IMPRESSIVE as The Prodigy are live, the band's by now regular gigs at the Point often seem to turn into sociological field trips as much as concerts, with activities off stage every bit as remarkable as those on it. There is not a drop of alcohol being sold or consumed at the Point on New Year's Eve, but this does not seem to be overtly troubling anyone, nor deter them from enjoying games of Wipe Out on the banks of Sony Play Stations that fill the balcony.
Downstairs, besides the usual merchandising stands, there is a stall at the back of the hall, run by a voluntary organisation down from, the North, offering "Counselling, Free beakers of water are being handed out at high speed, (suggesting that the venue at least is taking a grown up attitude to the realities of the occasion) and at least one person is wearing a jacket with the motto "NASA Nice And Safe Attitude" embroidered into it.
And there was music too. Support act Black Grape proved to be as intermittently interesting as they had been at Feile earlier this year. Their sound adds a few more "real" instruments and a little more black music to the Happy Monday's good time electronics, but the overall effect is still very reminiscent of lead singer Sean Ryder's previous band.
An organ churns skillfully and a set of bongos trampolines around a few songs, but patches of energy around In The Name of the Father and Big Day in the North do not really add up to a wild night out.
Headliners the Prodigy were clearly of a different rank. They eschew the hall"garbled cynicism of Black Grape, while hanging on to some of Ryder's wide boy bad attitude. Taking Leftfield's John Lydon collaboration, Open Up, as a starting point, they have created their own punk progressive house crossover.
By combining direct, dense dance music with a violent, often screamed vocal, Liam and his mates have quickly overcome the sterility that can creep into live electronic dance music. In the process, they may have done for techno what U2 did for new wave tightened a few nuts and bolts, tuned it up, polished it and made it fit for the album market and the stadium circuit.
The group's only real shortcoming seems to be a scarcity of repertoire. They still build their set around the older tracks. The yellow eyed and demonic Poison and the sample savvy odoo People work well, but the older the tunes the proto jungle workout Outer Space, flip flopping between reggae and pop techno, the ethnogroove of One Love, and the feed back lead showstopper No Good (Start The Dance) remain the highlights of the band's smart, crazed and thrilling set.
