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.::[KisloiD]::.
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by neko:
Intro
Wednesday, 2nd March: it's 5.30pm and I'm leaving work in London on my way to Heathrow airport. As I step outside there's a hailstorm and snow, it's freezing cold and the icy winds blow away my umbrella. It doesn't get much worse than this. London has been at it's worst for over a week now, with snow and hail every day and I cannot wait to get away.
21 hours flying and 60 minutes in Bangkok later, it is 6am on Friday and my friend Katie and I have just arrived in Sydney. I walk out of the terminal.... SUN! SUMMER! Eventhough it's only early morning, it is 25 degres and sunny already and couldn't be more different to London. Our hotel room has views over the harbour and Sydney Opera House and we spend the day shopping and chilling in the sun... Heaven. In my head I haven't even made the whole Prodigy connection yet, just feels great being on a good holiday.
I had had such a good time on the Big Day Out tour in 2002, so when someone told me back in November that they'd come back here it had been such a no-brainer to make the trip again. Lovely people here, nice weather and great places, what would you want more?
Saturday, 5th March 2005: Two Tribes Festival - Sydney Superdome Stadium
After a day in Sydney we're now off to the Superdome Stadium in the Olympic Park. We get there at about 11pm and it is one of these massive dance festivals with DJs on in various rooms. Prodigy are on in the main 'Godskitchen' one, which is in the huge 7k capicity Superdome stadium. Not really the kind of event I'd usually go to and I wonder whether Prodigy will actually go down well here at all? Some DJ and MC is on and you get your typical techno kids dancing away to it. It strikes me though how much less drugged up and drunk most people are here than they would be at a similar event in the UK, it's all actually very civilised.
Prodigy are supposed to be on about midnight and the MC calls out for 'who is here to see the Prodigy?' and similar stuff. There appear to be some technical problems though and every so often the sound goes off again for a while, which is rather disruptive. Then it all goes very quickly. The DJ table is being removed, Primal Scream's XTRMNTR fills the gap in live sound, a black curtain is removed, Prodigy's equipment can be seen and as this all happens the Wake Up Intro is played.
Crowd reaction confirms what I've been hoping for: quite a few people here seem to actually have come here to see Prodigy and not just the rest of the event. Big cheers as Liam (wearing white baseball cap), Kieron and Jim come on stage to start the set with Wake Up now. Then of course even more screaming as Maxim and Keith make the band complete on stage and, yes, after almost 3 months, the band are finally back on stage again. Happy minutes for me!
It all feels good until, just halfway through the track, the sound goes off. Silence, band leave stage, damn! After a while then Primal Scream's Swastika Eyes kicks in, followed by further tracks from XTRMNTR. Looks like this is going to take a while until the problems are resolved. I can see people leaving the stadium in masses and can't deny am getting a bit worried. Not that I am in doubt that the band will be back, but more about the possible effect this disruption will have on the gig.
After about 20 minutes the DJ table is brought back onto the stage, not a good sign obviously. DJ "Pee Wee" returns with an MC and plays a couple of tunes extra loud, to 'test the system'. I don't think I've ever heard anything as loud (there's good-loud and bad-loud, this is very bad-loud) and it's pretty much unbearable. Please, please go away.
My patience isn't the best, but somehow manage to wait until 1am, when finally the DJ leaves and it looks like the band may return. I wonder whether they'll be able to pick up from all the broken pieces from before...
Liam (now minus cap) comes back and plays an intro fill before going into Their Law. The rest of the band go right into and although it seems a bit a difficult start at first, it isn't too bad at all. You can't really go too wrong with Their Law anyways. With Warning its gets better. With it being performed in the southern hemisphere for the first time ever, obvioulsy only few people in the audience seem to recognise this post-AONO track, but it does go down very well, personally I start to get into this again now.
Maxim returns and by the time we're into Spitfire the long break seems forgotten. I'm not sure whether it is down to having seen the excellent new video to this now, but it certainly seems better than ever. The version played is exactly the same as last year though and not the new one as in the video, which I think would have been interesting.
Breathe then of course maximum audience pleaser. Looks like it's a similar set list so far like we had at the UK tour last year, minus any kind of spontanuous fills though. Girls / More Girls also excellent stuff and now we reach Dead Ken Beats, and once more I'm highly impressed by this. Again, not many here would have heard it before and it goes down very well. With is being after Girls, rather than before, it's a slightly different set order, but doesn't make much difference to me. The Action Radar fill then, thank god they kept this one in. I love this bit of the set, fits in well, maintains all the energy but still is a bit of a breather.
After this the new, reworked Firestarter. Hmmmmmm, it's fine, but with the rest of the set being so tight now, to me this almost appears as a bit of a low point. This is just me though, general public obviously love it, with it still being the most recogniseable track. So for any festival set this is still a must I guess.
The next one, Back to School / Gun Release, or howevere you want to call it, is far more interesting. Very nice. Performance wise the band definitely get better during the second half of the set.
Now on next is Mindfields - lots of Climbatize samples in it, intro as well as midway through. And, yes, The Way It Is seems to have been dropped or at least left out at this show. Anyone who's been reading my last years reviews would know I'm not too unhappy about that one. Similar with Hotride, although I wouldnt have gone as far as wanting to have it gone.
Without a break in between, Poison is next, excellent stuff as always. Then the Release Yo'Delf fill and the show peaks with SMBU. Yeah, gotta say, this is definitely the best track tonight. So much energy in this, band performance at its best, cannot get much better.
Band are leaving and even have me fooled. I'm usually quite good with knowing when it's over, but not so tonight. People scream for more, and Liam, Kieron and Maxim return. After some intro beats it becomes apparent what they're playing as a special encore: Out Of Space! Ha! Do I remember a certain Mr Howlett's reaction when I brought up the subject of maybe possibly playing some Experience stuff again during an interview last autumn? Looks like someone's changed his mind! We did get a special 'one-off' performance of Out Of Space already last December in Dublin, but now again? Very very cool, we love it.
And with this, I gotta say, great gig considering the technical problems and disruption. The set now without The Way It Is and Hotride seems very tight, cannot really complain about any of the tracks. It is more or less the same as last year though (again, no one else on this continent would know) but the main thing missing are the fills. I don't mean the ones we've got names for and list as tracks, but the small, spontanous ones Liam often threw in at last years shows.
Anyways, we get back to the hotel at 4am and at 7am we're already off for a day to the Gold Coast. I'm skipping the Perth show (on the other side of the country) completely, as I cannot bear to spend two precious Australia days in an airplane. So, Brisbane will be next for me, solo show this time which should be good. Watch this space.
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