Only a year after their last Australian tour, UK band Enter Shikari are returning down under for another series of not to be missed, high-energy shows.
For a band in its tenth year, Enter Shikari show no signs of slowing down. While other bands formed at the same time have fallen apart, Enter Shikari have stayed united, remaining stronger than ever.
The group have gained a legion of fans worldwide thanks to their combination of aggressive songs and frenzied live shows. One thing that has kept Enter Shikari ahead of the pack is their desire to further explore the directions of their sound. Their most recent album, ‘The Mindsweep’, sees the band expand their combination of pounding electronica and fierce punk, incorporating more pop hooks, metal riffs, and even their version of a ballad, but still retaining their biting, politically-charged lyrics.
Lead vocalist Rou Reynolds believes Enter Shikari’s evolving sound is something that has aided the band, helping them avoid “becoming boring”.
“We never really wanted to just play the one style. It’s like saying you’re just going to eat one kind of dessert for the rest of your life: it’s really silly. Also, my mentality is to get bored and fidgety quite easily. I want to push our band and that’s come out in our music. It’s something that keeps me sane.”
Enter Shikari’s innovation doesn’t stop with their songwriting. Their most recent tour in the UK saw the band move from the smaller clubs they made their name in to playing in arenas. Wanting to transfer the energy of their frenetic, live shows to what Rou describes as “sterile, soulless rooms”, the band holed themselves up for three months and developed a surround sound system to give a fuller, live experience.
Those shows were documented in the recently released ‘The Mindsweep Tour Documentary’. “We wanted to do everything we could to bring the essence of those smaller shows we grew up playing in into the bigger rooms, so we created a 4.1 quadrophonic surround sound system.
“It creates this effect of sound whipping around the audience, engulfing them in sound. We wanted it to give people a disconcerting feel, like the rough edge of the small, hardcore show where you never know what’s going to happen next. There was a lot of work, which is the reason why we wanted to document it; to show how hard we worked, how proud of it we are, and what a different beast it is.”
Unfortunately for Australian fans, the difficulty of hauling such large equipment means the band won’t be bringing their sound system on tour. However, fans will see a more determined group. “For a long time we’ve been, not complacent, but in this position where we’re still growing. But because this has been a little bit of a step up for us, it’s given us a bit more ambition. We’re excited again, and it’s changed our headspace.”
Enter Shikari Australian Shows
Mon 19 Sept - 170 Russell (Melbourne)Tue 20 Sept - The Triffid (Brisbane)
Wed 21 Sept - The Metro (Sydney)
Thurs 22 Sept - The Gov (Adelaide)
Sat 24 Sept - Metropolis (Perth)
