Live Review
Enter Shikari – Carling Academy, Liverpool
On a cold and wet Tueesday night everyone quickly shuffled into the gig venue to be warmed by the nu-rave glow of St. Albans boys Enter Shikari. Ok, so glow sticks don’t actually give off any heat, but after near-constant touring for the past three years, Enter Shikari built up an incredible and extremely loyal fan base who are early into the venue to provide each other with a bit of body heat. These kids go to their every show, sing and scream every word, mosh to every beat and breakdown and know every little detail to every single song.
Tonight sees Enter Shikari upto their usual hardcore trance rock wizardry. Their music continues to be characteristically kitsch and for me their overall sound lands somewhere between Van Halen and Bullet For My Valentine interlaced with impeccably played scales and plenty of old skool riffage thrown in for good measure.
Rou Reynolds infectious and melodic vocals add weight to the performance and the catchy choruses means there’s plenty to sing along with as you’re pulling off your favourite metal stances. As Britain’s one-time most successful unsigned band, they are now into that difficult second album, they appear to be going from strength to strength, widening their already loyal fanbase and beefing out their setlist with what may now be considered ‘classics’ as well as banging out the new stuff.
Whether or not Shikari can stand the test of time or be a flash in the pan will depend very much on the success of the material they’re knocking out in the future. It is amazing in how short a band can go from ‘the next big thing’ to being considered a bit old hat. Based on tonight’s performance it suggests there may not be enough variety from one album’s material to the next to lend hope to them getting beyond a third – which is a shame really – because they’re a band who certainly know how to entertain. If not that, then at least I leave the venue a lot warmer than when I came in…….