Hazel goes to see Enter Shikari
So, I’d never been to a concert before. I’d had an idea for quite a long time that I kinda wanted to see a lot of people live… Enter Shikari, deadmau5, Porter Robinson, Madeon, etc., but had never had the chance.
Well, that’s changed now, because last night I went and saw Enter Shikari live in Nottingham on their A Kiss for the Whole World tour!
I actually quite enjoyed everything leading up to the concert itself, as well. I came in via the Nottingham trams, which I haven’t taken in a very long time, but gotta say, trams are pretty cool! Then I spent some time wandering around the busy city centre, which is just such an awesome atmosphere, I love it.
As I got towards the arena it was easy to notice a much higher concentration of Enter Shikari merch around, and I didn’t have to queue for very long to get in.
I met a friend inside, and we chatted a bit before finding our seats. I do think, if I was to go to another concert, I would love to be down on the floor - you get a great view from where I was sat, but it looks so much more fun down there, though… very physical.
(watch the video for Mothership at 5:52, you can see people being pretty crazy in the crowd there, link at end)
opening acts & the venue
The opening acts, NOAHFINNCE and Fever 333 were great. Not as good as Enter Shikari were but good nonetheless!
Shoutouts to one quote that I found pretty funny between tracks - “That was my impression of the big scary transgender that the government think I am… and this is my impression of Green Day!”
Something I quickly noticed at this point was that the sound system of these live venues is really not designed for sound fidelity, exactly. It’s loud. Really, really loud. And VERY bassy (Shikari made great use of this in Anaesthetist!). It certainly gets the vibe going, so I suppose it’s intentional.
(and damn, after what those speakers did to my ears, I better rename this blog to Loud System or something…)
What I didn’t quite realise from just the opening acts was how insane the visuals were gonna be, they had some serious kit set up:
- A screen behind the stage
- An angled screen leading up to a platform thing that the band would basically use for access
- Two cuboid thingys covered in screens that they could get on top of and do fun stuff like pretend to fall into them
- Loads of RGB spotlights and fixed lights
- RGB LED strips
- RGB lasers all over the stage and stuff
And they made hella good use of it. I’ll post more videos and stuff at the end but here’s a few that really show off the use of the setup.
setlist and music thoughts
If you’re trying to avoid setlist spoilers, probably stop reading now, I go through a good amount of it from here on.
I looked at the merch a little on the way in, but honestly, none of it grabbed me much. It definitely felt a lot like I was kind of there more just to see them live than for the album, as I kinda felt like A Kiss for the Whole World does not work quite as well live as some of their older music.
Sure, a lot of it does work quite well, but it’s nothing like the absolute live chaos of Stand Your Ground; This is Ancient Land / Enter Shikari / Mothership / Solidarity (yes, a 10 minute, 4-track mix), …Meltdown, or Sssnakepit.
I think the setlist was pretty good, with a large selection from every era of the band.
- 4 tracks came from Take to the Skies
- 4 tracks came from Common Dreads
- 3 tracks came from A Flash Flood of Colour
- 3 tracks came from The Mindsweep
- 2 tracks came from The Spark
- 3 tracks came from Nothing is True & Everything is Possible
- 5 tracks came from A Kiss for the Whole World
It would have been pretty cool to see some of the more unhinged bonus tracks like Slipshod or Destabilise live, but it’t not really a problem because what was there was still awesome.
the concert!
Watching any of the videos of the event should make it very clear just how amazing of a stage presence they have. It’s great.
They started, as was probably predictable, with System… / …Meltdown, which makes sense as it’s arguably the best album opener they’ve done, and …Meltdown is mental live. The use of the lighting here was amazing, especially with the violent transition from System… to …Meltdown. It’s so fun yelling “STAND UUUUUUPPP; IT’S NOT TOO LATE, IT’S NOT TOO LATE” back at the stage!!!
The next track that really jumped out at me was Anaesthetist, which was definitely my favourite of the set. Part of this is that it’s off my favourite album (The Mindsweep), part of it is how well it works live, part of it is the visuals, and also they really took this opportunity to absolutely shake the entire room, which was quite fun.
I very much enjoyed hearing Torn Apart live directly after this, too, that was pretty cool.
Jailbreak made really clever use of the on-stage lights as cell bars, which really added something. It’s also my favourite track off the album! Shouting “TOGETHER” with everyone felt great.
Sssnakepit was another absolute highlight of the set, as it is just insane live, god I would have loved to have been down on the floor for this one… I loved this one as well because usually I don’t sing to music, since I don’t like my voice (and watching back some of my videos, you can hear my voice and ugh), and because I’m rarely home alone and I’d hate anyone hearing me. So it was really quite nice to loudly sing “come and join the party, leave anxieties behind” along with everyone else :)
I liked when he went and sat on top of the right cuboid thingy and gently sang Juggernauts with just a guitar, it was calmer and a nice lil break almost.
It was pretty cool when they got out the real trumpet for The Jester.
For The Sights they moved the whole band to a lil stage in the middle except Rou, who appeared in the crowd and made his way around about 3/4 of the seating during the course of the song, before defeatedly saying “They told me I couldn’t get around the whole venue in one song, and they were right”. That was pretty cool, shoutouts to all the people who got a high 5 or hug or something :) And before it they also shouted “what do you want to hear next?” and after one voice in the crowd shouted some other song, just went “Did you say the sights? great!!!”, that was pretty funny.
A definite highlight of the set was Stand Your Ground; This is Ancient Land / Enter Shikari / Mothership / Solidarity. They had a kind of timeline thing where they went back through each album and then landed back at Take to the Skies, and then went ahead with this insane and very fun mix of pure live chaos. They teased Flash Flood at the end of the mix but didn’t give it to us :( but that would have been such a huge continuous track to play so, fair. This made me go back and listen to Take to the Skies, and yeah, it’s good.
Rou’s effortlessly cool slide down the angled panel was pretty cool in this one too. This was also the track where both Rou and Chris crowdsurfed which was pretty cool.
They had a remix of Sorry You’re Not a Winner that was pretty cool, though I prefer the original I think, but that chopped up drum break intro built hype so so well. The whole building clapping along to the start of that rocked.
When they did satellites* * they had the lasers on full rainbow colours which I thought was really cool for what the song is about. Very nice stuff! Also, there’s something so magical about an entire building going “LA LA LA LA LA LA” in time, it feels very fun.
At one point part way through, Rob explained about how they started with one strobe light that he had on a pedal next to his kick when they started as a band, and said he has a new button, now, and asked if we wanted to see it. The effect they had setup for that was very cool, and I wish I had been recording for it!
the crowd
The energy coming from the crowd on the floor was absolutely crazy, with people running around and stuff, throwing cups and clothes into the air randomly, jumping around, etc. At one point Rou asked to get some two-person stacks, for people to get up onto someone else’s shoulders, and they just did and that was pretty awesome.
A lot of crowd surfing happened, esp at the end when Rou told the crowd that this was the last track and anyone who wanted to but hadn’t yet should just do it, and the band themselves totally got down there a few times which was pretty cool to see.
At one point he asked the entire building including people in the seated area (me!) to stand up and get ready to jump with the song, and that was so so fun, really cool. I gotta get down there next time. :p
videos
I took a few videos of my own, and found some others online, so I’ll drop them all here for you, in chronological order.
Thanks all, hope to see you back here soon, and still I will be here, standing like a statue ;)
— Hazel
my videos:
| Song | Notes | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Some drum sounds | Link | |
| Rory C stood there | Link | |
| System… / …Meltdown | The end shows the lights really well | Link |
| The Sights | Ouch my voice + IT’S HIM | Link |
| The Sights | The band in the middle | Link |
| The Sights | Bruh TF is Rou doing | Link |
| Stand Your Ground; This is Ancient Land / Enter Shikari | he be jump | Link |
| Solidarity | Oh my GOD the lasers | Link |
| Solidarity | And still we will be heeeeeeeeeeere, standing like statues | Link |
| { The Dreamer’s Hotel } | Ouch my voice + get on someone’s SHOULDERS! | Link |
| OUUUCHHH MY VOICE + this has turned into a football crowd | Link | |
| Sorry You’re Not a Winner (Remix) | clap clap clap + wow that jacket going | Link |
| Sorry You’re Not a Winner (Remix) | This is the most unhinged and crazy thing and I loved it | Link |
| A Kiss for the Whole World x x | The finale :) + Pyrotechnics + crowdsurfing | Link |
And a picture of the stage after the end:
other people’s videos:
| Song | Source | Link(s) |
|---|---|---|
| System… / …Meltdown | Lee Wilson | YT, my re-host (MKV) |
| Anaesthetist | Will Imrie | YT, my re-host (webm) |
| Jailbreak | Lee Wilson | YT, my re-host (MKV) |
| Sssnakepit | Will Imrie | YT, my re-host (webm) |
| Stand Your Ground; This is Ancient Land / Enter Shikari / Mothership / Solidarity | Will Imrie | YT, my re-host (webm) |
| satellites* * | Will Imrie | YT, my re-host (webm) |
| satellites* * | Lee Wilson | YT, my re-host (MKV) |
| { The Dreamer’s Hotel } | Lee Wilson | YT, my re-host (MKV) |
| Sorry You’re Not a Winner | Will Imrie | YT, my re-host (webm) |