Gig of the week: The Prodigy ****

Apr 12 2009 John Kelly

The Prodigy Secc Glasgow, April 7

IT'S the Prodigy's greatest strength and biggest failing that you know exactly what you're going to get from one of their shows.

On the one hand, huge credit to them for not letting the quality slip over the years.

On the other, the hyperactive sneering of Keith Flint and MC Maxim is cartoonish at times.

They'd probably be a parody of themselves if they didn't deliver such a bassheavy, red-strobed apocalypse of a live show. In skinny jeans and vests, Flint and Maxim are like Manga characters, going through a demented kind of aerobics routine while Liam Howlett plays a bank of electronics alongside occasional live drums and guitar.

The crowd are sent most wild by old favourites like Firestarter, Voodoo People, Smack My Bitch Up and Out of Space.

It's worth listening closely to new tracks like Omen, Take Me to the Hospital and the unrecorded Comanche, though, because they sound just as fierce and futuristic while betraying a return to the Prodigy's rave beginnings. John Kelly