I have been a Prodigy fan since 1992 when my sister bought us the first Prodigy album "Experience". The CD came in a nowadays rare rectangulared shaped pack, including 12 uplifting breakbeat tracks. I was hooked immediately and soon I started to check out their dancing moves in one of their videos. It was a period when styles like Rave and Hardcore were taking over the dancefloors, but only this band impressed me and gave me that buzz with so much energy. 1994, the year the Prodigy had one of their first gigs in The Netherlands, Niels (former bandmember of G-LOCK), my crazy uncle and I decided to check them out at the Melkweg in Amsterdam.

The gig would take place on February 3rd at 22:00 (see flyer) but ofcourse we decided to get there earlier to check out the DJ's. Sitting at the bar before the gig would start, we noticed some guys outside who wanted to get in at the back of the club. It was Keeti Palmer aka Maxim Reality, nowadays known as the MC of the band knocking on the glass with some of the band's engineers. Maxim winked at me pointing to the female bartender to let them inside. Trying to convince her their main performance was standing outside, she wouldn't believe us. Poor Maxim getting a bit pissed off in the cold, breathe with me lol.

After a few more drinks we took off to the dancefloor where the DJ was playing some heavy drum 'n bass. The ambience was quite incredible and everyone was into the rolling rhythms he played. Suddenly I noticed Leeroy (former dance-member of the band) walking undiscoveredly through the crowd making his way to the back to get himself a drink. It wasn't like 'Wow, thats Leeroy from the Prodigy', he was just being part of the rest, relaxed and down to earth. In fact I think hardly anyone noticed him, but then knowing The Prodigy back then weren't famous as they are nowadays. Finally after 2 hours intensive dancing, Liam (mainwriter of the band) and Maxim walked onto the stage. I managed to get to the front near the podium while Liam prepared himself behind his keyboards.

Starting with a nice string intro, Liam took off with the first track of Jilted "Break & Enter". The crowd went crazy and then this huge ball came rolling onto the stage. It was long haired Keith, nowadays known as the baldy Firestarter, dressed like a scottish bloke and he was trying to get some air too lol. Then Maxim helped him out of his plastic prison and soon Keith started doing his moves. The atmosphere was amazing and everyone was jumping around while the boosting bass almost lifted me up from the ground. As soon Keith got into his rhythm, the impressive tall Leeroy joined him on stage. Unfortunately he didn't entirely show his dancing skills like he did in the videos, but he just perfectly completed the group like a missing link.

Then after some well-known tunes from the "Experience" album, Liam introduced "Rhythm of Life". Keith really went berserk on this one and before I realized, he was leaning above me shaking his head like a real lunatic. For a sudden I managed to touch his shoes, who knows this bloke would be famous some day, and I was thinking I could tie his shoelaces together. But then he replied me with a nasty grinch and shaked his head while some sweat came onto my face. Aarghh, I really should have tied those shoelaces together. Totally hypnotised by Liam's music, Keith got up and started to jump in circles waving his arms around him. Now everyone started to jump like if the floor needed to be drilled out. The buzz was incredible, a gig with so much energy and intense atmosphere, something I would never forget...