On a normal Sunday in Wythenshawe Park, south Manchester, dog-walkers and families can be spotted sprawled across 270 acres of woodland and greenery. August’s bank holiday Sunday, however, saw the usual wholesomeness of the weekend swapped for the pandemonium of The Prodigy, and their strain of hell-raising electro-punk. The legendary group brought their Warrior’s Dance show back to Manchester following previous appearances at The Warehouse Project and Co-Op Live, levelling up to a capacity of 30,000 and bringing an all-star lineup of their peers with them.
Opening the show was David Rodigan, the 75-year-old radio DJ known for spinning reggae and dancehall. His set at Wythenshawe Park was tailored more towards The Prodigy’s crowd, being filled with jungle and breakbeat. Tributes to the group abounded amongst his selections, such as Max Romeo’s ‘Chase the Devil’ which serves as one of seven songs sampled in The Prodigy’s ‘Out of Space’. A quick trip to the second stage, designed by the team behind Glastonbury’s Arcadia, saw DJs such as Egg on Toast, Pablogyal, Vxrgo and Lucidik deliver sets enveloped in a bug-shaped structure.
Despite being relatively low on the lineup, Scarlxrd’s popularity and reptuation for hard-hitting rap metal shows were entirely justified by his 25-minute set on Wythenshawe Park’s main stage. The crowd might have been small due to his early performance slot, but they erupted the moment he arrived onstage. Circle pits opened, prompting the West Midlands artist to declare “Manchester is fucking mental” while his DJ added “it’s a fucking honour to be here”.
After a disappointing debut set at The Warehouse Project last autumn, ¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U had plenty to compensate for. Expectations were high, but the DJ prevailed, avoiding the slower electronica that hampered his previous Manchester appearance. As soon as Yukimatsu left the stage, torrential rain took the place of the bass sounds that had previously been pelted at the crowd. The sight of thousands of people rushing to throw on ponchos and find covered areas was something to behold, and the weather’s ferocity persisted throughout Andy C’s drum and bass set. After the downpour had finished, at least momentarily, legendary DJ Carl Cox took to the decks. Summery house might have been washed away by the weather, but Cox’s jungle and breakbeat selections invigorated the Wythenshawe Park audience, preparing them for the headliner.
‘Omen’ was the song chosen to open The Prodigy’s set: its menacing bass and intense percussion were appropriately greeted by a sold-out crowd bouncing, jostling and dancing frenetically. “Do you see any rain?”, now-frontman Maxim asked before the group launched into ‘Voodoo People’, referencing its momentary pause and proclaiming “we are the fucking rain”. ‘Poison’ and ‘The Day is My Enemy’ increased the levels of distortion blasting through the main stage’s sound system, while ‘Wind It Up’ appeared as a deep cut that the group’s hardcore fans clearly appreciated.
The Prodigy have so many hits amongst their catalogue that it would be impossible for them to close the show with every one, so ‘Firestarter’ was selected for an early performance. Anarchic anthems ‘Roadblox’, ‘Get Your Fight On’ and ‘Their Law’ ushered in the end of The Prodigy’s main set, before ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ closed it with another hit of chaos. ‘Breathe’ and ‘Take Me to the Hospital’ opened their encore, and the crowd’s frenzied response was sustained into ‘Warrior’s Dance’, the track that provided the group’s tour with its name. “This is the fourth one of the year, many more will come”, Maxim declared, prompting the loudest cheers of the night. ‘Out of Space’, as always, was the final song, and the group left to the sounds of Invaders Must Die b-side ‘The Big Gundown’, known to fans as ‘Comanche’ due to Maxim’s chants during its previous live performances.
Wythenshawe Park hosts a statue of Oliver Cromwell, the famously puritan parliamentarian known for winning the English Civil Wars and establishing frequently parodied, restrictive moral codes in the seventeenth century. In the Restoration period, his body was dug up, hung and beheaded: if that wasn’t enough to make him restless in his stone form, then The Prodigy certainly was. There are rumours that the group were so anxious about their first ever performance that they arrived eleven hours early, but there were no signs of those nerves at the final stop of their Warrior’s Dance run. Whether they’re in a warehouse, an arena or a field in Manchester, The Prodigy know how to cause chaos in the best way possible.
