Live Review

Enter Shikari – Manchester Academy

• 20th Feb 2015

The first time I played Enter Shikari’s debut record (way back when) in my room, I was 16 and mostly clueless about music. That record blew me away. Now, several years and several albums later, I’ve finally gotten around to seeing them live and I couldn’t be more excited. Why it’s taken this long even I don’t know, but what I do know is that it was worth the wait.

Opening act Fatherson play to a slowly filling room; the Scottish trio’s unique brand of alternative indie rock seems to sit well with the audience. The three-piece hailing from Kilmarnock are building up momentum following the release of their debut album, and it’s clear from the rousing applause following songs like ‘I Like Not Knowing’, that they’re destined for bigger and better things.

Another band on the up, Allusondrugs are pretty special live too. Having seen them once before supporting Marmozets and Lonelythebrave, I knew what to expect from their eclectic set of loud fuzzy grunge-psych-haze rock. No one in the audience could really resist the stoner-charm on stage – songs like ‘Nervous’ had the crowd nodding appreciatively, and lead singer Jason Moules had no problem in getting the room to yell ‘HERPES’ on request. Definitely a band to keep an eye out for, Allusondrugs are impossible to dislike.

Feed The Rhino are a band that have been there and done that. They’ve supported Bury Tomorrow; played Download; started more mosh pits than you’ve had hot dinners (or probably meals) and it seems as though they are FINALLY, FINALLY getting the recognition they deserve. Lead singer Lee Tobin keeps the venue security on their toes by diving into the crowd at any opportunity, and has a 1000-strong crowd easily eating out of the palm of his hand. His knack for crowd-pleasing, coupled with the band’s brilliantly thundering riffs and crushing bass-heavy hardcore should be enough to catapult them into their own sold out raucous headline tours soon, with any luck.

“AND STILL WE WILL BE HERE, STANDING LIKE STATUES!” The chant goes up a good quarter of an hour before Enter Shikari take the stage, but the excitement is tangible. At ten minutes, a countdown begins to the band’s entrance. Five minutes and a chant for Rory C, the band’s guitarist, almost deafens me. Two minutes, and the hairs at the back of my neck are standing on end. 30 seconds to stage time – the house lights go down, the light show on stage begins and the St. Albans quartet take their places on stage to a deafening roar from the crowd.

The venue is sold out, the crowd is moving, dancing, singing, shrieking, throwing drinks and crowd-surfing (in complete defiance of the venue’s no-crowd-surfing policy). The next hour and fifteen minute flies by in a mixture of sweat and music-induced delirium (the good kind). Although Enter Shikari are reluctant to delve into their amazing back-catalogue (come on, guys! How could you not play ‘Sorry, You’re Not A Winner’???) the new material is already committed to memory by everyone in the crowd. From ‘The Last Garrison’ to ‘Anaesthetist’, from older songs like ‘Gandhi, Mate, Ghandi’ to ‘Slipshod’ the energy is something to behold.

As the last moments of a remix of ‘Ssssssnakepit’ (I don’t know if that’s the correct number of sssss, but I doubt it matters) fade out, all I can think of, apart from ‘ouch, everything hurts’ is ‘I want to do that, all over again’.

– Iqra Choudhry

Venue: Manchester Academy
Support Band: Allusondrugs, Feed The Rhino