Enter Shikari / Feed The Rhino / Allusondrugs / Fatherson

Tonight is the night, the night that the country celebrates all things great about British music. Tonight the nation tunes into ITV for the Brit Awards, tunes in to commemorate the success of the music industry over the past year. It's party time! But something's not right. When I said that the country will be celebrating all things great about British music, well, that was a lie. It was a lie because for the most part any music that could be classified as rock is ignored.

This is not meant as a bitter rant, but in this day and age a guitar is the kiss of death to any real level of respect from organisations that can make or break bands. Radio airplay is harder to come by, any press other than the dedicated publications is rare and on a night like tonight, you can almost forget about an award such as a Brit. Just look at Kanye West's disrespect of Beck at the recent Grammy's ceremony, and you will catch a glimpse of society's view of real musicians. There is hope for rock but only if the face fits, Royal Blood (and deservedly so) are an example of this.

For the large part however guitar music is forgotten, assigned to the history books or so most people would believe. The millions of people that will undoubtedly be tuning in to see Ant & Dec presenting meaningless awards to the acts that they are told to like would be better off at their local music venue supporting the hard working artists striving to reach the level of achievement their peers were able to reach. That's why tonight I'm in Norwich at the UEA LCR for a truly revolutionary band that deserves the attention of wider British public.

That band is St. Albans own Enter Shikari who are on the road in support of their latest album 'The Mindsweep' which was released last month and reached number six in the UK Albums Chart. Enter Shikari are a band who have amassed something of a cult following and that following sees that most dates of their current tour are sold out, including tonight's.

The venue is filling up nicely as tonight's opening act, the brilliant Fatherson, make their way to the stage. The bill tonight is pretty eclectic and it's the Scottish rockers who get things started with a short but very sweet set which demonstrates just why they are building such a strong reputation. It's clear that our headliners aren't afraid of being upstaged by the supporting cast because they've brought along three exciting live acts to create an evening of great music.

Following Fatherson onstage tonight are Allusondrugs, a young band from Yorkshire making waves on the live scene following a string of impressive support slots. Tonight they further solidify their status as ones to watch with another set of their grunge infused songs including the catchy 'Am I Weird'. But with barely time to catch a breath we have another quick set change and we are underway with our main support in the shape of Feed The Rhino who are by far the heaviest band on tonight's bill.

The crowd have already been really into tonight and although appreciative of Fatherson and Allusondrugs they ramp things up for Feed The Rhino. A five-piece from Kent Feed The Rhino like the bands before have honed their craft will a solid touring schedule and ferocious live shows. The LCR is soon turned into an intense mosh pit which sees bodies flying everywhere including singer Lee Tobin. I'd say that Feed The Rhino won over the audience but from the reaction I'd say most in attendance were already clued in.

If the three excellent supports weren't enough to break the bodies of the audience tonight then our headliners Enter Shikari would finish the job. With a ten minute countdown commenced the crowd were in party mode before the band even hit the stage but when Rou Reynolds, Rory Clewlow, Chris Batten and Rob Rolfe walk out the venue erupts into the sort mosh come rave that only Enter Shikari can produce.

With an already eclectic blend of genres on show tonight, our headliners are probably one of the most eclectic bands on the scene. It's hard to pigeonhole them into any certain genre and I won't try now, for all intents and purposes they are their own genre and that's one of the reasons for their success. It may also be a reason why they aren't at the O2 Arena tonight for the Brit Awards. Joe Public is sadly too keen to categorize its music and craves labels such as pop, dance, rock, metal etc and just doesn't know what to do with a polarising act such as Enter Shikari.

Well Ant & Dec's loss is Norwich's gain because Enter Shikari proceed to do what they do best and that's ignite the passion and energy of a crowd and turn it into something truly unique. I mentioned the famous O2 Arena in London just now and Enter Shikari are a band that people have talked about stepping up to arena level for some time now and with a show likes tonight's it's easy to see why. The music, the light show, the crowd interaction is all there and could easily see them step up sooner rather than later.

'The Mindsweep' takes centre stage within the setlist tonight with the likes of 'The Last Garrison' and 'Anaesthetist' sitting nicely alongside older favourites 'Mothership' and 'Juggernauts'. As 'Sssnakepit' brings the show to an end Enter Shikari justify my decision to skip a 56 year old woman cling to her youth (if not the stage) and observe some true musical pioneers at work.