for Prong on this part of their tour has been from Belgian/Dutch five-piece, Spoil Engine. They were squeezed onto the stage in the Voodoo which was already occupied by Prong’s drum kit. The varying style of their songs seemed to gain a mixed response from the crowd in Belfast with the more up-tempo songs proving to be far more popular.
Being a fan of the older Prong albums, I was a little concerned that they would be playing songs mostly from their new album Zero Days which I am not yet familiar with (but which we have reviewed). This, however was not the case at all with “Beg to Differ” being one of the first three songs played and “For Dear Life” one of the last. Tommy Victor, who is ed by Art Cruz on drums and Mike Longworth on bass, kept the pace up throughout the set which contained plenty of fan favourites and had the crowd going mad.
As Cleansing is my personal favourite album, it was great to hear “Broken Peace”, “Another Worldly Device”, “Whose Fist Is This Anyway?” and “Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck” all in such quick succession. Given the change in style and genre throughout Prong’s career it is testimony to the song quality and musicianship that the set can be so varied and flow so well.
There was some talk after the show that the sound was poor, but from where I was standing everything sounded fine. There was a fantastic atmosphere during the whole show and it was great to see the band spend plenty of time chatting with fans afterwards.
All photos by Kerri Clarke of Exposing Shadows Photography.
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