Enter Shikari played two nights at Dublin’s The Academy as part of their A Kiss For The Whole World Tour, initially it was to be just one night the 21st (but once that sold-out pretty fast, there had to add on the second night)
Opening the shows were Cherym and Meryl Streek (due to traffic David unfortunately didn’t make it in for Cherym, sorry!)
Meryl Streek opened for Enter Shikari on Thursday night for the first of two sold out shows in The Academy. He stormed around the stage looking like a furious Irish Tarantino, using his backing tracks to soundtrack his calling out of everything he finds wrong with the country…and it seems there’s quite a lot.
At first, his aggressive and unsettling mix of harsh vocals over samples and beats along with his white contact lenses and intense strobe lighting had many people in the crowd looking like they weren’t sure what they were supposed to do, but I suspect that’s the point.
By the end of his set when he grabbed his torch and mic stand and went into the crowd to perform, you could tell that pretty much everyone understood what was happening and he had won them over. As venomous and aggressive as his lyrics and performance style is, you can’t deny that the guy has a point and he’s gonna demand people listen to it.
When Rou Reynolds walked on stage and started speaking lyrics from a dark stage (the intro to System Meltdown) and you realised there was a giant screen behind him that flashed on and off with certain words, you knew you were in for something very special. The rest of the band appeared and the huge screen started showing matrix-esque numbers raining down and they literally exploded into the song. The energy was electric, with every member looking like a warning for the effects of too much Red Bull literally jumping and bouncing around the stage and off each others energy, while the crowd immediately descended into blissful chaos.
People were literally freaking out, which made sense seeing as this band have been around since the early 00’s and have a huge fan base, and some of them felt like they needed to not be in the crowd anymore so surfed their way into the pit. It was as if they had all been taken over by the music and the band, finally seeing it played live in front of them after so long, instead of in their bedrooms. At one point I felt bad for a girl as she was being escorted by a security guard and I heard her asking ‘where does this door go?’, to which he replied ‘outside’ and I could literally see the point where her heart shattered.
The band went from song to song, and each member constantly switched roles and instruments, while at times played more than one at the same time, and they genuinely seemed unstoppable. I even saw one song start with Rou playing a trumpet and by the end it was played by guitarist Rory Clewlow. Chris Batten somehow found the time to play the bass, song backing vocals, play a keyboard and also drum machine, all while still finding time to jump around the stage.
Rob Rolfe drove the whole show and kept the energy level consistently high like the human drum machine he is.
These guys are masters at what they do, and you can tell they still love doing it.
It’s fantastic to see a group of friends who have created something together and it has become as big as this, and you can tell none of them take any of it for granted.
They played with the energy you would imagine a bands first gig to have, and after all this time they were still on fire…which was proven by the fact the fire alarm kept going off and trying to stop the show…which it didn’t because, like a raging inferno, Enter Shakiri were unstoppable.
Meryl Streek photos:
Enter Shikari photos & set-list:
Set-list:
System… (A capella) …Meltdown
Live Outside
Giant Pacific Octopus (i don’t know you anymore)
Anaesthetist (Reso remix outro)
Torn Apart
Interlude
Jailbreak (Extended intro with Rou on trumpet)
Bloodshot
The Sights
goldfĭsh ~ (Remix outro)
The Jester (Partial with elements of goldfish~)
Losing My Grip
Juggernauts (Rou solo acoustic)
Gap in the Fence (Rou solo acoustic into full band into remix)
Stand Your Ground; This Is Ancient Land
Enter Shikari
Mothership
Solidarity
It Hurts
satellites* *
{ The Dreamer’s Hotel }
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Sorry, You’re Not a Winner (Original into Pendulum remix after first chorus)
A Kiss for the Whole World x
Photos & words – David McEeanery