Photo: Jamie Waters

Live Review: Enter Shikari – A Kiss For The Whole World Tour – OVO Wembley Arena, London

Enter Shikari have just proved the impossible was possible at their OVO Wembley Arena show. From the insane levels of production, to the fact every ticket sold contributed to independent venues, Enter Shikari have proved that they are a band that’ll go down in history for the right reasons. Here’s why.

The wonderful pop-punk energy of Noahfinnce opened the show. While it’s clear that arenas aren’t the usual setting for ‘finnce’s live shows, he did a great job of stepping up to the challenge. The set ended with Noah asking for a “Teeny-Tiny Baby Pit” for ‘WORMS (In My Brain)’, which the early arrivers were happy to deliver on.

Fever 333 wasted no time jumping straight into their set with ‘Burn It’, Jason Butler jumped around every inch of the large stage, going as far as his microphone cable would allow. The performance was defined by raw energy, with Jason even mentioning that it felt like a club show. This was highlighted by moments in the set such as Jason jumping off amps that he stacked in the middle of the stage and even scaling across the side of the arena before jumping onto the crowd and surfing back to stage. I think anyone who was in the room who didn’t already have Fever on their radar, will now.

As nine o’clock rolled around it was clear the room was fully charged and ready for the band to take to the stage, erupting into cheers as Rou Reynolds calmly took his place centre stage, bathed in a single spotlight. ‘There was a house’ he proclaimed, as he launched into a spoken word rendition of ‘System…’, with the audience joining in unison with him. Behind him some fantastic visuals depicting the lyrics. The energy in the room built to a high that released with the seamless transition into ‘…Meltdown’ which really got the crowd going.

Enter Shikari utilised the venue’s vast space to the maximum. From a stage covered in LED panels, lights, lasers, and confetti cannons, to a drone whizzing around the arena space, it felt like the band had spent every penny they could to really bring alive the music for the fans. It really made this show feel miles ahead of anything I’ve seen in a long time, and I truly believe the band are destined to be playing even bigger spaces in the years to come.

This would be the start of their discography-spanning setlist that would see the band play through fan favourites like, ‘Live Outside’, ‘Anaesthetist’, alongside more deeper cuts and newer hits. Despite that, front to back, down on the floor or up in the seats, it seemed like every moment was eaten up and thoroughly enjoyed by all.

‘Jailbreak’ would see the stage become surrounded by bars (of light), which slowly broke open as the song progressed, while ‘Sssnakepit’ would see a giant circle pit open up in the centre of the room. Jason Butler would return to the stage for ‘Losing My Grip’ before Rou would give a serenading solo from a city-scape on the stage.

But the band weren’t done yet with Chris Batten, Rob Rolfe, and Rory Clewlow taking to a sneaky B-stage at the front of house desk for ‘The Sights’, while Rou climbed through the seating crowd above – not quite making it around the whole arena in one song and admitting afterwards “They said I couldn’t get around the arena in one song, and they were right.”

In a last surprise moment that I definitely didn’t have on my bingo cards, the band introduced a special guest to help them with ‘satellites* *’. None other than Sam Ryder ( the UK’s 2022 Eurovision entrant ) came out to help with the song. The mega show was then capped with an encore of ‘Sorry, You’re Not a Winner’ and ‘A Kiss for the Whole World x’ which saw the entire crowd moving and getting rid of their last little dregs of energy.

Shikari haven’t just set the bar high for themselves, they have moved the bar for the entire industry. This show – and the rest on their tour – will go down in history, if not at the very least for making tickets contribute to independent venues, but more than likely both that and the insane levels of production that had gone into the show. I’ve not seen a show that’s wow’d me like this for many years.