The Prodigy tour stopped at The Novo in Los Angeles for two dates last week. I attended night 2 on Thursday, May 14th to pay homage and dance to the 2nd most important band in electronic music history. Kraftwerk might be first because they were first ones to do it but the truth is that very few people get Kraftwerk recall when getting songs stuck in their head. The Prodigy is the soundtrack that’s playing in your memories of the past but also still forward enough to stand up to any Zoomer litmus test of what gets to survive into their era.
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Speaking of Zoomers- the incredible thing about this show is how little this felt like legacy dance music or even, legacy pop (a soundtrack of an entire era in multiple cultures). A lot of electronic acts from the ‘90s now perform with the cautious energy of museum exhibits, polishing old hits for audiences looking to relive their youth. The Prodigy still play like they’re trying to blow the roof off The Novo before security shuts them down. They arrive like a weapons package created to fight a proxy war and that’s what younger audiences must be picking up on- urgency.
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At the center of the chaos is Maxim, now fully re-evolved into the band’s war-painted general. He stalks the stage with the energy of a man possessed, barking commands into the crowd while Liam Howlett lurks behind towering banks of synths like a rave-era mad scientist controlling the apocalypse with knobs and faders. The dynamic works because neither tries to replace Keith Flint. That would be impossible. Instead, the band has learned how to carry his ghost with them and returned to Maxim as the main frontman, as was the dynamic before The Prodigy released and toured The Fat of the Land in 1997.
That tension between grief and celebration is what gives this tour unexpected depth. The Prodigy aren’t pretending the loss never happened. They’re channeling it directly into the performance. There’s a darker undercurrent running beneath the rave hedonism now- an awareness of mortality lurking inside the basslines. Even at their loudest, there’s something haunted about these shows.
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If anything, the absence of Flint has sharpened the band’s purpose.
The setlist is paced with almost militaristic precision to touch on every era. I was surprised and delighted that such a large percentage of the set list re-visited 1994’s Music For The Jilted Generation- “Their Law,” “Voodoo People”, “No Good (start the dance) and “Poison” hit my hard drive and the recall to being 18 years old and going to my first raves in L.A. was instant.
The two worst moments of the night came when the intro’s of both “Firestarter” and “Break and Enter” rang across The Novo with steam building up inside of everyone for a drop that never came. I 100% get if there’s a moratorium on playing Firestarter in honor of Keith but I think that might’ve been the most wanton I’ve ever been left feeling at a show.
The production is massive without feeling overproduced- lasers, strobes, and visuals amplifying the auditory assault rather than distracting from it.
What’s equally fascinating is the crowd itself. Teenagers who discovered the band through playlists and TikTok edits are colliding with aging ravers who first saw them in muddy festival fields during the Clinton administration. Somehow, it works. Critics and fans alike have noted how intergenerational these audiences have become, united by the same primal response to The Prodigy’s music: movement and raw emotion inspired by cold synths and hot energy.
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And maybe that’s the real achievement of this tour. In an era where live music increasingly feels curated, monetized, and sanitized, The Prodigy still create genuine chaos. Not simulated chaos for Instagram clips- actual communal release. Their concerts remain one of the few places where electronic music still feels physically threatening in the best possible way.
The American leg of the Prodigy tour ended at Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas. The Prodigy are on a break until their tour resumes in Europe mid-June and goes all the way through to the end of November. With the buzz these shows and this tour is creating, I would not be at all surprised if dates are added and the band trudges on. After all, there must’ve been quite the build up for Maxim and Howell to play these dates, longing for the sustained exchange of energy between themselves and the audience that they had to have missed in the years since Flint’s death.
The Prodigy are back and even if they never play Firestarter live again, they’ll forever be cemented as one of the most important bands in electronic music.
Words and Photos: Danny Baraz
