Enter Shikari had released their second album Common Dreads in 2009. ‘No Sleep Tonight’ was released as its second single in September of that year, and it turned out to be the last one from it. But it wasn’t too long after – in January 2010 – that the band announced Tribalism, a compilation of B-sides, remixes and live tracks made to – I guess – round out the Common Dreads era as a treat for the fans before the bandmembers went their separate ways and regrouped to make their next record after some touring. A week or so after its unveiling, the music video for the second song on the compy, ‘Thumper’, was released on Kerrang!’s website before officially being uploaded onto the band’s YouTube channel a few days later. I barely remember when I saw/heard the song for the first time. It must have been around that period. I’m going to put it down to me seeing the video on MTV2 and thinking “Hell yes.” I feel that’s the most likely origin story.

In fact, yeah, it was watching the music video that introduced me to the song because I’m sure I was tripped out by the whole rotoscoping effect happening throughout and how uncanny the drawings made the band look, getting more distorted and freakier as the song progressed. I liked the whole package. ‘Thumper’, to me, doesn’t sound to dissimilar to the songs that appeared in the track list for Common Dreads. Maybe in another universe, it’s slotted right in there somewhere. It certainly tackles what I think is a main subject approached throughout that album, that being a general frustration with our pacific society and a need to rise up and take action before it gets too late. That’s all over this song, and not in a way that it has to be spelled out for you to understand. “We can’t keep deferring action only surviving by the skin of our teeth.” “Tonight, the motionless must vacate so we can accelerate out of a stagnant society.” “It’s intrinsic that we rise to our feet.” Nothing else needed, really.

Apparently, the band haven’t played this live since what looks like a homecoming show in December 2010, their last of that year, before they resumed touring in March 2011. ‘Thumper’ really was a 2010 special. It’s the last Enter Shikari song you’ll see on this blog. It also happens to be the last Enter Shikari track I truly cared for, sad to say. Not due to anything on the band’s part. It would be 2012 when A Flash Flood of Colour was given to the public as the band’s third album, and in the three years between that and Common Dreads I’d began listening to The Beatles, Beatles solo stuff, The Who… I’d gone through They Might Be Giants’ discography. My music tastes had changed thoroughly. But damn, the Enter Shikari songs I like, that I’ve written about on here, I enjoy a lot. A lot. Actually, I haven’t listened to ‘Enter Shikari’, ‘Gap in the Fence’, or ‘Hectic’ in a long, long time. Even then, I at least wouldn’t hesitate putting on Common Dreads today and letting it go from start to finish, always thought that was a good one. Salute to Enter Shikari, thanks for all the music, keep on making more. That’s all.