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Enter Shikari

@ BBC Radio Theatre, London, 6 June 2007

Enter Shikari

When future generations look back at Enter Shikari, what will they make of it all?

In 30 years, perhaps all music will sound like this. If so the four Hertfordshire lads will have statues erected of them in their home town of St Albans and Japanese tourists will flock to see the semis where they used to live.

Either that or Enter Shikari will go down as a joke.

Well, it's certainly not a joke tonight. Whatever people old enough to know better might think, there's no disputing the audience's enthusiasm - they are going absolutely crazy.

What makes it even more surreal is the venue - the BBC's venerable Radio Theatre, in the bowels of Broadcasting House, is usually the serene home of Radio 4's Just A Minute and Loose Ends. Not this evening though, because the austere, newly refurbished room is resonating to Enter Shikari's mashing up of rock and rave.

There's no hesitation as they bound on stage like eager rabbits, but as the show goes on there's a fair amount of deviation and repetition. They launch straight into tracks from their debut, self-financed album Take To The Skies.

A&R men must have been perplexed by it all at first, but you can bet they were kicking themselves when they saw the devotion of the young fans who dance and sing and clap along in all the right places on Return To Energiser. Enter Shikari, of course, said 'no' to a record deal and have done it all themselves. There's no denying this is a visceral experience, but lots of the songs do have a very similar structure - basically rave beats giving way to metal guitars, with frequent time changes and gruff vocals.

Deviation, when it comes, is welcome and pretty breathtaking stuff. The first time the band do a little impromptu dance along to the electronically generated beats on OK! It's Time For Plan B it's a bit of fun. Later on they go one step further and all down tools, lining up as a foursome at the front of the stage to bust mad moves that wouldn't be out of place amongst the gurning hordes at Fabric. They look like New Kids On The Block. Were this band set up like Panic! At The Disco? Latest single Jonny Sniper is almost poppy enough to be a boy band hit.

Throughout the show, the drummer keeps the rave aesthetic going by wearing a thousand yard stare and a frankly frightening series of facial expressions which veer from 'I've got a brand new combine harvester' to 'I'm going to kill your entire family'. But there are metal moments as well, with human pyramids, stage diving and walls of noise.

It's fun and it's frivolous. And although it seems a bit head-scratching at times, Enter Shikari's musical manifesto is actually not as 'new' as some would have you believe: Pitchshifter have been pulling the same stunt for 13 years.

- Chris Beanland

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