While I may moan about the 'Faux Rock' likes of Bastille or Imagine Dragons, what's slightly worse is the plethora of dull middle of the road rock bands currently doing the rounds. Of all the many underwhelming rock albums this year, Lower Than Atlantis' (6) 'Safe in Sound' was one of the most underwhelming. The live LTA experience isn't much better. The rest of LTA started playing for a bit until Mike Duce ran onto the stage with his bright red guitar and started singing 'Had Enough'. A song so mediocre and childish it makes The Enemy song of the same name seem like a masterpiece. There's nothing much wrong with LTA. They are pretty much everything you'd expect from a modern rock band. Big riffs, heavy grooves and radio friendly choruses. They're not bad so much as just kind of predictable and clichéd. I got bored and went get a beer just in time to be back to hear Mike Duce claim that they'd be back next year and sell out the whole room. If Enter Shikari can't manage to fill out the Arena Birmingham then I don't think LTA have any hope at all.
Enter Shikari's Birmingham show began with an ominous radar screen and the sounds of airplane pilot chatter being broadcast via a quadrophonic sound system around the room. The system was so high tech that the sound of the plane moving around the room felt as if one was flying directly over my head. When Enter Shikari came to the stage it was to 'The Spark' swiftly followed by their new album highlight 'The Sights'. Which immediately caused a mass singalong. Despite their state of the art sound systems and lighting rigs Enter Shikari are endearingly prone to fuck up's. The euphoric 'Anything can happen in the next hour' had to be played twice as drummer Rob Rolfe accidentally started the intro for 'Zzzonked' half way through. After apologising for 'rocking out too hard' they started again. Rou Reynolds also got a bit carried away screaming on top of a stack of speakers during 'Take my country back'. After one of the band pointed out that he'd forgot to play his trumpet solo, he whipped it out for a quick impromptu solo. Another highlight was when Rou magically disappeared and reappeared at the back of the arena with just his piano and a spotlight to play 'Airfield' and 'Adieu'. The former being one of the most poignant and introspective pieces Enter Skiari have ever written. The latter inspiring another mass sing-along while a flurry of hands reached for their phones to take photos, before Rob finished the tune with a thrashing of his drums.
Anesthesist predictably threw the crowd in top uproar before Rou announced 'Phase Three' where they would attempt to play 4 songs in the space of 8 minutes, all averaging at 170 BPM, and demanding that the crowd go wild. Which they did as Enter Shikari launched straight into 'Sorry your not a winner' and hands aloft clapped 3 times perfectly on cue. Rou Reynolds is proving to be a fantastic frontman. He often adressed the Birmingham crowd in an old school newcaster kind of style, similar to that of Public Service Broadcasting. His shirt somehow managed to get ripped yet he didn't seem to mind to much, asking to feed off the Birmingham crowds energy. Chris Batten said that he reckoned Birmingham were on a par with the Manchester show in one last attempt to cause hysteria. The inevitable encore wasn't followed by 'Mothership' as I was hoping but another newer track about Rou Reynolds battle with anxiety, 'Live outside'. Not that I really minded, Enter Shikari had delivered more than enough. 
(8.8)*disappointingly I didn't get to hear 'Mothership'
Sorry about the shit photos, I took them on my phone.
No comments:
Post a Comment