Live Review: Enter Shikari – New Century Hall, Manchester

March 5, 2023March 5, 2023 Marc Whiffen Blackout Problems, Cody Frost, Enter Shikari, The Prodigy, Wargasm

16/02/23

As the first month of UK gigs come to an end for Enter Shikari, it’s now time to reflect on the magic that just happened.

Enter Shikari are now into their 7th album and ‘A Kiss for the Whole World’ phase, to celebrate this, the band decided to tour some of the more intimate and quirky venues around the UK. Tickets for these were always going to hard to come by, so to give fans more of a chance of attending these shows, the band are playing each venue three times, these will take place once a month in February, March and April.

It was the incredible venue of New Century Hall in Manchester which we got the pleasure to see the gig in. The venue itself only reopened last year and has a unique moden ceiling which is filled from back to front with lights that has been described as being a ‘disco ceiling’, finished off with contrasting wooden paneling, this creates the pefect fusion of modern and vintage. I would recommend experiencing this venue for yourselves if it pops up on a tour poster from your favourite band.

Blackout Problems had travelled from their home City of Munich to support on these February dates and they couldn’t have been a better band to play with Enter Shikari. The crowd was already pretty big and interested in seeing Blackout Problems, I know sometimes with opening acts that the front of the stage can be a little small but this wasn’t the case. Opening their set with ‘MURDERER’, the energy that poured out of the band was instant and inviting, it didn’t take too long before frontman Mario Radetzky was in the crowd himself encouraging fans to sing with him.

‘BROTHER’ came next and the crowd swelled bigger with people even more interested in seeing Blackout Problems after witnessing the first track from afar.

A few chants of “Munich, Munich, Munich…” could be heard from a section of the crowd between tracks, this seemed to confuse the band a little as it was sang in British accents, that said, when Mario realised what they were singing, he said “Down, this one is down from there” and the band kicked into their most radio-friendly and biggest sing-a-long tune ‘Rome’. When the chorus smashed into “I’d rob a fucking bank with you” the energy on the stage went to a next level, guitarist Moritz Hammrich really ramped it up here. Towards the end Mario was stood on the barrier, towering above the crowd singing “You gotta do what you gotta do, do it, do it…” There was something about seeing this track live that made you realise that this band are the fucking real deal, how everybody doesn’t know this tune and the band because of this tune is a mystery, once you hear it, you become a little obsessed with Blackout Problems.

Ending with the Politically charged ‘GERMANY, GERMANY’, drummer Michael Dreilich and bass player Marcus Schwarzbach stole the show here by creating a heavy groove which reverberated right through the floor, into the soles of your feet, up though the body and made your teeth rattle, it felt like the venue was going crumble away with the vibrations. At the end of the set the venue was pretty much full to capacity and you could see the smiles on the faces of the ones who had just witnessed Blackout Problems, knowing they may have just found a new favourite band.

After the shaking that had happened during Blackout Problems, you couldn’t help but wonder if the venue would be able to handle the full on assault of Enter Shikari. With the lights down and the stage lights flickering we were about to find out.

Enter Shikari attacked the venue with ‘(pls) set me on fire’, not all went to plan though when the band realised they had left behind guitarist Rory Clewlow, not the start anybody expected but it was all taken in good humour by the band members and the audience. The gig started again and now with a full band on stage. During the second run through the crowed was showered in yellow confetti, this actually made the crowd look like they were indeed on fire.

‘Radiate’ was a welcome surprise to the set as Enter Shikari haven’t played this since 2018. ‘Radiate’ is the perfect gig tune, giving fans a chance to get a mosh on and with the melodic break, also gave a chance for an early breather, we were gonna be thankful for that later in the set. This song should have been played the night before in London but got pulled. With fan favourite ‘Juggernauts’ coming next, it was clear to see that this was going to be a heavy night.

Last year Enter Shikari shared two collabation tunes, one of these is the kaleidoscope of a track ‘The Void Stares Back’ with Wargasm, this stood its ground firmly in the set, being heavy and dancey, it has a The Prodigy feel to it and with the lasers firing off the ‘disco ceiling’ it was one of the many highlights from the night.

Newest tune ‘It Hurts’, well and truly turned the dancing shoes on with its 80’s vibe, this gave a little bit of a break from the madness that was before and the craziness that was to follow with the quickfire round.

“Let’s cause some fucking havoc!…“

If you don’t know what the quickfire round is, it’s four songs played together in eight minutes, all songs at least 170bpm, Rou has said in the past that this should be banned in small venues but hey, here we are.

The quickfire round booted off with ‘Havoc B’ before blending into ‘Bull’, this is another new tune with Cody Frost, during ‘Bull’, Cody Frost started to crowdsurf, what made this even more amazing was Enter Shikari didn’t even know she was in the venue, the look of suprise on Rory’s face when he noticed her was hilarious. ‘The Last Garrison’ and the ’23 version of ‘Sorry, You’re Not A Winner’ finished the GBH section of the set. Rou congratulated the crowd for surviving and also mentioned that the band should make some t-shirts saying ‘I Survived The Quickfire Round’.

Recovery started with ‘Undercover Agents’ the slowest song played of the night, this gave a chance to catch your breath and hug the person next to you for a couple of minutes.

It wouldn’t be Shikari like to leave you stood about though and the moshpit was soon as crazy if not more so when they screamed into the old school duo of ‘Labyrinth’ and ‘Zzzonked’. It seemed Enter Shikari were taking advantage of and relishing being in a smaller venue and wanting to re-create those sweatboxes of their earlier gigs. Playing ‘Enter Shikari’ confirmed that feeling and was the last scream and mosh before the band finished with two songs from their last album, ‘Satellites* *’ and ‘{ The Dreamer’s Hotel }’ were the curtain closers and once agian, confetti rained over the sweaty and breathless crowd.

After the gig the fans didn’t want to leave and instead hung about playing in the fallen confetti and giving themselves a bit of rehydration after losing pint loads of sweat. If this is only the start of the new phase, I can’t wait to see what’s to become when Enter Shikari are in full flow and as for Blackout Problems, my mind was blown and they are now top of my list of bands to see next, both on the same bill again would be a dream.

The Residency continues this month and then again in April with different supports and maybe a different setlist too. If you can manage to bag tickets, I strongly advise that you do it, do it, you gotta do it!