After a three month UK residency tour hitting venues across Glasgow, Bristol, Wolverhampton and Manchester, electronic metal band Enter Shikari, closed their run of monthly shows with a third and final show at London’s Here at Outernet.
Having been supported firstly by Noahfinnace and Blackout Problems in February and then by Cody Frost and As Everything Unfolds in March, the St Albans based band’s April shows saw them bring Tokky Horror and Higher Power along for the ride.
Tokky Horror took to the stage first and delivered a high octane set brimming with bratty energy closing with vocalists Mollie Rush and Ava Akira joining the 2000 strong audience in the pit.
Once Mollie and Ava are fished out the crowd and Tokky Horror exit the stage, hardcore punk band Higher Power take to the stage to ensure that the already warmed crowd are well and truly sweating once Enter Shikari arrive. The band perform their brand of skater punk metal for 8 pulse racing songs in what is a powerhouse of a set.
During the penultimate song “Low Season”, Higher Power are joined by, as frontman Jimmy Wizard declares, their ‘merch guy’ before announcing that anyone who crowd surfs and/or moshes to their final song “Seamless” will be granted 20% off their merchandise at the merch stand.
That was clearly an offer this crowd couldn’t refuse as crowd surfer after crowdsurfer made their way over the barrier until Higher Power exited the stage. Both Tokky Horror and Higher Power did more than their fair share as openers. Enter Shikari, sure know how to pick em.
The crowd chants “and still we will be here standing like statues” as they await the Entrance of Shikari and then suddenly the lights cut out and the crowd begins to cheer. A light show dazzles the crowd as drummer Rob Rolfe, guitarist Rory Clewlow, Bassist Chris Batten and Frontman Rou Reynolds take to the stage.
The band explodes into “Pls Set Me On Fire” the lead single of their newest album A Kiss For The Whole World. This is then followed by an spoken word poem version of “System…” which is followed as always by the metal club anthem “…Meltdown”, both off the bands 2012 album A Flash Flood of Colour.
“Juggernauts” off 2009’s Common Dreads is played next to maintaining the super high energy of the concert thus far which is aided by 2007’s “Anything Can Happen In The Next Half Hour…” off the band’s 2007 debut album Take To The Skies, as well as, new single “It Hurts”.
The band slow things down ever so slightly with the LGBTQ+ dance track “satellites*” off their previous record Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible, before ramping things up again with the bands self proclaimed “silliest song ever written“, “Slipshot”.
“Undercover Agents” off 2017’s The Spark follows slowing the tempo once again, which is maintained by the bands newest single and title track of their new album A Kiss For The Whole World. Common Dread’s “Halcyon” and “Hectic” ramp things right back up just in time for what Enter Shikari have labelled their “quickfire round“.
This section sees the band perform a 4-song melody in 7 and a half minutes and it consists of; “Havoc B”, “Bull”, “The Last Garrison” and Pendulum’s remix of their emo metal anthem “Sorry You’re Not A Winner”.
This melody is impressive to behold, however I’m sure many, like myself, would agree that it would better to hear these songs in full, and in the case of “Sorry You’re Not A Winner”, performed as originally recorded. The Pendulum remix is fun, however nothing beats the crowd clapping in unison, which I for one sorely missed.
Having completed their quickfire round, Enter Shikari performed three songs before leaving the stage for the first time. The band blast through Live Slow, Die Old’s “RedShift”, new single “Bloodshot” and lastly their staple closer “Live Outside”, before “leaving for bed” as frontman Rou Reynolds announced.
As the band leaves, the crowd again chant “and still we will be here standing like statues” from the band’s song “Enter Shikari”, a song that has not yet been played and fortunately for this crowd, they won’t be disappointed.
Enter Shikari take to the stage once again for an encore, however Rou is missing. As the band play “Stand Your Ground; This is Ancient Land” and the aforementioned “Enter Shikari”, its soon revealed Rou is at the back of the pit, crowd surfing his way to the stage.
This beautifully apt moment of fan engagement would be a perfect end to the night, however there is one final song to go. Rou joins his bandmates on stage for Nothing Is True And Everything Is Possible’s lead single “{The Dreamers Hotel}” which brings the night to a sonically softer, but fittingly joyous close.
And with that, Enter Shikari drew the curtain on their UK residency tour with a sublime career spanning set. The band simultaneously gave the fans exactly what they wanted, whilst also proving their newest output has just as much bite as anything they have released before. Yet another triumphant display from one of the UK’s best live bands. The lucky attendees at Slamdunk festival are in for a real treat come May.
Words by Dan Harden
