The Prodigy headline We Are FSTVL with enough bass to make your hair stand on end

The Essex punk electronic dance group throw everything at their headline slot of We Are FSTVL and reap the rewards

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As the band members of The Prodigy assemble on the main stage of We Are FSTVL, vocalist and MC Maxim declares "Essex, home turf!" right before the group launch into the crunchy beats of Breathe , one of their biggest hits.

The Braintree-formed electronic punk dance rockers have come a long way in a career spanning over 30 years - from the underground dance scene to paving the way for a new wave of big-beat artists who would go on to fill out arenas and stadiums, selling more than 25 million records worldwide.

The group suffered a tragedy felt across all of Essex in 2019 with the death of frontman and singer Keith Flint, and for a long while the future of the band remained in limbo. However, as of this year, Maxim and producer Liam Howlett are back in full throttle rave mode, taking on several tours and headlining various festivals.

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Attending We Are FSTVL this weekend was my second time seeing The Prodigy, and the first since Flint's passing. However, the band are still on full, bass-crunching, strobe-whirling form as they put on a headline show for the ages. With Howlett working his magic behind the keyboards and computers, Maxim makes full use of his role as the band's now sole frontman to tear around the stage in various outfits and calling to arms his "Essex warriors" in the crowd.

We're taken through a full tour of the band's hit history, opening with Breathe and then jumping straight into the more modern hit of Omen, with the crowd belting out how "the writing's on the wall" and huge sets of synchronised clapping. The chaotic strobe-lighting and set full of insect flags, shrouded figures match well with the band's incredibly assured and confident stage presence; with Maxim commanding circle pits in the crowd, the band's guitarist at one point throws his instrument right at a cameraman filming the show on stage.

What's most profound about The Prodigy's shows is they make you feel every thudding beat to their songs; the drummer smashes away at his kit during the fast-tempo Roadblox from the more recent album The Day Is My Enemy, adding ferocity to a song that sounds smoother on record than many of their others.

As one may expect, when the band performs hits such as Breathe and Firestarter when missing their key vocalist, that absence is felt. But in quite a poignant moment in the set, the band shake up Firestarter by bringing out their pointed laser strobes and drawing an outline of their beloved former member Flint on the big screens. The shortened version of the song ends with Flint's outline complete and a recording of him declaring "That's your f***ing lot" - a tribute to the dynamic and aggressive stage presence he had for the band.

Towards the end of the set, the band crank up the bass even more when Maxim spits out the lyrics of the older hit Poison from the 90s, and at that point you think the bass is at its highest for the night, making your very stomach vibrate. How wrong I was, as the band's biggest song - the controversially named Smack My B**** Up - arrives next, and the bass with the beat drop making the hairs on my arm literally stand on end.

An encore is led by the absolute showstopper of an anthem, Invaders Must Die, bringing the festival perhaps the most aggressive and energetic beat of the night, followed by a psychedelic multi-coloured laser show for the more light-hearted and light-beaten Out of Space to close the show. The Prodigy remain in energetic form as a band who are masters of their craft - putting on a damn good show that makes it impossible for you to stand still.