Saw The Prodigy play Capital FM arena in Nottingham a few days ago as part of their ‘The Day is my Enemy’ tour. The show was pretty explosive as some would say. From start to finish it was a non-stop wall of noise (good noise) and flashing lights creating a rather intense knackering experience. In terms of their set they played a healthy mix of their greatest hits and songs off their rather good latest album.

Out of transparency I would say that I’m a decent Prodigy fan, I’ve listened to only 2 of their albums and have heard a greatest hits playlist before, but I found that I knew virtually every song they played.

Obviously, classics like Firestarter, Omen and Breathe had the whole stadium rocking and shouting along. And for songs that I knew less well it didn’t really matter as everyone was bouncing along; I would say that you will need to be a fan or at least neutral to a mosh pits with the front half of the arena featuring minimum of 3 from what I could sort of see when being flung about (the biggest felt like it encompassed a solid 5th of the arena).

If you like to get as close to the band as you can at a gig but are a bit tardy then this is perfect for you, I started around the halfway mark and ended up 3 people deep from the front (via the multiple mosh pits on route). It was absolute carnage.

The crowd was an interesting mix, there were some rather fearsome looking ravers (who were perfectly fine) and a whole assortment of ages (from teens experiencing their 1st Prodigy concert to their parents who clearly knocked about back in the day).

There were a few complaints: as others have documented this is a notoriously late band and lived up to their rep by being 30 minutes late (annoying when you need to pee and not sure just how late they will be and funny considering their support Public Enemy were 5 minutes early); National Ice Arena doesn’t have the greatest sound quality and their screens are rather small (but annoying for people further back); finally my friend ending up doing in his knee meaning I missed 15 mins and watched the final 3rd from the seating area. The last 2 complaints have nothing to do with The Prodigy to be fair.

Overall, I would say it had the potential to have been one of the best gigs I’ve been to (if only my friend had a sturdier knee). If you’re a Prod fan then obviously you should go and I would say if you’re a casual fan (like myself) or a dance fan or a fan of intense gigs then I’d say it’s definitely worth the punt.

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