25th August 2001 Pukkelpop Festival, Kiewit, Belgium

Mainstage timetable:
23:40 – 00:40 The Prodigy
21:45 – 22:45 Muse
19:55 – 20:45 Heather Nova
18:15 – 19:05 Stone Temple Pilots
16:35 – 17:25 Michael Franti & Spearhead
15:05 – 15:50 Spooks
13:45 – 14:20 Powderfinger
12:35 – 13:05 Boy Hits Car

Review by neko:
At 11.40pm Prodigy start their gig, of course with the usual army marsh intro, then the ‘forever and ever’ sample which then leads us into Their Law. It is brilliant, there is quite a lot of space this time and when, during Their Law, Maxim shouts ‘JUMP!’, you can actually infact do so. And thats where you realize that it was just all so worth it. The whole hassle and stress of the last 10 days, travelling throughout the night, an uncomfortable tent to stay in or nowhere to stay at all, risking your university degree, missing days at work, no sleep at all, all that is forgotten and you just don’t want to be anywhere else in this world than right there and at that gig!

No power cuts this time, and the show absolutely rocks! Trigger now starts and this time features again the ‘One, one, one’ sample, which has meanwhile been identified in the track ‘Digital’ by KRS One feat. Goldie (thanks Spence!).
Again Breathe and Smack my Bitch up get huge crowd reaction and in between them the link this time features Maxim shouting ‘I can see the faces, but I can’t hear no noise!’.

As at the shows before, the Climbatize link follows and then Mindfields. During the latter Keith is runnning back and forwards in the gangway going through the crowd, giving his security people a hard time following him!

And next of course Nuclear again. And it’s there and at that gig where I realize that from the whole set this is indeed the only track that has the same sort of energy as Their Law. The critics can say what they want, and of course its not a complete novelty track as you might expect it from Liam Howlett, but when you’re there at the gig, this track does just rule. I can’t help it, but have to fall in love with this song.

This gig is amazing! Poison kicks in and you remember that there used to be a time where it was a novelty for a Prodigy track to have a band member actually doing real vocals. Nowadays its so different, almost all tracks during the whole show have vocals by Maxim and / or Keith Flint. There is no ‘Maxim is the MC’ and ‘Keith is the dancer’ roleplay anymore, both of them are madman and performer in one and still both are so completely different. Now with two such intense characters at the front, what are the others doing? Liam Howlett is of course busy behind his keyboards, his role hasn’t really changed, but you might notice that his place is now much more in the centre of the stage than it used to be, he’s now right there close to the front. Almost a bit too far away hidden is Kieron Pepper behind his drumkit, providing live drums for every single track of the show, and not like live guitar on a ‘on and off’ basis (which of course kind of figures, since all tracks have beats, but not all have guitars). And then Alli, the new live guitarist, very reserved and ‘evil looking’ on stage, and with a a personality that fits perfectly into the band.

And that’s what she does during the next track, Firestarter. Its now Keith’s turn to perform his vocals and, as we all can imagine, probably every single person at the festival does know Firestarter and the atmosphere is quite euphoric. A good time for the band to leave the stage to make us shout for more. And they do come back and give us more, and, very much like at the Bizarre Festival, start to play Charly (Alley Cat Mix)! This track then followed by punk cover Fuel My Fire is of course indeed a bit an aprupt change, but works fantastic.

By the time the gig is finished I realize this has been another very great gig by The Prodigy, if not one of the best ones. And I’m again where I was before, all criticism blown out of the window. shit.