Enter Shikari Blow Minds and Senses at Leeds First Direct Arena [Photos]

It’s the opening night of Enter Shikari’s UK arena tour, with the genre twisters bringing US ragers Fever333 and UK pop-punk newcomer NoahFnnce along for the ride.

Things kick off with social media star Noahfinnce, who couldn’t care less whether you like his brand of pop-punk or not. Now, while I’m probably very much outside his general audience demographic, it’s hard not to like his cheeky approach to the whole thing. There are plenty of reference points to the likes of Blink 182, Green Day and Busted/Mcfly throughout his short set and, despite a stream of technical gremlins during the early part of his set, he certainly put a feelgood stamp on the night.

Now, if you’re going to pick a band to light a fuse under the night, there can be fewer current bands than Fever333, who would do exactly that. First night of the tour, the quartet are in suitably ferocious form. Those who saw the band tearing up the main stage at Download Festival last year (read our review here), will recall how explosive the band were and tonight they lived upto the hype. Frontman Jason Aalon Butler spits the lyrics to seething versions of “Made In America” while bassist April Kae has just added a new edge to one of the most exciting and unpredictable bands in modern heavy music. It was going to be interesting to see how the headliners followed that musical Molotov cocktail.

That being said, in the live arena, the headliners Enter Shikari are something special. A blitz on every one of your senses from the moment they hit the stage, the St.Albans band really do know how to ramp up the live experience. Sonically, visually, interactively, as you watch the set progress, you can almost feel how much time and effort the band have put into each aspect of their show to ensure that every moment has your attention. It’s loud as well, but every note, every beat, every effect is crystal clear. As the set explodes into “System / Meltdown” and frontman Rou Reynolds bounces around the huge stage, the energy rush is incredible.

Those few fans that are at one of the bars come racing into the arena as the familiar tones of “Anaesthetist” drop while “Sssnakepit” turns the arena floor into one swirling, grooving mass. Powering through a humungous twenty-six song set, there are debut outings for the likes of “Jailbreak” and “goldfĭsh ~” while the band are joined on stage by Fever’s Jason for the debut of their recent epic collaboration “Losing My Grip.”

Reynolds takes to a B-stage and the crowd for “The Sights” while “Mothership,” “It Hurts,” and “Satellites” continue the sonic and visual assault, all before the Pendulum remix of “Sorry You’re Not A Winner” and “A Kiss For The Whole World” brings the roof off Leeds Arena and leaves a few thousand or so fans leaving the venue with their minds and ears well and truly blown.

Once you’ve checked out our photo gallery from the gig below, make sure you check out our Cover Story feature with Enter Shikari frontman Rou Reynolds here.

Enter Shikari (w/ Fever 333, NoahFinnce) @ First Direct Arena (Leeds, UK) on February 9th, 2024

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