Thursday 16/04/09 The Prodigy @ Wembley Arena, London

“London’s on fire,” screams Maxim from the best rave/hardcore/breakbeat/rock act Britain has to offer… ever. Fortunately for ol’ BoJo, the whole of London is not in fact, burning – but certainly the tiny corner of north-west London that is Wembley arena is hot and sweaty enough to steam a few thousand windows. It is The Progidy. And they are the ones on fire.

Opening with new record, Invaders Must Die’s ‘World’s on Fire’ and 1997 Fat of the Land’s ‘Breathe’, this promises to be a set of the exciting new and the booming old. Dipping in to the archive, The Prodigy pull out classics such as ‘Poison’ and not so much crowd favourite, as crowd anhilation ‘Jericho’.

Invaders Must Die, the stunning fifth record and a fine form return, obviously, sees a lot of the limelight at the 10,000 rammed arena. New single ‘Warrior’s Dance’, ‘Run with the Wolves’ and reference to the band’s new label ‘Take me to the Hospital’ all get a reception as if they’ve been around since smiley yellow face t-shirts were born.

Mention, special but brief, has to go to support act Dizzie Rascal, who will be packing out Wembley himself one of these days. ‘Fix up, look sharp’, ‘Flex’ and finale ‘Bonkers’ are the perfect way to drift into the main act. Not even his immense one-armed DJ could take eyes away from Dizzie’s lyrical talent.

And back to the institution. Maxim is on fine form, bouncing, jerking, scaring, screaming down the camera lense, white face paint and all. Liam Howlett dismisses the limelight for his perch behind the keyboards, decks and 'Take me to the Hospital' poster. And then there is Keith Flint. Piroetting, preening and dare I say it, prancing his way across the arena. The energy levels haven’t departed even if hair length has, and Flint pauses only to summon the crowd into a spitting fracas. He owns the stage during ‘Firestarter’, but lacks dominance and lyrics at times – half the encore Flint doesn’t even cradle a mic, leaving all the performance to main-man Maxim.

The band couldn’t leave Wembley without an encore to raise the roof. ‘Invaders Must Die’, all-time classic ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ and floor-shaking ‘Outta Space’ give the band the send off they deserve.  The Prodigy are back to beat breaking best, either on fire or extinguished.