Sep12

Enter Shikari, Last Night, NYC (Video)

'Sorry in advance for the shit audio and random cuts, this was shot in two-minute clips on a regular digital still camera.
When you get an email invite to see a band that recently deceased legend Tony Wilson described as- “The most exciting band I’ve seen since the early Sex Pistols gigs back in 76/77”, you go to the gig.
The PR notice also had a ton of one-liners from the usually reserved (yeah, right) British press comparing this band, Enter Shikari, to all kinds of shit, including The Prodigy…and you could call this “Songs for the Ritalin Generation”- hard slogging metal, limber metal, punishing hardcore, easy to miss but worthy shoegazer chords, drum and bass, grand choruses, almost baroque (midieval?) melodies, wide open verses which feel very 1970's, like the wistful optimisim of Styx or Kansas. Onstage Enter Shikari almost never stop moving, weaving back and forth with the pent-up fury a toddler coming off a triple time-out. They sort of remind me of vintage They Might Be Giants (who went nuts onstage) in their nerdy angles.
There's a very large mosh pit that remains mostly empty but at times, some kids are definitely kickin' their legs back fast and elbowing indiscriminately for a minute or two, but nobody gets hurt; it's mostly pogoing and singing along and hands thrust stageward. When everybody gets moving, the juvenile calisthenic moves of the band members make the whole thing feel like a progressive-minded nursery room exercise — like Raffi, only more aggro. Cool.
www.entershikari.com
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