The Prodigy live at the Rockwave festival '99

the prodigy live in Athens 15/7/99

- guest review by Soren Sloth

[read neko's review and see pics of this gig]

Well at last, almost 1 oclock they entered the stage, to 75 min. of pure adrenalin-rush. First to enter was Liam and Keiron Pepper and then Liam started he`s "run dmc" intro before "brainstorm" was played very laud out to the crowd. only Maxim entered the stage (no Keith) and he was kicking out in the air, and screaming "where the fuck is athens, it has been a fucking long time".
After this exceptional opening they played "smack my bitch up" and Keith went on stage to do his mad-man dancing, and Liam didn`t allow the crowd to stop jumping, under the female voice in the track Liam made some heavy beats and people was really in to it.
Then some crackheads throwed a water bottle at Liam`s keyboard, and for a short moment i thought Liam would stop the gig, but instead he took the bottle and throwed it hard right back in the crowd.
After that my girlfriends favorit Leeroy entered the stage to "funky shit" wich is my favorit track, and here you could really hear the bass compare to the cd where it more seems like to be a breakdance track. But Leeroy moved he`s leg`s very fast, he is really one of a kind to this form of dancing.
After that some more hip-hop, they played the "Dr.Dre" track "the man with the masterplan" i don`t know what Prodigy calls it, but they sing "prepare for the rush, prepare to get crust" and it has a very cool beat.
Then Leeroy went off to get a break, and Keith entered again to sing along with Maxim to "breathe" a track i`m actually think is getting pretty boring to hear. (and i`ve heard the band is getting pretty bored to play it).
Then it was time for a new track, i don`t know what its called but its a Maxim track where he sings "we do what we want, we say what we want and we fuck who we want" and then Keith dancing around(but this gig no stage diving).
Then it was time to Leeroy`s "voodoo people" this track is going in the "oldie but goodie" category and it`s so great live, and right after they where ready to "rock the house in" to the remix of voodoo people, this is also one of the brilliant live tracks.
Then it was time to "their law" with Keiron on the guitar(always listen to neko) and keith singin "i`m the law, and you cant beat the law" actually a good track, but i think they should drop it, they have played it since`93. Right after Maxim took a break from stage and i actually thought Keith aswell, but then liam played the intro beat to "firestarter" - "its my own secrect tecnich" then Keith was back on stage and firestarter started, and greece was going wild (well ok 97% of the crowd had never heard this track live before).
After that Liam played "the climbatize horns" and then "mindfield" started slowly, with Maxim and Leeroy on stage.
then it was time for "poison" where maxim was trying to sing along with the crowd, but it seems like the crowd didnt know a what to sing, but i spotted people from around europe, then we had to make up for the rest of the crowd.
And then the last track before the encore was "rhythm of life" actually a big surprise for me and neko, its a really great live track i actually havent heard it much(i only have it on the electronic punkt video) so it really was a good track to say goodbye to Leeroy.
finally the encore, where i thought they would play "ghost-town" but the played "fuel my fire" instead and thats a good track to end the whole thing with. And Maxim and Keith throwed their mics up in the air and they left stage, even without saying goodbye, but that the whole Prodigy style.
i think it was one of the best gigs ive seen (but it cant beat Copenhagen`96), they really showed they still wanna be a band, and go out to perform, now they just have to put out a new album in the near future!!!

Soren Sloth
Denmark

[read neko's review and see pics of this gig]

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