The Filmore – Detroit, MI
05/23 – Congress Theater – Chicago, IL
05/26 – The Grove – Anaheim, CA
05/27 – Hollywood Paladium – Los Angeles, CA
05/28 – Warfield Theatre – San Francisco, CA
05/30 – WAMU Theatre – Seattle, WA
Don’t forget your earplugs, kids. Otherwise, you might be saying the same thing as the message scribbled on the cover of one of Liam’s laptops: “TAKE ME TO A HOSPITAL”.
Invaders Must Die is in stores now.
Notes:
*You are probably wondering, WTF is up with the Camera phone pictures? Well, if you were following on twitter, you would have known that I experienced one of my biggest failures of my concert going history. I got a media accreditation and all that, only to realize after the club that I lugged along a dSLR camera WITHOUT A BATTERY. UGH.
*Shout out to the couple next to me on the balcony that were doing the most eclectic set of dance moves ever, including: cradling baby, a running man, ballroom dancing, rope climbing, the weight lift.. oh and when I was sitting down for a bit, they thrusted right at my eye level, sweet. To cap their dancing, this dude let his girl tie his scarf around the waist. Sadly though, I think she saw people chuckling as she proceeded to untie it shortly afterward.
*This is the first show I’ve seen at 9:30 that had a barricade at the front, I guess they know Prodigy fans don’t mess around.
*Lastly, a huge thanks to Adam & Sioux from Magnum PR for working with ML to make this happen!
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