Enter Shikari - Cambridge Junction
30.1.2019
The St Albans rabble rousers brought their genre bending riot to Cambridge
for the first time in four years, as well as their first club tour
in just as many.
The last time I saw Enter Shikari was in a rather larger venue, Alexandra
Palace, perhaps youve heard of it? This time around, however,
was a totally different affair as they were in a venue more than 10
times smaller. In what many would say was an impossible feat, Enter
Shikari successfully pulled off an arena sized show in a 900 capacity
club.
As arguably one of the biggest British rock bands going right now,
its no surprise that this show sold out just like many of the
other shows on their current tour. I feel sorry for anyone who missed
out on tickets because it was genuinely one of the best live performances
you will ever see from any band of any size in any sized room.
Kicking off the show were British Post-Rock up and comers Black Peaks;
as one of the few people in attendance that was a fan of theirs, they
brought a heap of unfortunately unreciprocated energy and more riffs
than you fit on CD. A fantastic start to the show, I highly recommend
everyone checks out their new album All That Divides.
Next up were Palaye Royale, an avant-garde rock n roll band. They
had all the charisma and the songs to back it up as well as being
the main draw of the night for a handful of fans. If youre a
fan of Las Vegas style rock n roll, these guys might be for you.
Just like the last time I saw Enter Shikari, the show was kicked off
with The Sights from their most recent and more pop orientated
album The Spark. What came next however was a blistering
25 song set of older songs that saw the crowd turn into non stop mosh
pit. Deep cuts such as Step Up and Gap In The Fence
were great surprises intended as a celebration of the 10th Anniversary
of their album Common Dreads as well as my personal favourite
song Slipshod which details a bad experience at a restaurant
very explicitly. A drum n bass remix of Anaesthetist brought
another level of hysteria to the show as well as a cover of Insomnia
by Faithless. I wondered to myself if the staff at the junction were
familiar with Enter Shikari because if they werent I imagine
they were very confused by the multitude of genres on display during
this set.
The stage production on this tour was second to none, very few bands
would bring a production of this level to such small venues. Enter
Shikari have never been a band to do half measures in their live shows
and this show was no exception. There were confetti cannons, lasers
and strobe lighting aplenty tonight, with so much going on this was
a very tough show to photograph but then again I didnt want
to take my eyes away for one second for fear of missing yet another
twist in the show.
With most bands, to see a show like this youd be headed off
to Wembley Arena on the train with a ticket costing £50 for
the gig. With Enter Shikari youre walking to your local venue
and getting a show of the same, if not better, calibre for half the
price.
Ryan Bird