Enter Shikari at New Century Hall, Manchester

By Izzy Clayton.

Headlining New Century Hall tonight in Manchester on their ‘A Kiss For The Whole World’ tour is rock band Enter Shikari, formed in 2003 from St Albans, Hertfordshire. The band are made up of Rou Reynolds (lead vocals), Chris Batten (bass), Rob Rolfe (drums) and Rory Clewlow (guitar).

Photo by Izzy Clayton

Tonight is the first of three dates for the band at New Century Hall, with them set to return on the 14th March and the 14th April and the tour consisting of three sets of residency shows that are set to take place across London, Manchester, Wolverhampton, Bristol and Glasgow.

Photo by Izzy Clayton

Prior to the band taking to the stage, the crowd chant ‘Oh, Enter Shikari’ before a light display takes place. Following this, the band emerge with Rou jumping and dancing across the stage. The band open with recent track ‘(pls) set me on fire’ from their upcoming album–set for release on the 21st April. Unfortunately, there’s a very brief hitch and guitarist Rory isn’t on stage due to technical difficulties involving his guitar. The band quickly leave the stage and reappear, performing ‘(pls) set me on fire’ again to the crowd as the confetti cannons explode over the crowd. The second song of the set is ‘Radiate’, with this being the first time since 2018 that the song has been played live.

Photo by Izzy Clayton

With a large back catalogue of hits, rumours are around that each of the Manchester shows will have their own individual setlists that span the bands career but for tonight we are treated to a range of tracks. If anything there is a slight lean to tracks from their debut album ‘Take To The Skies’ but this is interspersed with at least one song from each of their albums.

Photo by Izzy Clayton

Midway into the set, the band play their ‘Quickfire Round’, which is a medley of four songs that the band play live squeezed into a ten minute time limit. Tonight, the quickfire round includes tracks ‘Havoc B’, ‘Last Garrison’,‘ Bull’ and fan favourite ‘Sorry You’re Not A Winner’.

Photo by Izzy Clayton

The band return to the stage for a 4 song encore, ending the night with ‘{ The Dreamer’s Hotel }' from their 2020 album ‘Nothing is True & Everything is Possible’.