Enter Shikari Live at Heaven (Live Review: Dan)

I wasn't happy about this gig for a number of reasons.
a) I had to wake up at 5am to get into Oxford street for the 8am release of free wristbands.
b) Being a free gig, it meant that the crowd was full of losers.
c) Because we had to collect wristbands in the morning, it meant that I had to go into London twice. This cost me around £40. I'd prefer to have just paid £20 for the ticket...
d) The venue of choice was Heaven - notorious London gay bar. Not only was I uncomfortable being in their with the gay bar staff, I had to walk around Stevenage town during the day with a wristband on which was telling everyone that that is where I was going to be spending my evening. This was made worse by the fact that HMVs (the sponsor of the show) little slogan is 'Get closer to'. So I had a wristband on that said "Get closer to enter shikari at heaven". What had I gotten myself into?

So, on the train on the way back into London I was preparing for the worst night ever. When we got there I was even more fearful, as the crowd was rubbish. There were loads of people there in flat caps and backpacks and all sorts. Loads of people in the crowd cheered everytime a sound-tech guy came onstage, which you know is the sign of a 'well, I like that sorry you werent a winner song' kind of person.

The crowd were chanting "and still we will be here, standing like statues" and I got annoyed. A few of us went to get a drink, and then Ben insisted on asking where the toilets were.

We headed back into the stage area just before 7, when the band were due to start. Another thing I should add is, this show was a 'album release show and signing'. So none of us knew how many sogs this show would consist of. Some of us were considering the possibility that it could be just one or two songs, or it could be a full length set, or maybe they'd play the entire album through.

When the sound of Common Dreads began (familiar from the closing sounds of Take to the Skies) began playing, I became a little bit hopeful that they'd be playing the entire album through. This sounded like it would be great, as it would be the first chance to hear new songs like Gap in the Fence or Zzzonked.
The band walked onstage, and said hello. Rou announced "Here tonight I clock a thousand heads. Here to unite, through commom dreads.". Solidairty's synthetic intro then began, and Rory took a leap into the crowd and the chaos began to unfold.

The crowd were actually really energetic for the show, and they weren't as bad as I thought I knew they were going to be.
Having said that, there were some real wankers in the crowd, just running about throwing their fists around. I learned this the hard way, taking a fist to the face. I now have what looks like a carpet burn on my forehead. It's ok though, fans. I sorted him out.

After Solidarity, they played Step Up which is track three on the album. I was really pleased at this point, as it seemed that they were indeed going to play me their entire new album. Either way, this was the first chance I'd had to see them since I heard Common Dreads, so hearing these new songs was really nice as I knew the words this time.

Next, if my memory serves me rightly, however, they played Hectic. Though a great song, it's track number 14 so all hope was lost for the full album. Not too much of a problem though.

They then finished off their set which was, in fairness, composed of all new songs. Which was a really good thing, because it was refreshing to get away from Return to Energiser.

They did promise to play one old song though, so the crowd climbed up on each others shoulders and crawled over people to get to the mic and choose the song. My posse were all praying for Mothership, as they have appeared to have removed it from their live shows, much to every human being's disappointment. And, much to everyone's enjoyment, that was the song that was chosen. This was a great song, and it was nice to hear it again. Hopefully it taught Enter Shikari a lesson, and they'll start playing it again. I guess we'll find out at Reading.

Overall it was a very decent show, though relatively short at just over 45 minutes. I also noticed that I may have broken my personal sweat record, previously held by Pendulum at KoKo. This would normally be a good thing. But hot, sweaty boys in a gay bar made me want to get the fuck out of there all the more. So we did. Then we went home.

I'd give it a 5, but I felt really uncomfortable all night. 4.