Enter Shikari

support Twin Atlantic
author TL date 08/01/10 venue Lille Vega, Copenhagen, DEN

It is cold as hell in Copenhagen these days. Something my three friends and I experience first hand, as we abandon a decimated crate of cheap-as-shit beer in an apartment on Amager, and make our way to Lille Vega for tonight's show with Twin Atlantic and Enter Shikari. Hence you won't get a regular introduction of the colorful congregation of fans crowding outside of Vega's entrance, simply because there isn't any tonight, rather everyone has hurried inside to chase the cold away with.. well.. cold pints. Just another one of those things in the world that shouldn't make sense but does anyway, no? Regardless, me and my entourage are inspired by this trend, so we also hurry in, which proves to be a wise decision, as we, being much more awesome than my always belated British colleagues (AP, NB, BL: take notice), enter the venue floor only few minutes before Twin Atlantic come on and launch into their first song.

Twin Atlantic

And a good thing it is that we do so, because Twin Atlantic are of course great tonight. Okay, granted, yours tipsy truly can with some certainty be said to be the only person in the audience who seems to have heard of these Scotsmen before, singing along cheerfully amidst an otherwise cautious sea of faces, that do however, look curious nonetheless. For once, the sound for the support band isn't at all terrible, only the lighting looks like noone cared to take control for this performance, and that's a trade off I can live with, as it makes the six or seven songs played sound sweet to our ears. Most of the debut album "Vivarium" is played, but for some reason, the crowd response is restricted to scarce yet polite applause between songs, despite the fact that I told you all the album was good? Are you people not listening to me? Anyway, the band does not seem to mind, as all three standing members rock out vigorously during the noisier half of the band's dynamic soundscape, brandishing their axes and jumping up and down in exactly the way you wish you could if you were awesome on guitar, and their enthusiastic performance does not go amiss, as the applause does indeed seem to grow larger for each song played, ending up quite decent after the last one. So yeah, a solid showing, but one that could have been better with increased length and a less alien crowd.

7

Enter Shikari

After a short break, things quickly assume the shape of a situation that suits a headlining band. The lights are dimmed, most of the floor is crammed, wall to wall, and cheers and anxiety fills the room as what sounds like an intro track replaces the normal background music. Queue anti-climax though, as Enter Shikari take the stage and frontman Rou's samples don't kick of when supposed to. First day on the tour eh' mates? A slightly embarrassed grin and some quick fiddling put things back on track though, and "Common Dreads" open the show, and it quickly seems like this fourth visit of Enter Shikari's upon our shores, will finally see them get the acclaim that they've deserved from the get go, because the front of the room springs into action, jumping and moving and generally embodying a suitable degree of activity, as Rou crosses back and forth on stage while delivering the band's politically charged lyrics, and Chris and Rory both throw their instruments around like we've gotten used to.

It's an Enter Shikari show as those tend to look, only for the first time with proper response from a dedicated Danish audience. A response that seems steady for the first five songs played, but then erupts to previously unseen levels when the first track off the debut album "Take To The Skies", namely "Mothership" is played. Yours truly joins the fray to test the state of his recovering back-injury, and beholds first hand the increased fury. Said back is acting up though, so an exit is quickly made, while the doubts about whether the new album, "Common Dreads", really does live up to "Take To The Skies", are rekindled inside one's mind. Doubts the band themselves do not seem to share, as they fire four more new cuts our way, as the strobe lights flicker and as the electronic experimentation of the new stuff propels the feel of tonight's event even closer to that of a mad rave than it already was. So while skeptics like myself are few, and located out of harms way, in the back and sides, the appreciative ES fans take care of making synergy happen between themselves and the band.

Fans are crowdsurfing, Rou is crowdsurfing and Rory is also crowdsurfing. The fun factor of this show is, as you can imagine, not to be doubted for a second. Still though, is it just me, or is the flow and melody of the actual music not just better when the band arrives at some more old tracks, like "Labyrinth" and "No Sssweat"? Is the crowd activity not just that little bit more intense? We're talking nuances, but it's still noticeable, and the critically inclined are justified in asking, if Enter Shikari haven't fragmented their awesomeness somewhat, when they overloaded on the elements from electronic music on this new album of theirs. You can't argue that the show does not rock. That's just stupid, because Enter Shikari are more energetic and eager to party with their fans than by far the majority of bands that visit our fair country, and their fans are very much sharing that attitude tonight. In the end it all boils down to this: If you came to be touched emotionally, or impressed musically, you might leave slightly disappointed. But on the other hand, if you came in search of a chance to dance and mosh and have a motherfuckin' party, then Enter Shikari delivered that with unwavering consistency. Just as they always have, and the ridiculous hand-clapping and general madness that occurs during the encore of "Sorry You're Not A Winner" and "Juggernauts" is proof of just this.

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Setlist:

1. Common Dreads

2. Solidarity

3. Step Up

4. The Feast

5. Zzzonked

6. Mothership

7. Havoc A

8. No Sleep Tonight

9. Gap In The Fence

10. Havoc B

11. Labyrinth

12. No Sssweat

13. The Jester

14. Halcyon

15. Hectic

16. Enter Shikari

17. Fanfare For The Conscious Man

Encore:

18. Sorry You're Not A Winner

19. Juggernauts

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