Our day starts with some slight delay at the Schiphol airport where our plane is set to take off to Belgrade. When we finally arrived in Belgrade we headed straight to the festival site, the entrance was quite hard to find as there we no signs pointing us where to go. We bought the special RIP tickets that allowed us to enter the site via a special entrance. As soon as we entered the site we realized what a beautiful location the Kalemegdan Fortress is to host an event like Warriors Dance.
The site was filled with Prodigy related stuff like Warriors Dance banners, art and even a ‘scene of the crash’ that was filled with lots of crashed cars. Just like in Milton Keynes there was the opportunity to get your ant tattooed by a tattoo artist.
The first act we watched was Caspa. Of course we hoped that Keith Flint would show up for his collaboration with Caspa but he didn’t. Caspa did a good set and it seemed that he, and his on stage MC, enjoyed the crowd. Zane Lowe had an hour to warm up the crowd before The Prodigy would start. Most of the stuff he played were hits from artists as Avicii, Daft Punk and Kanye West & Jay-Z.
A quarter late The Prodigy entered the stage around 00.45 am. They started their set with ‘World’s On Fire’ that was followed by ‘Breathe’. ‘Breathe’ got a massive respond off the crowd that soon went nuts. Now The Prodigy followed their set with a new song called ‘Jetfighter’, a song that most of the warriors hadn’t heard yet. It’s probably the best one of the three new songs and got the best response of the crowd as well.
After this public favorite ‘Omen’ kicked in and was followed by ‘Poison’ and ‘Thunda Dub’. After ‘Thunda Dub’ ‘Warriors Dance’ returned to the setlist for the first time this year. Right after ‘Warriors Dance’ Maxim presented ‘Dogbite’ as one of their new songs and soon the recognizable White Stripes sample dropped. The response was good but definitely not as heavy when ‘Jetfighter’ was played. ‘Voodoo People’ followed after ‘Dogbite’ that caused the public to turn into one big mosh pit.
Maxim left the stage to give Keith some space to perform the iconic ‘Firestarter’ and later ‘Run With The Wolves’. After this Liam took his moment by playing ‘Weather Experience’ just like he did in Milton Keynes but now the song was notably shorter. Maxim and Keith re-entered the stage to do ‘Spitfire’ and their new part called ‘Spitfast’. The bass was super heavy during this song making it even heavier then it already is.
‘Omen (Reprise)’ followed turning slowly into ‘Invaders Must Die’ that slowly turned into ‘Diesel Power’. After ‘Diesel Power’ ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ kicked in causing the public to go completely mental of course including the famous ‘sit down’ moment leaded by Maxim.
After Smack The Prodigy left the stage to return quickly to play the last part of the set. ‘Take Me To The Hospital’ was the opener of the encore followed by one of the new songs called ‘AWOL’ which premiered in late 2011. The set was finished with ‘Their Law’ and ‘Out of Space’ that hasn’t been played very often this year and was illustrated with a beautiful light show including lots of strobe lights.
The crowd seemed to like the whole show that includes the new songs that most of the warriors in the crowd hadn’t heard yet. It must have been a disappointment for some warriors who hoped to hear some rare live tracks or even totally new tracks but the fact they didn’t play those songs doesn’t mean the show wasn’t good. The Prodigy did a beyond good show with a good sound system, a beautiful lightshow and with lots of energy. Like they use too.
Setlist: 01. Intro 02. World’s On Fire 03. Breathe 04. Jetfighter 05. Omen 06. Poison 07. Thunder Dub 08. Warrior’s Dance 09. Dogbite 10. Voodoo People 11. Firestarter 12. Run With The Wolves 13. Weather Experience 14. Spitfire / Spitfast 15. Omen (Reprise) 16. Invaders Must Die 17. Diesel Power 18. Smack My Bitch Up 19. Take Me To The Hospital 20. AWOL 21. Their Law 22. Out Of Space