what shoes does he wear?

Black and red Nike shoes, something like this

The Prodigy, Brixton Academy, London
By Ludovic Hunter-Tilney

Published: December 15 2008 22:37 | Last updated: December 15 2008 22:37

The Prodigy are ostensibly a dance music act – indeed one of the best-selling dance music acts ever – yet their look, sound and philosophy are mired in rock’s most banal clichés. In their mind’s eye the trio are punk outlaws cranking up the volume to lethal levels. In reality they’ve become fast, loud but vacuous: a dead-end rather than the intended apocalypse.

Their forthcoming album Invaders Must Die is the first to feature all three original band members since 1997’s career peak The Fat of the Land. Judging by the tracks debuted at Brixton Academy, it aspires to recapture the aggressive energy that once made them a genuinely fearsome force, an Essex badlands hybrid of rave music, gangsta rap and hardcore techno.

Set opener “World’s on Fire” matched solar-plexus-pummelling beats with nihilistic slogans, gleefully chanted by singer-dancers Keith “Maxim” Palmer and Keith Flint (pictured). Another new song, bearing the gonzo title “Take Me to the Hospital”, was introduced by the boast “You don’t get harder than this”, which sounded suspiciously like the strapline to a Guy Ritchie movie.

The ensuing barrage – dementedly sped-up vocals, unhinged synth riffs, battering percussion – was as good as its word. Yet an air of fallibility underlay the hardness, as if the band’s musical mastermind Liam Howlett were desperately ransacking the armoury in a bid to make The Prodigy relevant again.

It didn’t work. Just as Flint, in a pared-down blonde Mohican and white vest, resembled an old punk (Billy Idol, to be precise), so too The Prodigy’s urge to shock has grown dated. Past hits “Breathe” and “Firestarter” were pantomime turns, fondly received by the audience but lacking any original menace.

Bad lyrics (“The writing’s on the wall/It won’t go away”) emphasised the band’s lack of substance, while the sonic assault failed to mask the fading of Howlett’s once masterly way of building tension in a song. For all their sound and fury, The Prodigy have lost their teeth.

Ludovic Hunter-Tilney