Enter Shikari

support Lost Alone
author TL date 13/11/07 venue Lille Vega, Copenhagen, DEN

Winter strikes like lightning in Denmark. A truth I have to face, standing in the queue line outside of Lille Vega for God knows how manyeth time this year. My fingers are freezing and I'm gripping tightly around a beer, trying hard to drink the cold away while waiting for the doors to open so I can get in and blow my account wide open in the merch stand. As usual, everyone who's anything in the world of fancy hairdos and piercings is present, and the temperature seems to have given the emo's something tangible to whine about. "Normal" people keep coming by, looking very confused, asking if this is where Coco Rosie is playing, sighing with relief when someone tells them that it's around the corner in Store Vega - the bigger of Vega's two concert rooms (Who the f*ck is Coco Rosie by the way? :S). Overall, the usual commotion and party attitude present in the cue is effectively frozen, and thus we're more than happy when Vega opens its doors for us to get in and cram around its expensive bars.

Credits for the photos to Bright Side Of Murder Photography

When I first heard that LostAlone was supporting, I had trouble figuring if I knew the band or not, despite the name feeling somewhat familiar. When the threepiece took the stage I instantly remembered them from when I checked them out on myspace, thinking that they were pretty much the most emo thing I'd ever seen. Musically I can't really find that much interesting to say about them except that they sound like what you'd expect from a straight forward rock'n'roll threepiece. I have a standing opinion that it's more or less impossible for only three instruments to create something that can hold on to my attention in the long run, and LostAlone only serve to support that idea. Subtle but groovy intros, then more distortion to the power chords, driving up-tempo drumbeats and a pretty anonymous bass, spiced with the occational scream here and there and molded in the classical verse-chorus-verse-chorus-(refrain)-chorus manner. None of this changes that they fit most of tonights audience perferctly though, and they do a pretty good job in terms of onstage performance and warming up the crowd. To summarize: Performance: Good. Crowd response: Good. Musical content: Mediocre at best.

Now I got busy with a pint and a bathroom break between sets, and as I had time for both there might have been a substantial gap between the bands. Seeing as I took advantage of it though, I'll leave it to others to complain about it and get on about the band instead. The room is lit only with the countless fingerlights and glowing bracelets attached to the crowd and Enter Shikari takes the stage. Rou commands the crowd to yell "SHIT" to back the start of showstarter "Enter Shikari" and they willingly obey. From the beginning it seems that this is going to be one of those shows where the crowd doesn't need to build up its activity. From the first second the jumping, the dancing and the moshing is ON and the crowd responds to the lyrics in unison. After "Anything Can Happen" and "The Feast" it's time for a new track, that, while the activity in the crowd is unaltered, doesn't really do much to impress. "Return To Energizer", "Jonny Sniper", "No Sssweat" and "Mothership" keeps the party rolling, and I have time to marvel at the strangely awesome moshpit on the floor. Sure people are going crazy, but for once, no one's acting like a retard karatekid, and no one's deliberately trying to piss each other off. People are swiftly being helped to their feet, crowdsurfers are eagerly supported and there's even a real circle pit going once or twice, which is not something you're used to seeing in a Danish venue. The band finds time to take a short break to encourage the partying by throwing out Enter Shikari branded condoms to the crowd. Very smooth guys, very smooth. "We have two songs left guys" Rou proclaims and the band treats us to "Labyrinth" and finally "Sorry You're Not A Winner". While the crowds mania is enforced as could be expected, the band had unfortunately abandoned their tradition of orchestrating the construction of a human pyramid tonight - A tradition we weren't anywhere near being fed up with. Insteat they try to make the crowd push back in order for them to be able to jump down and play on the floor, but the space in front of the stage never becomes wide enough to allow more than Chris and Rory down there. Having to abandon this endeavour, the band instead launch into a techno session where they dance around for a while instead of playing their instruments, and then sit down and treat us with a final song, namely "Ok Time For Plan B".

Now overall, there's a clear feeling that Enter Shikari has gotten more experienced since their last show in the country half a year ago, however, the usual negative effect of this has accompanied the positive one. While the show is more or less flawless and I don't think there's a soul who left the venue with his or her desires unfulfilled, the whole thing was still missing the complete mania that was present in Loppen's extremely intimate surroundings in april. The show ends up being one of those labeled very good without being special.

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