It’s a varied if somewhat modest crowd that’s assembled at the Utilita Arena this evening as Enter Shikari, the band that absolutely cannot be slotted into any particular genre, come back to Cardiff once again, this time as part of their A Kiss For The Whole World tour. And tempting as it might be to feel bad for the Enter Shikari when they don’t have a packed-out venue to perform to, it makes no apparent difference to these guys, as they bust out System… and …Meltdown, the double opening whammy from 2012 album A Flash Flood Of Colour.
Flanked by two cubed towers of screens, frontman Rou Reynolds spins and dances around his bandmates, making the most of the stage, while his bandmates do the dirty work. Live Outside keeps the crowd on its toes, its rave-rock stye giving them ample chance to move about. The band plough through a 26-song set, veering in and out of new tunes from the latest album to live staples and fan favourites, giving the gig a proper “present to the fans” sort of vibe.
Jailbreak sees Rou breaking out the trumpet, before the energetic frontman shows off his parkour skills by scaling the balcony during The Sights. Mothership – one of the tracks that kicked off Enter Shikari’s career – gets the pit-goers excited and ups the ante, and before you know it we’re 23 songs in and the band take a brief and well-deserved moment to catch their breath.
They return with (Pls) Set Me On Fire and a well-received Pendulum remix of Sorry You’re Not A Winner before departing, rather fittingly, in a blaze of confetti with A Kiss For The Whole World. With £1 from every ticket going towards the Music Venue Trust, it would have been nice to see the arena full tonight, but those who did venture out, will certainly be happy with what they saw.
Enter Shikari, Utilita Arena Cardiff, Fri 16 Feb
words CHRIS ANDREWS photos OWIN WONG