Enter Shikari: Live at HERE at Outernet March 17th 2023

The band starts the year with another ambitious tour which puts them above the rest.

Enter Shikari are having one of the most remarkable years of their career thus far. A number one album with 'A Kiss for The Whole World', Wining Best Single with Wargasm at The Heavy Music Awards and two awesome headline shows at Slam Dunk Festival have shown us there is no stopping this band right now. Before all of this, however, Shikari went on an ambitious residency tour in which they would play shows across the UK between February to April. I went to the London show in March and was very excited to see the band play some gems from their back catalogue as well as play some of the new music they were releasing at the time.

This gig would be the first time I would be visiting HERE at Outernet which is a new venue which had opened in 2022. The venue can hold up to two thousand people, has the very best in audio and visual equipment, accessibility options so anyone can access the venue, and stunning bars and screens around the venue so you don't miss out on any of the performances. This venue for the future was a perfect fit for Shikari as it allowed the band to put on an arena-like performance while still feeling intimate. It's a venue I'd love to come back to for sure.

On top of that, we had two amazing artists supporting Shikari, Including the fantastic Cody Frost. The former The Voice contestant has been making waves recently with features with Bury Tomorrow and of course Shikari themselves. She has been an artist I've wanted to find out more about them, so this show was the perfect excuse to do so. Her vocals were fantastic on the night and songs such as 'Teeth' and 'Redundant' are brilliant alternative tracks that have the potential to become anthems in the future. This set was a prime example of why the likes of Bury Tomorrow and Enter Shikari want Cody to feature in their latest release. There is something exciting about Cody Frost which I'm sure as time goes more and more people will come to realise.

Next up was As Everything Unfolds who have also enjoyed success with performances at festivals such as Download Festival and with the release of new signals and an album on the horizon before this show, This was a great time for the band to test out their new material to a new audience. Lead singer Charlie Rolfe spoke online about her excitement of playing new songs on this tour and the band certainly had many up their sleeves. Songs such as 'Ultravilote' and 'Flip Side' demonstrated the best of the band's new singles as well as an unreleased song at the time 'Slow Down'. Rolfe has an incredible ability to change up her clean vocals and screams in an instant, bringing the intensity to their sound and the band delivering killer drops and rifts on songs such as 'Hiding By Myself' which opened the moshpits. The band ended on their hit 'On the Inside' which ended an energetic set from the band and won the crowd over with their performance which they would have taken as a massive win from this show. This also got me excited for their upcoming album 'Ultraviolet' which would release a month later. Overall, a great looking into the future of an exciting band.

Finally, our headliner, Enter Shikari took to the stage at HERE at Outernet for the second time in two months. Armed with a couple of new singles to try out, The band where in London to put on a show and they just did that. Their stage set-up alone was breathtaking. As I said at the start, HERE at Outernet is an open space which can be used for artists to put on shows which only could be pulled off at arenas which gave an opportunity for Shikari to put on one of their best visual shows to date.

The band played a mix of new singles such as '(pls) Set Me On Fire' and 'Bloodshot' as well as some from the band's history such as 'Labyrinth' and 'Radiate'. The setlist will satisfy fans who were looking forward to their new album as well as fans of the band's older work. There were many outstanding moments from their set which included Rou joining fans watching on the balcony of the venue while performing 'The Void Stares Back', The band's emotional performance of 'Satellites*' accompanied by a rainbow lights display and Rou Reynolds did a special acoustic version of 'Stop The Clocks' where lead Singer Rou Renolds ask the crowd to tell him he's playing the song too fast which lead to chaos but was great fun to watch and Rou was brilliant on vocals. For me, the best moment was the performance of 'Bull' which features Cody Frost who came out to sing with the band. Both Frost and Reynolds have brilliant chemistry on stage and their voices accompany each other well. Plus, the crowd reaction was incredible as well with everyone bouncing along which the crowd had been doing all night long.

The band also did an acapella edition of 'System..' before playing the sister track '...Meltdown' in all its glory which once again got the crowd moving before ending their set with the normal show ender 'Live Outside'. These run of shows not only show Shikari's array of music but also show that they still have as much passion and energy as they did when the band released their debut in 2007. The only difference is that Shikari have established themselves as a phenomenal live act and this show was a great example of their talents. But this was only the start for them in 2023 as their year goes from strength to strength