Live Review: Enter Shikari - Dortmund 2019

FZW, Dortmund, Germany
12th April 2019
Enter Shikari - “Stop The Clocks” Tour 2019 - Special Guests: As It Is, Flash Forward

ENTER SHIKARI from St. Albans, UK have always liked to cross and push genre boundaries, and they have developed their very own original style over the years. Post-Hardcore is the basis - in addition there are excursions into electro sounds, dubstep and Drum’n’Bass rhythms. Together with the guitar thunderstorms this sounds like a harmonic sound chaos for new listeners.

Last year, ‘The Spark’, a new gripping album, was released which continues the remarkable career of the band and underlines the musical unpredictability as a constant of the quartet from St. Albans. With this album the band moves in a relatively new direction. For example, the Metal thunderstorm has receded into the background compared to the electronic elements. The Screamo vocal passages are still present but are increasingly embedded in synth sounds. What sounds so relatively smooth on ‘The Spark’ at first hearing, becomes at the latest on stage again the usual threatening sound, in which the variety of the four Brits is reflected. The concentrated energy and constant dynamics of their concerts is without exception rousing. This spring they set out to demonstrate this live during their extensive tour through Germany.




Flash Forward

Surprise last minute tour addition was the band FLASH FORWARD. FLASH FORWARD that is four guys from the German Ruhr area, who have been spending their youths listening to the likes of DASHBOARD CONFESSIONALS and JIMMY EAT WORLD, and who have been at it since 2010. So far, they are on their fifth album, the latest of which has been released in 2017 and is called ‘Revolt’. https://www.facebook.com/flashforwardband / www.flashforward.de



Music & Performance
After spending what felt like ages in the long queue in the unusual cold weather waiting to be let in into the FZW, the warmth of the club felt more than welcome. Shortly before 7:30pm, the four members of FLASH FORWARD entered the stage and started spreading some love in the form of their upbeat-sounding Alternative Rock. There were already plenty of people ready to start their Friday night right and embracing the chance to have some fun. Singer Stefan Weigel proved to be a born entertainer and pulled all the tricks of a good support act: He coerced the crowd to sing a long, wave their arms, jump around, and enact the first circle pit of the evening. He concluded the set by jumping from the stage into the crowd and climbing on top of one guy in the pit, all while continuing to sing.



The crowd seemed to very much like it, so FLASH FORWARD were a welcome bonus addition to this evening.

Setlist
01. Heart of Gold
02. Kickstart
03. Young Offender
04. Hold On
05. Payback
06. One Way Track
07. Old Enough

Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 7
Sound: 7
Light: 6
Total: 6.8 / 10




As It Is

Next in line were fellow Brits AS IT IS from Brighton, UK. AS IT IS were founded in May 2012, and they have released three studio albums so far. With their last work ‘The Great Depression’ from 2018, they made it into the Top30 of the UK album charts. https://www.facebook.com/asitisofficial / www.asitisofficial.com



Music & Performance
At 8:15pm, the lights went low and a mystically sounding intro started resounding from the speakers. The members of AS IT IS went on stage and started to perform their version of Emo-infused Pop Punk. Singer Patty Walters, who also has a popular YouTube channel, developed a good stage presence, being constantly on the move and occasionally juggling and swinging his microphone into the air. For the next song, Patty jokingly introduced the band as “We are a band called MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE”, which certainly reflects on the band’s influences. However, the voice of Patty as well as the instrumental faction sounded pretty similar to Patrick Stump from FALL OUT BOY, so fans might want to check out AS IT IS.



The 30 minutes of playtime went by very quickly, and the fans also happily obliged, when Patty demanded a “big f*cking circle pit”, so everyone got the chance for a proper warm-up to see the main act of the evening.

Setlist
01. The Reaper
02. The Handwritten Letter
03. No Way Out
04. Soap
05. The Fire, the Dark
06. The Stigma (Boys Don’t Cry)
07. The Wounded World

Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 6
Sound: 6
Light: 7
Total: 6.5 / 10




Enter Shikari

The band’s roots go back to the start of this millennium. However, it was not until 2006, when the wider music world took notice of the furious mix of trance and dubstep elements with punk rock guitar riffs, created by the quartet from St Albans, UK. Around that time, their aptly named debut album, ‘Take to Skies’, was released and reached No. 4 of the UK album charts. From there, the band’s popularity knew only one direction: upwards. Notably enough, the band did not fall for the trap to repeat itself, but instead maintained their momentum in creative development, and took their style of ruthlessly combining wildly different musical elements to the next level. Find out more about the band via www.entershikari.com or https://www.facebook.com/entershikari.



Music & Performance
Finally, it was time for main act of the evening. Around 9:15pm, the lights went out, and several huge window-like glass screens in the background of the stage were illuminated. Lasers moved in sync to the tunes of the intro ‘The spark’. Singer Roughton “Rou” Reynolds with his unique hairdo and the rest of the band appeared on stage. He and his band members were greeted by hundreds of euphoric fans showing the band specific triangle sign with their hands. The energy level in the room went sky high, which - together with the intensive strobe-light use and the firing of confetti cannons - had a dizzying and euphorizing effect on the audience. The Dortmund crowd went wild. However, despite all the moshing and pogo-ing in the circle pits, people were really courteous and respectful, helping each other up in solidarity.



And ENTER SHIKARI packed a punch in terms of their most energetic songs. ‘Rabble Rouser’, or ‘The Revolt of the Atoms’, but also a rather unexpected FAITHLESS cover of ‘Insomnia’ certainly got the crowd going. After an hour of playtime things took a quieter turn, which provided a welcome opportunity to get some rest. Rou performed the ballad ‘Airfield’ on a white piano, which stage hands quickly rolled into the centre of the stage during a song break. With ‘No Sleep Tonight’, Rou performed another solo song, but then the time for recovery was over, as ENTER SHIKARI performed one of their infamous ‘quick fire rounds’, an 8-minute medley of four of their songs all pitched at 147 bpm, all moulded into one. After 80 minutes of playtime, the lights went out briefly, and the people immediately broke out into ‘ENTER SHIKARI’ chants, demanding their heroes return to the stage for the encore.



This call was heeded, and ENTER SHIKARI performed two more songs, which once again triggered lots of work for the security people, who had to pluck incoming crowd surfers from the hands of the audience, as people got their send-off with the catchy tune ‘Live Outside’.

Setlist
01. Intro (The Spark)
02. The Sights
03. Step Up
04. Labyrinth
05. Arguing with Thermometers
06. Rabble Rouser
07. Hectic
08. Gap in the Fence
09. Shinrin-Yoku
10. The Revolt of the Atoms
11. Destabilise
12. Gandhi Mate, Gandhi (Shortened)
13. Mothership (Shortened)
14. Insomnia (Faithless cover) (Shortened)
15. Havoc B
16. Airfield
17. Undercover Agents
18. No Sleep Tonight (Rou Solo, Shortened)
19. Stop the Clocks
20. Quickfire Round
21. Sorry, You’re Not a Winner
22. The Last Garrison
23. ...Meltdown
24. Anaesthetist (Reso Remix)
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25. Juggernauts
26. Live Outside
27. Outro (The Embers)

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: 9
Total: 8.2 / 10



All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com / http://www.facebook.com/blackcatnet)