I arrived at Chain Reaction with my cousin Sean to see Enter Shikari in the middle of a photo shoot at “Off the Chain” the record/ clothing store next to Chain Reaction. After a couple minutes of waiting, we were joined by two strapping young men. Roughton “Rou” Reynolds (vocals/electronics) and Robert Rolfe (Drums) who came to us with the most charming English smiles I’ve ever encountered. Right away they ask “Would you guys like to do this in the van?” and with the giddiness of a Japanese schoolgirl we hopped in the van. And in this moment, I thought to myself “it’s going to be such a task deciphering these thick English accents.”
RM Justin: Do you guys know that you are on Madden ’08?
Rou: Yeah. Football game.
Rob: American football.
RM Justin: Do you know how that happened?
Rou: Well, EA sports. You know at the beginning of EA Sports games they say “EA Sports: it’s in the game” because we’re quite big EA Sports fans, we used to do this thing on stage where I would say “EA Sports” and the crowd would shout “It’s in the game!” And I think that somehow they picked up on that and they were like “it’s pretty cool that you’re doing that. Would you like to be on Madden ’08?” And that was like crazy because John Madden was one of the first games I ever got on the Sega Megadrive (the European version of the Sega Genesis) it was like Madden ’95 or something like fuckin’ old school and it was like one of my favorite games so it’s pretty cool to be on there.
RM Justin: Who do you guys think is easier: British girls or American girls?
Rob: American, because we have the accents.
RM Justin: What’s your favorite sexual position?
Rou: Ooh, that’s a question we’ve never been asked.
Rob: Doggie is pretty fun.
Rou: I’m trying to think of a really exclusive one.
Rob: Dunno, there’s one that I do, I don’t think it’s got a name. You kind of gotta just intertwine your legs *diagrams how to do it with his fingers* and you kind of take them from behind and you’re not facing them cause you’re on top of them. I don’t think it’s got a name.
Rou: You kind of just twist them.
Rob: It’s kinda scissoring.
Rou: I’m going to just say “the Rusty Trombone”
RM Justin: I don’t even know what that one is, I’m definitely going to look that one up. (Apparently it’s when you get a rimjob while getting a reach around. Hmmmm.)
RM Justin: What do you think of the Spice Girls re-uniting?
Rob: Don’t think too much of it to be honest.
Rou: I haven’t really been thinking of it at all really.
RM Justin: I think you guys played in Hollywood the same day as them. I went to eat in Hollywood last night and a couple girls walked wearing Spice Girls shirts.
Rob: How old were they? I’m quite intrigued.
RM Justin: I’d say about 14-15 years old.
Rob: They might be too young to even remember them.
RM Justin: Do you guys prefer blondes or brunettes?
Rou: It don’t really have a preference.
Rob: Blondes for fun, brunettes for girlfriends. Saying that my girlfriend at the moment is blonde. I dunno, it doesn’t really make much difference to be honest.
Rou: Yeah, better at the same time.
Rob: Yeah, one blonde and one brunette.
RM Justin: Who in your band do you think masturbates the most?
Rou: Um. Me probably.
*Rob nods and looks at Rou*
Rob: Yeah, I watch him.
RM Justin: Have you guys ever seen 2 girls, 1 cup?
Rou: I don’t know what that is.
RM Justin: It’s this big thing on the internet right now. Basically it’s two girls, one girl shits in a cup and the other girl eats it and they both end up eating the shit, and vomiting all over each other.
Rou: What? Jesus.
Rob: 2 girls, 1 cup. We’re going to have to look that up. There’s a site called tubgirl.com.
Rou: Meatspin.com, it’s pretty dirty
Rob: Shitfreaks.com, that’s a shiteating one.
Rou: We could be here for a while, talking about shit-eating.
RM Justin: What bands or artists do you think other people should listen to?
Rob: Pendulum.
Rou: Yeah have you heard of them?
RM Justin: Yes, I have.
Rou: They’re just getting big over here. Um. Jose Gonzales. I dunno whose big over here and who isn’t.
Rob: the Postal Service.
Rou: Your Demise, a local band right by us quite big on the whole southern hardcore scene there in England. Venetian Snares, they’re like a crazy electronic band, not really drum ‘n bass it’s a bit more technical.
Rob: It’s a bit more electronica.
RM Justin: I met some kids last night that flew all the way from the UK to see you guys.
Rob: Yeah we met them.
RM Justin: That’s pretty crazy though. They say you guys sell out shows all the way out there so they might as well fly out here and see you play at smaller venues. Which is pretty ridiculous.
Rou: Yeah, we have people that come to like Paris from places that are placed around Europe. But that’s the first time we’ve ever heard of anyone flying out that far.
RM Justin: What are the biggest differences between the scene here as opposed to the UK?
Rob: Probably the drinking, a lot less people over here are drunk at shows. Probably because of the age limit, it’s legal to drink at 18 in England and 21 over here. That’s a big difference. The accent too.
Rou: There isn’t that much of a difference really, we always think there’s a lot of enthusiasm over here, but saying that this tour has been a bit dry with involvement with the crowd aside from our show in San Francisco. That was wicked, that was really good fun. We’ve had our share of bad luck like in Vancouver, Alexisonfire was playing down the street and apparently there was 2 local hardcore bands were playing their last show ever. So there was only like 15 people or something, we felt lucky just to have those people there.
RM Justin: Any last words?
Rob: Rock on!
Rou: Yeah!
Chain Reaction that night was pretty much sold out and they got the highest energy from the crowd that they got all tour long. Complete with playing some Drum ‘N Bass and the entire band dancing on stage, Rou getting on Chris Batten’s (bassist/vocals) shoulders and jumping into the crowd, and the band’s famous human pyramid in the pit. Enter Shikari is one of the most energetic live bands I have ever seen. It was definitely a night to remember for all who attended the show that night.
-Justin Enriquez