The Prodigy

Downsview Park, Toronto ON, September 20

Photo: Rick Clifford

BY Calum SlingerlandPublished Sep 21, 2015

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In a world where an undeniable sameness has crept into mainstream electronic music, the Prodigy looked to combat said monotony by releasing their first record in four years, The Day is My Enemy. While opinions on the new disc were split, taking the tunes and many other favourites from their back catalogue to the stage with an impressive light show did just the trick in nearly reviving '90s big beat right then and there, at least within the minds of the aging Riot Fest fans. But regardless if you were alive through their heyday, it didn't take much more than a string of their classics being pumped through a main stage sound system to get the party started.
 
Stationed behind his keyboards and electronics along with a drummer and electric guitarist, Liam Howlett left much of the heavy lifting to vocalists Keith Flint and Maxim, who never took their feet off the pedal in tearing through "Omen," "Firestarter" and even "Voodoo People" from 1995's Music for the Jilted Generation. Shrouded by the relentless visual assault of the stage lighting, the two built the energy to a peak with "Invaders Must Die" before arriving at the set's climax with "Smack My Bitch Up."
 
With the lighting rig at full power, a sea of cellphone videographers had their work ruined by the liberal strobe light usage, a sign that the true way to experience the Prodigy's return to North America was to live in the moment.
 

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