Enter Shikari are preparing to release their seventh studio album in A Kiss For The Whole World. That's a whole lot of touring under their belt since their 2007 debut set Take To The Skies, and they've been regulars in Manchester ever since.
The St Albans four-piece pride themselves on doing things differently though, and so here we have the first of a three-show residency at New Century - a gorgeous choice for the occasion - a format they are replicating in Wolverhampton, Bristol, Glasgow and London.
New tracks (Pls) Set Me On Fire and It Hurts, along with 2022 one-off singles The Void Stares Back and Bull hit with the same intensity as anything from their back catalogue. That back catalogue is mined surprisingly extensively, but the levels don't drop when new tracks are played. This isn't a nostalgia trip for people who were around to see them at the Apollo back in 2007. Their most recognisable track - Sorry You're Not A Winner - has been given a complete makeover to bring it in line with 2023.
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When you go to watch an act that came through over a decade ago, the usual vibe is to notice the crowd age with the band and the music. Something about Enter Shikari's genre-hopping, from the heavier roots of the mid-noughties to the more anthemic tracks from albums The Spark or the pandemic-capturing Nothing Is True And Everything Is Possible, must have helped capture a new audience. This is a roundabout way of saying there were lots of young people and they all loved Live Outside as much as they did Labyrinth.
A few years ago, Enter Shikari tried to tackle the nice problem of a growing back catalogue that fans broadly like by introducing a quickfire round - or they played four tracks in about 10 minutes. It tends to work - until one of your favourites surfaces in there and you're left wanting more. Elsewhere, newest track It Hurts is a highlight despite not having so long to percolate in the minds of the audience.
The set comes to a close first with a wallop of nostalgia as the opening two tracks from Take To The Skies are played. satellites* * - written about one of the band's friends being scared to hold hands with his partner in public - sees the rainbow LGBT flag streamed across the venue. { The Dreamer's Hotel } closes things for night one at New Century, with the words 'If love is blind, hatred is deaf - and well-fed'.
It'd be redundant to say that they're the best at what they do, because I'm not sure anyone else does it. This was a triumph, barring a couple of technical glitches, and a mere taste of things to come. March and April will see the band return to New Century, probably with a completely new setlist, showcasing some more new material and digging further into the band's back catalogue in different ways. I can't wait.
Setlist
- (pls) set me on fire
- Radiate
- Juggernauts
- The Void Stares Back
- It Hurts
- Quickfire Round: Havoc B/Bull/Last Garrison/Sorry You're Not A Winner
- Undercover Agents
- Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour
- Interlude 1
- Labyrinth
- Zzzonked
- Live Outside
---
- Stand Your Ground; This is Ancient Land
- Enter Shikari
- satellites* *
- { The Dreamer's Hotel }
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