Cardiff Y Plas is probably one of the smallest venues on Enter Shikari’s tour but it doesn’t stop the night from being one of the loudest and playful.
We catch Allusondrugs first, a band with a name that is sure to turns heads. They’re modern day grungers and certainly look it with their shaggy hair and onstage presence. It doesn’t go amiss that they’re influenced by the late 90s with distorted grunge guitars and laid back vocals. They play well but the crowd feels somewhat static tonight. They’re not quite the warm up band you’d expect for Shikari but they give it a hell of a go.
It’s time for a change of pace when Feed The Rhino come out on stage. When the singer comes out and raises himself onto the barrier ready for the first song you know it’s going to be a great set. For anyone who hadn’t seen FTR before they were in for an awakening. As they storm through their short set they seem to spend more time in the crowd than on stage. It’s boisterous and the crowd are loving it.
Some music plays with a minute by minute countdown until Enter Shikari hit the stage. The crowd seem wild and it feels like they could have easily sold out the larger Great Hall.
The stage set up features a trail of lights hanging down each side that venture towards the centre of the stage like veins to the heart. Between songs the band banter with each other and create some laughs around the venue. When confronted with shouting fans Rou naturally flows into spoken word and at one point sees him talking about the universe. He turns to bassist Chris and says for him to be the sun and in good fashion Chris jumps into the midst of the manic crowd. They’re here to state a powerful message and the crowd get it.
There’s an unfortunate power problem which sees the band break into a bit of jazz to fill the time whilst repairs happen. As things get back up and running it sees old hit Mothership get one of the loudest receptions of the night to which parts of the song Rou is unhearable from the crowd shouting along. It’s a tasty setlist and from start to finish this set has been electric. Despite a few power problems the band have smashed Cardiff tonight and still remain a force to be reckoned with.
9/10
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