The Prodigy - Chicago 23-05-2009

Congress Theatre

Chicago (Illinois), USA.

23 - May - 2009.

Disc 1 (72:32)

01. Intro (PA) / World's on Fire

02. Their Law

03. Breathe / Breathe Dubstep

04. Omen

05. Poison

06. Warrior's Dance

07. Firestarter

08. Run With the Wolves

09. Voodoo People

10. Comanche

11. Omen Reprise  / Invaders Must Die

12. Diesel Power

13. Smack My Bitch Up

14. Take Me to the Hospital

15. Out of Space

Recording Equipment - History

Church Audio CA-14 + Roland Edirol R-09HR (Mic-in, Low Gain +49, 24-bit/96kHz WAV) > SanDisk Ultra II 16GB SDHC > SanDisk MicroMate SDHC-USB to PC > FLAC Frontend v1.2.1b Lvl. 8 > Notepad (CUE Sheet) > Foobar v0.9.6.1 (Exported as 24-bit/96kHz WAV) > Sony Sound Forge v9.0e (Track Joining, Converted to 16-bit/44.1kHz WAV, Equalization, Amplification +13.5db, Fade-in/out, Exported as 16-bit/44.1kHz WAV) > FLAC Frontend v1.2.1b > FLAC (level-8)

Taper: Jon G.

Location: Right Rear Balcony, Aisle F, Row J, Seat 701

Additional notes (by the taper): Congress Theatre is architecturally magnificent, but the acoustically it is quite lacking. The stacks are aimed primarily straight forward and at the floor, this combined with sound mixers that have a love of too much bass, the music was very boomy and bass distorted from the stacks quite a bit (Watch the damn meters people!).

That said, the show was good. It would've been better if the guys didn't get to the show very late, because there was a four hour DJ set between the start of the show and them arriving. Same time signature and tempo all four hours. It got to the point where people were cheering when roadies walked across the stage. I ended up ranting on a scrap piece of paper quite a bit after the hour and a half mark, expressing my newfound hatred toward Tiga and whoever the fuck took his place at the three hour mark. That's a bad thing, Tiga was supposed to be the support, and they had some other dude come out after three hours of that ass. It was about quarter to midnight when the DJ set finally stopped. Good riddance.

Once The Prodigy's roadies got their gear setup it was all good, and, they started playing just after midnight. I could've done with a few oldies, or at least a longer show as some form of apology for being that fucking late. That's also why the date is for the 24th and not the 23rd. Had they been on time they would've played on the 23rd, but since they weren't, they played on the 24th. Good job, guys!

Taping was pretty easy, lots of wandering security, but they're more concerned about making sure your beer isn't on the balcony railing so that it doesn't fall and knock someone on the floor. Toward the end I was getting worried that I'd miss 'Out of Space,' because my batteries were almost dead. As a result, I decided to stop recording about halfway through 'Take Me to the Hospital.' I started back up again after that was finished and did manage to get 'Out of Space.' I stuck around for a few minutes after the show to see if they might do a surprise encore, but no such luck, as evidenced by the roadies dismantling their equipment shortly thereafter.

Comments

Very boomy sound with strong bass. The output is clear but everything sounds distant, and the strong bass makes it to sound pretty boomy, but it is not saturated except for a few concrete moments (Diesel Power, for example). Crowd noise is not an issue, as people are mainly audible between songs. Take Me to the Hospital is incomplete and only lasts 2:54 as the taper was saving battery, as explained above by himself.