Show: Enter Shikari
Date: April 28, 2012
Venue: The Glass House
City: Pomona, CA
Enter Shikari
Photos by Nicolas Bates
Written by Dan Sinclair
Waiting for Enter Shikari to…well, enter, I scan the crowded Glass House and venture a guess that the median age in attendance is sixteen. Nothing like a hardcore show to make a writer feel old. But before I have time to reminisce on my youth, the lights go down and the upside-down triangle hanging at the back of the stage starts to generate various flashing colors like an oversized and much pointier Simon Says toy.
Enter Shikari’s Chris Batten mans the bass to the stage’s far right and Liam “Rory” Clewlow wields his axe to the left. The drummer is not Rob Rolfe (who is back in London still waiting on a visa), but some shirtless dude with lots of tattoos. Finally, frontman Rou Reynolds speaks to us over a building electronic beat: “There was a house in a field on a side of a cliff…” The crowd recognizes the lyrics from “System” and that gets them moving and chanting along. Rou will not only be singing tonight but running the electronics, playing keyboard and a little acoustic guitar, as well as screaming as loud and as bold as his small frame will allow him.
The music becomes more aggressive and the energy mounts and heads for an explosion when the song switches over to “Meltdown.” Rou screams, “This is going to change everything!” The kids go wild, moving erratically in an excellent display of organized chaos. Every fist pump from Rou is matched by every fan in attendance and all seem to know every word he yells or serenades them with. Enter Shikari isn’t your everyday, run-of-the-mill band. Their sound is a combination of melody, anarchy, adrenaline, anger and hope, all backed with rock music and dance beats simultaneously. Throughout the night they play a nice mix of new and old tracks.
During “Gandhi, Mate, Gandhi” the crowd mirrors every “Fuck you” and middle finger Rou throws at them. The strobe lights start during this song and are nearly blinding. Before I look away, I manage to catch a glimpse of a fan getting launched high into the air, seemingly flying in slow motion due to the flickering light.
Rou apologizes to his loyal followers for any phlegm that may travel from the back of his throat to the front rows, but judging by the reaction of the sweaty devotees thrashing around in joy below him, no apology seems necessary—in fact, they were probably all fighting over each drop spewed. Fan interaction is a big part of Enter Shikari, as displayed by the “human pyramids” (where kids climb on top of each other in honor of world unity) Rou asks for during “Sorry You’re Not a Winner” and the large space created on the middle of the floor during “Mothership,” where the crowd displays their best dance moves and thrash hard into one another—none feeling an ounce of pain. Rou runs through the crowd to sing the chorus of “Hello Tyrannosaurus, Meet Tyrannicide” from atop a gate on the other side of the building. Rory also leaves the stage at one point, diving into the crowd after displaying some nifty dance moves. They don’t let him down and return him safely back to finish the song without him ever hitting the ground.
They blow a fuse before they can get “Destabilise” going, but the band laughs it off and continues to go strong once it’s fixed. It would have been the best performance of the night had they not played my personal favorite, “Juggernauts,” only a few songs later. The older of the two songs is the perfect example of all the different things Enter Shikari does best: shifting from melody to power to noise to dance music and all back over again effortlessly, almost bringing the entire house down in the process.
By the end of the night, the kids got the sweaty, loud fun they wanted as the band they came to see didn’t disappoint in the least. Here’s a tip for all of you first-time potential Enter Shikari concert-goers: drink lots of water and go on a very good night’s rest or you may get eaten alive by angry, hardcore-crazed teenagers.