Live Review

The Prodigy’s Warriors Dance Festival
With support from Pendulum, Enter Shikari, Chase and Status, Does It Offend You, Yeah? and many, many others.
24th July 2010, Milton Keynes Bowl


Originally I was only being dragged along to this electro extravaganza due to my little sister’s excitement and desperation to go to her first proper musical concert, but I found myself trying and failing to sleep the night before, it felt a lot like Christmas Eve back when my parents still kept up the Father Christmas lie.
So, on only a few hours of broken sleep, we arrived at the National Bowl in Milton Keynes, along with 60,000 other revellers who were also ‘well up for it!’. Finding a spot on the grassy hill surrounding the vast crowd area, we started with tiny (expensive!) bottles of rose wine and began working on getting tanned, drunk and happy. The amazing soundtrack to our long day commenced with electronic rockers Does It Offend You, Yeah? Having supported The Prodigy on their previous tour of Australasia, one couldn’t help but feel they were only there as a favour to them. It didn’t stop me getting abused by the couple sitting behind me for getting up and dancing throughout their entire set though.
Next up we were treated to a hour from drum and bass dons Chase and Status, who fresh from touring their epic album More Than Alot, brought on special guests Plan B and Delilah, who sang beautifully on tracks Time and Heartbeat. There was a wall of death in front of the stage so big that it could be seen clearly right from our grazing patch at the back, and we found, after rushing down for the last tune, that having 200 odd people charge at you really is quite the adrenaline rush.
After a quick stop at the bar, a trip to the hazy second stage (witnessing a storming set from Dubstep boy Doorly whilst taking in a suspicious herbal smell coming from the dreadlocked boy behind me) and getting stuck in a particularly smelly portaloo, we made it down to the front for Enter Shikari. Now, having seen them before I thought I knew what to expect, but it’s safe to say that by the end of closing track Sorry, You’re Not A Winner, all old feelings were replaced with everlasting love and an aching body. At 19, I already feel way too old to be moshing but alas, I couldn’t help myself, and knowing I’d be black and blue for weeks I threw myself into a circle pit with the energy of a thousand small children during play time.
Anyway, having moshed off the vast amount of wine from earlier, we went in search of more only to abandon the huge queue in favour of an impromptu dance off at the second stage. Caspa, another rising star of dubstep, provided the soundtrack, though I’m sad to say my sister has the moves and boogied to victory leaving me to wander off and immediately top up on booze.
Pendulum were to be the surprise of the day, I definitely wasn’t expecting a barrage of noise quite as awesome as what was to follow, crowd pleaser Tarantula made the day so far, with young kids and hippy grannies alike bouncing up and down to the Australian drum and bass kings.
And so, we finally make it The Prodigy, the lights are coming up and the sun’s going down. Strobe lights start flashing, and the ambulances either side of the stage begin to siren. I have goose bumps, the lady next to me is screaming, my sister’s simply standing with her mouth open. The world stops...then from out of nowhere The Prodigy grace us with their presence. Opener World’s On Fire does the trick, not one of the 60,000 strong crowd of warriors is still or quiet. And, all the way through, past stand out track Smack My Bitch Up, where the entire audience fell to their knees and flew back up in unison, and classic Voodoo People, the hype was never diminished, and we never tired. Final encore Out Of Space, and this may sound like a cliché, rounded off the longest day of my life in perfect fashion, and with one final flash of the strobes and one last siren, The Prodigy were gone, and my energy left with them.
Best gig ever? Debatably yes.