Today our path takes us straight to the Botanique in Brussels for another show of Enter Shikari. This one is going to be a special one, an intimate show in a venue with max capacity of 700 fans for the release of their upcoming album ‘A Kiss For The Whole World’, coming out April, 21.
The first part of this evening which promises to be under the best auspices will be opened by Blackout Problems. Blackout Problems is a German Alternative Rock band born in 2012, three albums to their credit, the last and third of which was “DARK” released in 2021.
Starting their set with ‘Murderer’ from their latest album. Excited to the end, Mario (guitar and vocals) will not fail to jump everywhere as his teammates come and do several walkabouts in the public during their first song. Their second song also from their latest album ‘Brother’ brings out the madness in the venue. The audience is conquered by their live show, they settled the place on fire with their next couple of songs. Moritz also plant his microphone in the middle of the pit to push the song ‘Rome’. Even if they had only half hour to play their set, it was really a great opener for this Fridaynight.
Setlist: MURDERER – BROTHER – LADY EARTH – WHALES – Rome – GERMANY, GERMANY
After a short wait it’s finally time for Enter Shikari. Taking their place on stage to the sound of Take On Me by A-Ha and Maniac by Michael Sambello. With an audience mostly not born at that time, but who proves that kitsch is a safe bet, the trip to ‘A Kiss For The Whole World’ has started. Starting their entrance with ‘(PLS) Set Me On Fire’ and an amazing lightshow, from the first notes the whole crowd drove crazy. Rou Reynolds get to the heart of the matter with a big push of arm reels, break dance steps and other leaps towards the pit
Turning back to ‘Juggernauts’ and ‘Hectic’ from their album ‘Common Dreads’ back in the days of 2009 with a heavy enthusiastic crowd singing from the top of their lungs and a lot of moshpits.
Going through the years they bring us after a little trip to 2009, back to 2020 with ‘The Dreamer’s Hotel’, following by their songs ‘The Void Stares Back’ (Ft. Wargasm), and one of the newest songs ‘It Hurts’. The energy keeps going and we’re going back to ‘The Dreamer’s Hotel’ with bangers like ‘Satellites’, ‘The pressure’s On’ and ‘Bloodshot’.
Enter Shikari is also the playground of Rou who lives his concert, singing, dancing, and miming the lyrics of the songs. Going back to 2007 with ‘Labyrinth’ from their album ‘Take To The Skies’.
‘Radiate’ is starting. We have a light show worthy of a rave party with laser effects, smoke screens and ultra-bright lights. In the pit, when the instruction is given to animate the mosh pit, they don’t need to be asked for a single second. Going on with the Pendulum remix where Rou tells us this is ‘Sorry you’re not a winner’anno 2023. For much of us, the delight of the night. Enter Shikari is happy to play Brussels again after all those years.
After the light shows we go back in time with their single ‘Stop the Clocks’ Rou is playing this song on his own with his guitar. Talking and laughing with the crowd to scream at him if his playing the song too fast, well what a success it was! The band is back on stage, there we go for another round. This time we’re heading back to ‘A Flash Flood Of Coulour’ that cames out in 2012. Rou starting singing without music the lyrics from ‘System…Meltdown’, the fans screaming the lyrics back at him, after a few minutes the sounds comes in and the crowd went wild again. And so we arrive sadly at the last song of the night, ‘Live Outside’ from their album ‘The Spark’. One last time the whole venue went crazy, crowdsurfers also founds their way.
They brought the madness back with an intimate show, and for sure it was probably one of the best shows we saw from them. Hearing all these songs from the band’s first albums is always so pleasant. Seeing 700 people sing all the lyrics for an hour and a half warms the heart, and the desire to see the band again only increases!
1 comment
Great report, just a small correction: the front singer of Blackout Problems is Mario, not Moritz. 🙂