Tour de force from Enter Shikari as they rock the Roadmender with passion and energy

Phil Moore reviews Enter Shikari at the Roadmender in Northampton
Enter Shikari. Picture: David JacksonEnter Shikari. Picture: David Jackson
Enter Shikari. Picture: David Jackson

Normally a band that play the UK’s arenas, St Albans’ massively successful Enter Shikari have with their Stop The Clocks tour taken the different approach.

Namely, playing 28 shows across the country - including relatively snug venues like the Roadmender.

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They really didn’t need to do such a lengthy run, so they’ve already earned a lot of respect for just the concept.

Black Peaks. Picture: David JacksonBlack Peaks. Picture: David Jackson
Black Peaks. Picture: David Jackson

The band are a byword for following one’s muse - or moving with the times, depending on your level of cynicism.

Their combination of punk-rock and hardcore with various elements of electronic music - drum and bass, techno and trance mainly - has been brave, bold and sometimes a bit barmy.

It’s clearly paid off in the long-term though - as 13 years on from their debut single they are bigger than ever.

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Before Shikari, two supports of varying quality took to the stage.

Enter Shikari. Picture: David JacksonEnter Shikari. Picture: David Jackson
Enter Shikari. Picture: David Jackson

Brighton’s Black Peaks played a powerful half hour set, full of the intensity displayed on their second album of last year, All That Divides.

Engaging with the crowd and appreciative of the support, they have a more than decent future.

2019 could be the year their melodic mathcore breaks out into the wider world.

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Palaye Royale meanwhile can be summed up succinctly as dreadful.

Enter Shikari. Picture: David JacksonEnter Shikari. Picture: David Jackson
Enter Shikari. Picture: David Jackson

Any band from Las Vegas which describes itself as a ‘fashion art-rock band’ you suspect are going to struggle to leave much of an impression.

The songs were bashed out at a thousand miles an hour, the singer pouted and screamed and they dressed like a cross between the New York Dolls and The Strokes.

Yet the music was mindless, lowest-level copycat rock’n’roll.

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They’re the sort of band you’d expect to see in the background of a cheesy movie - what a 60-year-old producer believes is what ‘da kidz’ like.

Enter Shikari. Picture: David JacksonEnter Shikari. Picture: David Jackson
Enter Shikari. Picture: David Jackson

Following that misstep, Enter Shikari were even more anticipated by those packed inside the Roadmender’s main room.

Impeccably dressed and with a haircut that, like their music, defies gravity, singer Rou Reynolds threw himself into the performance like he’s still the 17-year-old with big dreams.

As did his bandmates, who of course have the chops of seasoned veterans by now.

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The set meandered through the best of latest album Sparks, weighed in with seven from socially-conscious second album Common Dreads and included the ‘best of the rest’.

Labyrinth was greeted with the first mosh, from that ‘proper’ metalcore debut album Take To The Skies.

A Midlands crowd of mostly metallers seemed to react best when the synths workouts were put aside and the noise was turned up to 11 - see also Arguing With Thermometers and their classic second single Sorry You’re Not A Winner.

Palaye Royale. Picture: David JacksonPalaye Royale. Picture: David Jackson
Palaye Royale. Picture: David Jackson

There was some jeopardy over Monday’s show, with the tour evidently taking its toll on Reynolds. “We should run bets on when I lose my voice tonight,” he casually joked a handful of songs in.

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“I knew I should have had a fourth Lemsip. Three was not enough”.

Fortunately, he kept it up all through to the end - a nod to his true passion and energy for his art.

If there were any doubters before their performance, they surely were won over with the 90-minute tour-de-force.

Space-age techno-core is the future and it still shines bright for our intrepid heroes, who fought and won their battle in Shoe Town.

Enter Shikari played:

The Sights

Step Up

Labyrinth

Arguing With Thermometers

Rabble Rouser

Halcyon

Hectic

Gap in the Fence

The Paddington Frisk

Shinrin-Yoku

The Revolt of the Atoms

Gandhi Mate, Gandhi

Mothership

Insomnia

Havoc B

Airfield

Undercover Agents

No Sleep Tonight

Stop the Clocks

Sorry, You're Not a Winner

The Last Garrison

...Meltdown

Anaesthetist

Encore:

Juggernauts

Live Outside

* Visit www.entershikari.com for future tour dates