Circle pits, strobes, surfing the crowd, tower blocks and a prison made entirely of light – for Enter Shikari this is alt-rock and this is art.
If you’re wondering what British rockers and a live visual arts installation look like together – and let’s face it who isn’t? – then their latest tour has the answer.
Last night O2 Victoria Warehouse played host for the second consecutive night to the four-man electro-rock outfit and it was impossible to look away.
A sea of fans old and new packed out the hall equipped to hold 3,000+ and they moshed like it was 2006.
The classics of course tore the roof off – ‘Sorry You’re Not a Winner’ (2006) and ‘Sssnakepit’ (2011) were the songs which saw streams of young people ferried across the crowd and a circle pit open around them.
Lead singer Rou Reynolds told the crowd they have the record for the most crowdsurfing at the venue which felt very much like a challenge to the animated, sweat-sodden and often tipsy crowd.
Homage must be paid to Rou’s energy throughout a 2-hour set which included strumming atop a 20ft tower on stage and a quick sprint to the balcony to perform ‘The Sights’ (2017).
Credit must also go to the engineers and choreographers of the symphony of strobes and digital art that supported the soundtrack to most Mancunians’ mosher days.
Another song that could burst your eardrums and carve a hole in the floor from a stampede of Doc Martens and biker boots was ‘Anaesthetist’ (2015) – still a clear fan favourite.
For those of us who have been attempting to scream without busting our tonsils to Enter Shikari since the late 2000s this didn’t feel like a comeback tour but a continuation.
Hit after hit from the 2023 album ‘A Kiss for the Whole World’ strained plenty of millennial’s necks who remember headbanging the first time around as ‘It Hurts’ ‘Goldfish’ and ‘(pls) set me on fire’ – did exactly that.
