photo credit: weworemasks

After an e-mail blast about the Enter Shikari tour with letlive, I was naturally curious to attend. Having no prior knowledge of Enter Shikari beforehand proved to be both out of my comfort zone musically and a challenge to write about journalistically. Sure, I was a fan of letlive., having seen them (no joke) four times in the past year. But a tour with a UK post-hardcore outfit that relies greatly on electronics? Why not – the two have toured together in the past.

Hit the jump for the recap.

-grizzly

photo credit: weworemasks

While tour openers At the Skylines left so much more to be desired from a performance, letlive. was a surefire hit in the sense that they’ll always maintain a purpose at their shows: to turn heads and cause complete mayhem and insanity during their given time slot. And without a doubt, the Los Angeles quintet did not disappoint. The first two songs of their setlist correlated directly to 2010’s Fake History, an album I have dubbed “the best post-hardcore record of the last five years.” Frontman Jason Butler shows disregard for his own body for the sake of performance and music, flailing about as if limbless. Granted, these guys get compared to Glassjaw a lot – and for good reason. Butler is like the young Daryl Palumbo from the EYEWTKAS days, stomping and smashing about on stage – but maintained his vocal presence on “slower” songs like “Muther” and “Day 54.” As a send off, Butler climbed to the center of the rafters in the middle of the venue, and closed the set with “Casino Columbus” and a jump into the crowd.

photo credit: weworemasks

Before we dive into Enter Shikari‘s set, know this: From the photo pit, it felt like 300 people behind you who all knew every word to every song that these guys performed. Barricades rattled, bodies flew, danced and shook, and the band was in sync with all of it. “System…” and “…Meltdown” ushered in their set, highlighting their latest release, A Flash Flood of Colour. Speaking of flashes, the crowd was highly reminiscient of the crowds found in shows just a little over five or six years ago – when sweat was not an issue. Body heat, the mosh pits (seriously) and the LED-lighted triangle that illuminated from the back of Enter Shikari’s stage setup all contributed to the sauna that Warehouse Live transformed into.

photo credit: weworemasks [ed note: this one is terrible, but the strobes gave me very little to work with]

Kids paid no mind to each other or themselves, as they sang along to performances of “Mothership” and “Havoc B,” both fixtures in the group’s discography. Like letlive., Shikari singer Rou Reynolds couldn’t resist, as he found himself in the crowd at several different points in the show, feeding from the crowd’s youthful energy. Throughout the set, the strobes and LED triangle proved to be both mesmerizing and seizure-inducing, choreographing everyone’s blink patterns as one. Heavy bass, dubstep-influenced breakdowns, politically-charged banter and “whoaaa!” sing-a-longs were the true components of what made this show (and I’m sure every other stop on the tour) tick.

photo credit: weworemasks

The setlist lay heavy into Flash Flood, mainly because this is their first US headlining tour in quite some time, after previous tour slots of opening up for The Devil Wears Prada and stints on the Warped Tour. Singer Rou Reynolds had his own rock star moment towards the end of his set, dragging a Casio keyboard through the crowd (and in turn, parted the ‘sweat sea’), taking it to the back wall and smashing it to pieces, before ending the night and an hour and a half setlist with with “SSSnakepit.”

[letlive.]

Prologue
Sick Sick, 6.8 Billion
Homeless Jazz
Renegade ’86
Day 54
Fix Me (Black Flag Cover)
Muther
Casino Columbus