Photo: Shirlaine Forrest
“We're not afraid to call a cunt a cunt," smiles Enter Shikari frontman Rou Reynolds, totally baffled by the scene unfolding before him. "We speak about social issues, we are direct. And we’re independent. That shouldn’t equal this...this is a hobby that's got out of hand. Well out of hand.”
He's not wrong. If you caught these four miscreants 10 or 12 years ago, you may have stumbled across a mess of baseball caps, fringes, trampolines, Day-Glo, and politics - amid a mish-mash of genres and sounds. Except, they weren't a mess - they were a vision of things to come.
Now, a decade and four albums later, Enter Shikari have fully explored every avenue they first signposted way back when. Now, all of that madness has been put perfectly into balance, and they are a rule unto themselves.
An eruption occurs with their opening, eponymous track before the rave rock riot of Common Dreads' 'Solidarity' and the now classic 'Sorry You're Not A Winner'. Once the ruin of so many beer-sodden basements and toilet venues, now it feels like it was only ever designed to fill rooms of this size and stature.
Under the invitation of Billy Bragg, Shikari found themselves playing a second slot at Glastonbury on the Left Field stage last year, and it's easy to see why. 'The One True Colour' not only brings a unity through sound, but singularly reflects the power of a band that few others in their field can wield: an informed socio-political and existential weight is in place where other hard rock bands would stand atop adolescent ideals, tonight with thousands of fans in full voice hollering back "in the arena of the endless unknown, do not stage theatre and call it truth."
'The Last Garrison' too is a battlecry for defiance, before full on war breaks out for 'Destabilise' and arguably their finest moment with the boundless optimism of the mini-epic, 'Radiate'. "This is fucking surreal," smiles Rou, staring out across an army of arms aloft, bathed in a red glow. Believe it, Rou - this is the future you built for yourselves.
They've done everything within their power to rise to the occasion. The setlist is a tailor-made arc of ever-rising insanity, they've placed extra speakers at the back of the room to let the undersung nuances of their genre-defying sound truly sing, and they've put on a visual spectacular to befit a deserving arena band - accidental as they may be. Through this, they take a pop at Donald Trump's genitals, David Cameron's pork habits and an unusual intro from Ghandi. But the many bells and whistles don't make for gimmickry. On the contrary, it's merely their every edge emphasised on a grand scale.
Rou takes to a second separate stage erected in the centre of the arena to make 'Dear Future Historians' and 'Juggernauts' feel all the more intimate. There's a tenderness in balance with the terror, and when you add it all up, you get a fully-formed image of a band who were only ever going to end up at Ally Pally.
Sealing the deal with a mass sing-along of Robbie Williams' 'Angels', the feather-light and affirming 'Redshift', the viscous and pro-NHS call to arms of 'Anaesthetist' and the feral closer of 'The Appeal & The Mindsweep Part II' and it's apparent that the full realisation of everything that Enter Shikari ever threatened to be was always going to become manifest, due to the fully-fledged love and dedication they inspire. Tonight, they have it back. That's how it came to this, that's how a hobby became a movement.
Enter Shikari played:
Enter Shikari (Reprise)
Solidarity
Sorry, You're Not a Winner
The One True Colour
Intermission (Evolution Interlude) The Last Garrison
No Sleep Tonight
Destabilise
Radiate
Slipshod
The Jester
There's a Price on Your Head
Dear Future Historians...
Juggernauts
Arguing with Thermometers
Gandhi Mate, Gandhi
Torn Apart
Intermission (UFO Interlude) Mothership
Encore:
Redshift
Anaesthetist (With Reso Remix)
The Appeal & the Mindsweep II
