LIVE REVIEWS
“After losing Keith,” the Prodigy’s Liam Howlett told NME earlier this week, “we couldn’t even think or talk about the band.” It was, he explained, around “two years” before he and vocalist Maxim could even face the prospect. And even then they wondered, “‘Could we play live again? Did we want to? Why? How?’”
The ‘why’, it seems, if that this gloriously unhinged, carnivalesque rave-up is a kind of living, breathing tribute to late vocalist and frenetic vibes man Keith Flint, who tragically took his own life in 2019. This is made explicit during Flint’s anthem ‘Firestarter’: screens on either side of the stage depict his unmistakeable, Devil-horned silhouette in neon green, with lazers beamed out into the audience as though he continues to cast his spell. Howlett and Maxim remix track to slow down Flint’s lyric, “I’m a firestarter!”, an immortal line if ever there was one.
And then there’s the ‘how’. Reading & Leeds’ new Chevron dance stage, replete with a canopy that glitches, flickers and pulses with flashing lights and even the band’s insidious insect logo, is the perfect platform for their return to a festival that, Howlett told NME, has always felt like home. The stage, meanwhile, is like a steam-punk serial killer’s basement from David Fincher’s nightmares: the aesthetic grey and rusted-looking, with analogue numbers counting down and ominous, oversized figures lurking in the background.
Overall, though, this is a glossily produced and sensationally life-affirming gig. In Flint’s absence, Maxim carries the show almost entirely himself: “All my Prodigy warriors here,” he commands, “let me see you! This shit is for life. Live this shit. Breathe it.” When he shouts out “all my shirtless, sweaty warriors in the middle,” live member Rob Holliday cocks his guitar like a rifle as if picking them off. Maxim lets out an ecstatic roar – “Whooooooo!” – to the sonic assault of ‘Roadblox’, the light show glitching out of control and the beats raining down blow after blow; the sense of release palpable.
For a good hour, this is the Greatest Show on Earth. The energy, though, dips in the final third, while the brain-frying ‘We Live Forever’ peters out into low-key bleeps and bloops that sap energy from a closing ‘Out of Space’. Still, the abiding image is that of the festival’s fairground rides scything away in the background as punters pulsate to audio-visual chaos from ahead and above, Flint’s spirit well and truly imbibed.
‘Breathe’
‘Omen’
‘Spitfire’
‘Firestarter’
‘Voodoo People’
‘Roadblox’
‘Light Up the Sky’
‘No Good (Start the Dance)’
‘Poison’
‘Get Your Fight On’
‘Need Some1’
‘Smack My Bitch Up’
‘Take Me to the Hospital’
‘Invaders Must Die’
‘Diesel Power’
‘We Live Forever’
‘Out of Space’
Check back here for the latest news, reviews, photos, interview and more from Reading 2024.
LIVE REVIEWS
Slayyyter played her take on Turnstile’s ‘Birds’ onstage for the first time in Atlanta. You can watch footage of the performance below.
Slayyyter is currently touring with her ‘Wor$t Girl In The World’ show. She added the cover to her set at The Eastern on Monday night (September 21).
She sang ‘Birds: Slayyyter Version’ near the end of the main set, following ‘Brittany Murphy’. She then came back for an encore featuring ‘Brand New Chanel$’ and ‘Beat Up Chanel$’.
It was her first live performance of the song. She originally recorded it for Turnstile’s ‘Never Enough: Versions’, a collection of reworked tracks released on August 28.
The 22 track release brings together new interpretations of songs from Turnstile’s fourth album. Contributors include Elton John, Hayley Williams, Blood Orange, A. G. Cook, Faye Webster, Four Tet, Oklou, Floating Points, Nourished By Time, Alex G, Julien Baker and Mustafa.
Panda Bear recorded a new take on ‘Magic Man’, while Dying Fetus gave ‘Birds’ another interpretation rooted in death metal.
See Slayyyter perform the track live and listen to her studio recording here:
Slayyyter trades the original song’s hardcore intensity for a bigger electronic sound that feels at home alongside her latest album, ‘Wor$t Girl In America’.
Turnstile first released ‘Birds’ on their 2025 album ‘Never Enough’. The song won Best Metal Performance at the 2026 Grammy Awards, where the album also won Best Rock Album.
In its five star review of ‘Never Enough’, NME pointed to ‘Birds’ and ‘Sole’ as reminders of Turnstile’s hardcore beginnings. It also praised the album for “furthering their unique, pop-facing take on hardcore”.
Slayyyter will join Turnstile on another stage next month. She and Die Spitz are set to support the band at the University of Kansas in Lawrence on October 6 for the ‘Never Enough Tour Pt. 2’.
It has been a big year for Slayyyter. Her third album, ‘Wor$t Girl In America’, came out in March, and NME’s review highlighted its mix of “brash, sleazy pop” and late 2000s indie sleaze sounds.
Last month, she performed Hole’s ‘Violet’ for triple J’s Like A Version. Courtney Love called the cover “a delight” and encouraged Slayyyter to “keep wiping the floors with us”.
A few weeks later, Slayyyter took ‘Wor$t Girl In America’ to Reading Festival. NME’s live review declared that there was “undoubtedly a star before us on stage” and praised her “rasped, rocked-up delivery” and growing confidence as a performer.
