LIVE REVIEW: Enter Shikari @ Academy, Manchester

ENTER SHIKARI are one of the most musically versatile bands to ever emerge from the British scene. In a career spanning over a decade, they have traversed many genres: from being defined as post-hardcore in their early career to carving out their own unique space and merging elements from electronic music, rock, and pop to create the sound they’re now known for. Bringing BLACK PEAKS and PALAYE ROYALE along for the ride, the SHIKARI boys hit Manchester Academy on the penultimate stop on the Stop The Clocks Tour.

Kicking the night off in their usual style was Brighton’s own BLACK PEAKS. Opening with the explosive Glass Built Castles from their monumental debut album Statues, the band brought nothing less than their A-game and quickly settled into their surroundings in front of the packed room of ENTER SHIKARI fans. Any time BLACK PEAKS take to the stage there is one thing you can always count on: you’re in for an absolute treat.

The midway point in their set was marked by the arrival of their remarkable lead single, and one of the stand-out tracks from, their most recent album Statues. As is normally the case with BLACK PEAKS, they were absolutely on top of their game. The instrumentalists formed an unbreakable unit, playing together as a single entity, and feeding off each others energy to push each member further to their musical peak. Frontman Will Gardner never ceases to amaze, his impeccable vocal prowess is made even more impressive when witnessing it live. His effortless switches between gnarled, dirty screams, to shining, crystal-clear falsetto, will surely cement his status as one of the best frontmen in the game in years to come. His captivatingly tactful live vocal work is made even more impressive given the fact he nails his complex vocal duties while giving his usual commanding and energetic performance up on the stage.

There are no two ways about it, BLACK PEAKS are incredible in the studio and even more incredible live. Seeing the band replicate their album material in a live environment creates a lofty standard that most bands fail to even come close to. If you don’t already know them, you should because you might just be missing out on your new favourite band.

Rating: 8/10

The second and final support act were Canadian art-rock trio PALAYE ROYALE. Last year saw the band hailed numerous times as 2018’s breakout artist, but in recent months the self-described “Fashion-Art Rock” band have created quite a tainted reputation that now precedes them. Reputation aside, the band opened their set with Don’t Feel Quite Right which sparked a chorus of screams from their contingent of fans in attendance. The enthusiasm of their own fans, however, was offset by other groups in the audience flipping them off and shouting expletives at the band. After what can only be described as a lukewarm reception, the band powered through more material from their first album, 2016’s Boom Boom Room.

PALAYE ROYALE delivered a set bursting with the kind of boundless energy that they have become known for and they proved to be a pretty solid supporting act. With their music being mostly bland and uninteresting, there is nothing there to really turn people off, nothing for the casual listener to object to, and also nothing to wow them either. They have that kind of sound that you swear you’ve heard many times before, just repackaged for what the current market is looking for right now. Not everyone can be boundary pushers, blazing their own trail into exciting new sonic territory and that’s okay.

Rating: 5/10

With the stage illuminated from the glow of this tour’s hallmark light cubes, ENTER SHIKARI took to the stage in front of a positively buzzing packed house. Kicking things off with The Sights, the room suddenly became a sea of smiling faces and exploded into a fit of energy. Right from the off the band showed their superb showmanship and musical pedigree, and it’s easy to see how ENTER SHIKARI became one of the UK’s most beloved bands.

The end of The Sights brought with it two older songs from their albums Common Dreads and Take to the Skies – namely Step Up and Labyrinth. Their older material further energised the room and gained the loudest cheer yet with their longest serving fans making themselves heard. The band were visibly enjoying the huge response they were getting from Manchester, with the crowd pulling out all the stops to make their adoration known. Next up the band jumped straight into Arguing With Thermistors, their brutally-honest statement piece about global warming lit up the room once more.

One of the more mellow moments in the set came when frontman Rou Reynolds took to the balcony at the rear of the venue with just an acoustic guitar and a microphone. As 2019 marks the tenth anniversary of the release of Common Dreads, the band wanted to commemorate this with a few more songs from what was a hugely important album for them. A solitary Rou, bathed in a cool spotlight, then proceeded to take everyone back to 2009 with Gap in the Fence. By the time Rou had even sung the first lyric, the packed house were already singing every word back to him. Bringing us back to the current SHIKARI era, the second and final song performed from the balcony was Shinrin-Yoku.

The end of the set was marked with a quick-fire mashup of some of ENTER SHIKARI‘s most well-loved tracks from different points in their history. First in the mashup was the longest serving song in the set, and beloved classic Sorry, You’re Not a Winner. From there the band jumped to one of the standout tracks from the Mindsweep era, The Last Garrison. Finally, the mashup was capped off by two more huge tracks Meltdown and a remix of Anaesthetist.

Once the set was finished and the band had left the stage, Rou came back to kick the encore off with a solo rendition of Take My Country Back. This more subdued take on the original track was by far one of the standout moments of the set. As the song progressed, the members of ENTER SHIKARI returned to the stage, one by one, before a blizzard of confetti showered the room as the song reached its climax. With the audience almost running on empty, the band finally capped off their set with the ultra-high energy Live Outside.

ENTER SHIKARI are one of the few bands that can simultaneously give positive vibes, serious messages, and hope, all wrapped up in their signature electro-rock anthems. With each album, they evolve and change into an even better iteration of themselves than the last – not because they feel they’d accrue more success through change, but because they are staying to be true to themselves. Their genuine authenticity comes across on their albums, but even more so live. There is one fact that cannot be denied: ENTER SHIKARI have become a national treasure.

Rating: 9/10

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Manchester from Peter J Lloyd Photography here: