I’m sure we are only a year and a half removed from me saying I was going to be doing less Shikari shows going forward but there I was just finishing work on December 7th about to embark upon three shows in three days.
Exeter
On a cold wet Friday night I started off my weekend with the challenge of fitting two overnight guests into our modestly sized flat and the novelty of having an Enter Shikari show within walking distance of where I live. Travelling for shows has never really been a chore for me, more a necessity but it was nice to be able to do a show without having to put planning into hotels and travel.
Looking back now on Friday I cannot fault Enter Shikari for their performance (when can you ever??) but the crowd was sadly a whole different matter. I very much doubt anybody reading this needs me to explain but Enter Shikari are currently in the midst of a mammoth tour spanning the U.K. and mainland Europe, taking in cities and towns that don’t really see much gig action, my concern heading into this tour was that in some of these places you would have a section of people who don’t particularly know the band but associate them with the “metal” scene, and in turn see an opportunity to turn up and act like complete idiots in the pit, that pretty much in a nutshell summed up this Exeter show. I saw a disturbing lack of the “if someone falls down pick them up” mentality and an abundance of “ I go the gym twice a month and weigh about 17 stone, watch me plough through a 5ft7 teenager” .
Those of you that know me will know I’m extremely mellow by nature, I don’t think myself “hard” but even I nearly got dragged into an altercation when I witnessed a guy push a girl by the back of her head into a pit. The group of people I were with are all gig and Enter Shikari veterans and all pretty much agreed it was a terrible crowd, and from my point of view as a resident of Exeter a really poor reflection of the cities gig scene.
Plymouth
So with a somewhat bitter taste in my mouth about the previous show I headed off across Devon to Plymouth and reunited with some old friends and meet some new ones too. From a stats point of view Plymouth was my 28th Shikari show, meaning I now had a show for every year I had been alive! Which isn’t something I imagined happening when I first saw the band back in 2011.
Now there is a rivalry of sorts in place between Exeter and Plymouth as they are both cities in Devon, and as someone who generally always sits on the Exeter side of the argument it pains me to say that Plymouth won this contest all ends up, top crowd and top vibes. Everything that had annoyed me the night before was washed away by an evening much more fitting to Enter Shikari, Plymouth also got “Rat Race” on the setlist which is a rare treat.
A small clip of “Insomnia” From the Plymouth show
Portsmouth
The one show of the three that required an overnight stop and also an uncommon opportunity for me to go somewhere new! Through one reason or another there aren’t many English or Welsh cities that I haven’t been to, Portsmouth before this weekend was one of them.
Maybe as part of me getting older and advancing further into adulthood but I was quite keen to make the most of the short trip away from home and do something more than just turn up, check into a hotel, see the show and leave the next day. We took the chance to explore the harbour area and historic dockyard as well as the Royal Navy museum and went on board HMS Victory, which as a bit of a History buff was quite something for me.
Portsmouth Pyramids proved to be my favourite venue of the weekend and the only one to have confetti in the set, which incidentally found its way everywhere and I’m sure the hotel cleaners loved us by the time we finished fishing the stuff out of our clothes and hair. As with the two nights before it Enter Shikari played a set that was probably the most varied I’ve seen them play across their whole discography, something in there for everyone wether you’re a new fan, long term fan, prefer the heavy stuff or prefer the more mellow songs.
I’ve used this modest forum of mine to wax lyrical on numerous occasions about the Shikari community, or as it’s more commonly known the “Shikari Family” but I feel like this weekend really underlined something about the connection people have with this band and it’s fans, this weekend they played three cities who I would forgive most people from outside of the UK for having not heard of yet I’ve still met up with friends who made the trip across from Germany, The Netherlands and Russia, great personalities and people who otherwise I can’t really say I would have ever had the chance to meet.
I don’t expect everyone to understand following the same band across numerous shows or having so many friends who live hundreds (and thousands) of miles away whom you maybe see once a year but in these times more than ever the power of unity between different cultures and communities is vital, Enter Shikari is that unity
Check out my good friend Dev’s Instagram account (@devplacephotos) for some shots from the Portsmouth show! All of her other work is top notch too!
The remaining tour dates are below, I strongly advise getting to your nearest show for a night of wholesome Shikari shenanigans
The Compass 