Leave anything on stage, and the guys of Enter Shikari will climb it. They’ll climb speakers, tall or short. They’ll climb the stage’s support beams. At almost every show, they climb over barricades, diving into crowds of their fans.
Playing live doesn’t stop the post-hardcore, genre-bending English quartet members from kicking their legs up to bouncing and gritty electronics. Hit the cymbals, and Enter Shikari jumps across stage, maybe giving their heads and instruments whiplash.
“Some days I’ll just be dead to the world,” vocalist Roughton “Rou” Reynolds said. The band has off-days; they aren’t machines. And then some days I’m like a newborn rabbit running around the stage.”
Without energy or sleep, it’s hard to not give it their all, Reynolds said.
Two weeks ago, Enter Shikari traveled thousands of miles to embark on its first headlining North American tour with fellow bands letlive. and At The Skylines.
In three weeks, Florida audiences will get a taste of their insanity with four tour dates: May 9 at St. Petersburg’s State Theatre, May 10 at Pompano Beach’s Rocketown, May 11 at Jacksonville’s Jack Rabbits and May 12 at Orlando’s The Social.
Though Enter Shikari (vocalist/programmer Reynolds, guitarist Liam “Rory” Clewlow, bassist Chris Batten, drummer Rob Rolfe) formed in 2003, most U.S. tours included supporting roles with 25- to 30-minute sets. Now, they get a chance to dish out more songs in longer sets.
“So many people have been begging for a proper Shikari set,” Reynolds said. “Picking the set list is still incredibly hard, having three albums now, but it’s wild.”
Enter Shikari released its third album, “A Flash Flood of Colour,” in January to worldwide praise.
The band is known for shattering the music frontier, and on " Flash Flood," the guys obliterate boundaries. They blend their punk and metal influences with every range of electronic music and some acoustics.
“All the new stuff — that’s probably the highlight of the set,” Reynolds said.
Old favorites like "Mothership" and "Sorry You're Not a Winner" from the band's first album, 2007's "Take to the Skies," are typically big hits. On this tour, they're ensuring new singles such as "Sssnakepit" and "Gandhi Mate, Gandhi" get attention.
“Everyone’s been going mental,” Reynolds said.
Currently missing from the tour, though, is Rolfe. In 2009, his visa was denied, and history repeated itself before the tour. The band has been waiting for his visa to arrive.
“It’s real annoying, but we’re doing great,” Reynolds said. The band's guitar and drum technicians have been filling in. "We're lucky enough to feel like family."
The band formed in its hometown of St. Albans, Hertfordshire, in 2003. After "Take to the Skies," Enter Shikari released "Common Dreads" in 2009, breaking through the U.S. market more and more. The band toured on Projekt Revolution and Warped Tour twice.
Last year, the band traveled to Bangkok to record "Flash Flood" via Hopeless Records. The group was in a state-of-the-art studio in the middle of nowhere, near a fishing village.
The band played its socially conscious lyrics that help define Enter Shikari as a rift in today's music. Coming from a punk-hardcore background, the band knows it has to be 100-percent passionate about its lyrics and "write what they know."
"Flash Flood" delves into everything from globalization to activism.
"We meet so many cultures, people and views," Reynolds said. "It all just kind of comes down in our lyrics."
But it's not only the group’s lyrical and musical ingenuity that keeps the band successful. Enter Shikari's close friendship is what helps its lineup stay smooth and alive.
"All four of us just enjoy it so much," Reynolds said. Rolfe, Batten and Clewlow have been in the scene together for so long, they're essentially brothers.
"It's our life; it's what we do," he said.
