 at the Kerrang! Awards in 2012, January 2013 then saw Enter Shikari announce the final leg to their eighteen month world tour off the back of third album ‘A Flash Flood of Colour’. While Falmouth’s […] "'Pin It")
REVIEW: ENTER SHIKARI, PRINCESS PAVILION, FALMOUTH (08/04/13)
After winning Independent Album of the Year at the AIM awards, and taking Best Live Band (for the second time) at the Kerrang! Awards in 2012, January 2013 then saw Enter Shikari announce the final leg to their eighteen month world tour off the back of third album ‘A Flash Flood of Colour’.
While Falmouth’s Princess Pavilion isn’t entirely foreign to hosting some of music’s bigger names (last year saw Blur’s Graham Coxon and Mercury Prize winner’s Alt-J, to name but two), Enter Shikari purposely chose venues and towns often ignored by other artists for their Return to Energiser 2013 tour.
Tu Amore started the night, to an already buzzing venue. The four-piece from Peterborough have a big sound: fast and loud, and full of energy, mostly. There were moments the stage seemed a little daunting for them, there were awkward glances, shuffles, and shrugs, that nodded to not quite enough time spent practising for real life. But there was definite passion and emotion in their performance, an atmosphere bigger than themselves, and music almost convincingly driven by genuine pain. It’s something special when an act can make you forget you’re in a room full of people.
Hacktivist strolled on stage like they owned the joint to a crowd who fully believed them; you would have thought they were the headliners. After a couple of rounds of the stage like the build up before a boxing match, they headed straight into fifth gear to a crowd reacting like they could have been the headliners, even after technical difficulties one song in to their set. A sound they’ve described themselves as encompassing metal and grime and everything in between, although probably not the first band to spring to mind to support Enter Shikari, the perfect ratio of arrogance to talent had the Falmouth crowd eating them up. So much presence, so much energy, and a filthy bass that had everybody jumping, wait for the Kerrang! cover: ‘Rappers that Rock!’
An automated countdown whipped the crowd into a frenzy for the arrival of Enter Shikari. Turns out, people love it when you turn up on time, take note Justin Bieber. The set was equally comprised of songs from all three albums, crowd pleasers like ‘Sorry you’re not a winner’ and ‘juggernauts’ went down just as well as ‘Ghandi Mate, Ghandi’, ‘Arguing with Thermometers’ and their latest offering, released just days ago, ‘The Paddington Frisk’.
It’s not difficult to see why Enter Shikari’s live performances are award winning, even the execution of the lighting was creative and unpredictable and as visually stimulating as it would be walking into a sweet shop on acid. They might as well have shouted ‘Falmouth! I want to be in you!’ as they entered the Pavilion, lead singer Roughton Reynolds spent as much time in the crowd, and on the crowd and behind the crowd as an hour long set would allow. Although, when they announced this would be an ‘intimate’ tour, we should have seen it coming.
Performers in the most sincere use of the word, Enter Shikari are engaging, enthralling, and energetic to the end. Teenage hormones and Cornish Rattler aside, this is one display Falmouth won’t be forgetting anytime soon. Enter Shikari, ten years in, and stronger than ever. The postcard reads: You wish you were here!
Words and photo: Hannah Giles
