24-06-2008 Linkin Park

Supports: Enter Shikari; Venue: SAP arena, Mannheim (Germany)
By: Nina Mende

A sunny Tuesday afternoon in Mannheim, thousands of people are waiting in front of a huge white building: The SAP arena. Most of them wore band merch of the same band. Many people have already been waiting there hours before doors opened just to catch a good spot up front. I arrived about an hour early, but that was because I met up with the guys of Enter Shikari before the show.

Let me give you a short introduction of Enter Shikari before I go on telling:
The four guys Rob, Rou, Chris, and Rory founded Enter Shikari in 2003. They are from England and play post-hardcore combined with some synthesized sounds which make the music more interesting. Enter Shikari have one album released so far, the next one is in the making at the moment and will be released in the beginning of 2009…

Back to my story:
So in I went to meet up with the guys who were all in their plain white changing room. Empty bottles were standing around and some dirty dishes. They welcomed me very friendly and offered me drinks right away. I took cold water. After the introduction round we all sat down on the couches – there were two black leather couches and one black leather chair as far as I remember. There we sat all together and since I didn’t get a photo pass for the show this time and did not go into the photo pit because of that, we decided to take some pictures in the backstage. All on the couch staring to me without any expressions in their faces, I asked them to smile, but I forgot: Rockers don’t smile – they look evil! *general laughter* So I tried to get them look busy, which was even more hilarious: one tried to concentrate on his beer bottle, one looked like an academic, and the other two were reading the ingredients of the water bottle to each other. Sow we laughed even more, the pics were alright and I put the camera away. Now we began to talk, which always switched between interview and simple small talk, besides all that they were preparing their set lists, talking about what to do on stage and pulling insider jokes. We talked about this and that. I found out that their name Enter Shikari comes from a comic, an early X-Men comic, but they were also aware that Shikari means hunter. They told me about the Myspace secret show they played a couple months ago: There were about 150 people in the audience not getting into the show too much, but the guys didn’t mind too much. The boys haven’t played for quite some time and so it was a good practice. Enter Shikari also wondered whether these kids were only there because they got into this little festival for free if they enter the Secret Show of Enter Shikari… As I asked them for the future plans I got told that they don’t really look that far ahead, so ok, down with that question.
Next question: Since when do you play music? The answer was easy and answered quickly: They played since they were 11 years old, but as Enter Shikari since 2003… While I was talking with one or the other, the rest occupied themselves with drawings, finishing their set lists, or talking with each other, so I had to regain the attention of all, which was not that easy. Two out of four even left in between. We talked on, and I also wondered what they were doing in their free time while touring. Surfing the internet was a common answer, but since they have no internet on this tour this didn’t work. They had the last two days off in Mannheim they spent in the hotel, and taking a look around town. The British guys liked the city. Since I had the little drum sticks on “Jyrki” (my handbag), Rob (the drummer) asked me about these. So we talked about my event-management studies I just finished earlier this year and the REMO drum circle event. We laughed a lot as he said he knows about drum circles because there was a hippie drum circle in one South Park episode…

Now we talked about the upcoming tour plans: There will be a little UK tour in October and a bigger one outside of the UK when the new album is released which will be February or March. On this tour they played 7 shows so far, including some festivals which they enjoyed.
We also talked about Finland since none of them has ever been there. Somehow they had in mind that it was a flat country, but that’s the Netherlands. Back to the upcoming album Rob said that they are totally excited about playing the tour in October since it would be with the new songs. It is getting boring playing the same songs forever. It would also be weird with all the new stuff because Enter Shikari were playing the same songs for quite some time. The new album would be bigger, louder, faster, stronger… *general laughter* last named was better. Best things last, huh? I’m really looking forward to the new stuff…

Rou, the singer, now started talking German “Wir sind Enter Shikari und wir kommen aus London” (we are Enter Shikari from London), since he said that in a funny voice I had to laugh. He assured me he would say it in a normal voice on stage though. Back they went to the preparation talk for the show, quite interesting listening to as well.

The talk went on about internet portals such as myspace, trig.com and facebook. After explaining trig.com to them they decided to sign up there as well, let’s see if they do. *haha*
Further we talked about answering messages and comments on myspace: They said they don’t answer comments, but they try answering messages. Their myspace is run by them and the management.

Other things we talked about were about the Billy Talent and Alexisonfire tour last year and some other chitchat. Very funny guys and I enjoyed talking to them. They are also extremely friendly which is getting more and more rare nowadays, unfortunately. Thank you!!!

Now they had to get all ready for the show and so did I: trying to find my way into the arena and find a nice spot. Since I was able to go anywhere I did not get told where I have to go… and even as I asked how I get into the area for watching the show from where I was at, nobody could answer me…. Wandering around I finally found my way there, found a nice spot at the seating area…

Oh, have I already written that much? Are you still with me for the actual show?
Good, so I can go on:

The arena was filling up, it was almost sold out, if not completely by now, and about 17 000 people were expected. 7:30 pm sharp Enter Shikari entered the huge arena stage and rocked. Although I had seen them before, last year during the Billy Talent tour, I did not remember that they are that good. A very energetic band jumping around on stage with a never ending power, so it seemed. They did some warm ups on stage and said the German phrase “Wir sind Enter Shikari aus England” and went on rocking with gorgeous vocals. These guys can really sing. They also did some shouting. Taking a look into the photo pit I realized that there were almost no photographers… it was empty… and I wasn’t there either, but that didn’t matter too much. I enjoyed the great show from up above. During the last songs everybody in the audience put their hands up to clap along.
Enter Shikari uses different vocal styles, is a mix between rock, punk, even some metal and the electro elements which makes a great mix. Energetic and powerful music!
Chris, the bass player, asked the audience as they looked slightly bored if they are looking forward seeing Linkin Park. The cheering didn’t sound too thrilled, but as he asked who’d win the soccer match: Germany or Turkey, the cheering for Germany was totally enthused and thrilled.

On they went with funny dances on stage, especially the drummer. The guitar player did a summersault and tried everything to get the audience warmed up completely. All this action somehow reminded me of the Disco Ensemble shows… There were lights on the guitars and bass. Enter Shikari shared water with the audience, and the drummer just couldn’t stay seated. He ran around and danced around all over the stage all the time he didn’t have to drum. And even behind the drums he was wiggling around the entire time. The singer got the crowd copying his funny noises which was funny: About 17 000 people copying roaring and such. The bass player and singer had very strong voices and could also sing in a classical way which impressed me even more. For the last song Rory and Rob did one last funky dance before their extremely short play time of only 30 minutes was over. Really great guys and I hope to catch them live again any time soon.

Now it was time for the headliner of tonight: Linkin Park, again. It’s only been a little over a week that I had seen them the last time. But this time stuffed animals were thrown on stage… Chester ran all over the stage and jumped around big time. I was a little afraid he might sprain an ankle if he keeps on jumping like that, but all went well. During an instrumental Mike and Chester were fighting with the stuffed animals behind the drums which were on a podium just like Joseph. In the middle of the two of them there was a stairway to front and back of the stage. Mike also played piano for some songs. For “Crawling” he held the mic into the crowd. Brad (guitar) and Phoenix (bass) stood between Joseph and Rob (drums) for one song. There were also little podiums on the monitors in the front of the stage were all of them jumped on and off during the performance.
They rocked the audience. Everybody jumped and sang along. Some moshed up front. Many people got up from their chairs in the tribunes. Their words of appreciation to each other were quite funny: Chester appreciated Mike’s talent and thanked him. Now the funny part: Mike appreciated Chester’s ass. Of course was the audience cheering for that one. I stood completely still during one of the faster songs and let the whole atmosphere and vibe sink in. Amazing!

Mike sat down behind his piano, began playing “Leave Out All The Rest” and asked everybody to get out their lighters or cell phones, even he got out a lighter. Chester sat down on a bar chair behind the stage during the drum solo in the middle of “Bleed It Out”. The band’s performance was very energetic and the guys gave everything. The audience was thrilled and cheered loudly. But somehow they got off beat quite fast as they clapped along.

Joseph began the encore with his intro to “A Place For My Head”, then they went on with “Faint” and closed the whole show with “One Step Closer”, after Mike asked who was a fan of which album and who was fan from the very beginning, since the album “Hybrid Theory”. Chester bowed down several times to thank the audience and threw his shirt into the crowd at the end. That was it, one hour and twenty minutes of Linkin Park live, with great light and much power.

Everybody went out now, still singing songs of the night. They all had a blast.

Links:
Enter Shikari Official
Enter Shikari MySpace
Linkin Park Official
Linkin Park MySpace