Rocker (feedbot)
Platinum Member
As one night stands go, there’s unlikely to be another bigger, or messier, evening than Electric Callboy’s only UK date on their Tanzneid World Tour. The irreverent electro-pop-metallers set the bar incredibly high at this year’s Slam Dunk Festival – so we’ve slathered ourselves in glitter, donned our finest shell suits and thrown together as much neon as a Primark budget will allow, all to see whether they can top their summer appearance. Spoiler: the sheer awesome power of silliness has been taken up to eleven, with a side order of serious craftsmanship.
“It’s gonna get hairy in here!” – screams a guy from near the side of the stage just before ‘Tanzneid’ kicks off the show, an omen of just how rowdy the night will become. The result: the best turbocharged boyband euro clubnight this side of the eighties. Exhibiting self-aware ridiculousness while precisely tapping into a nostalgic zeitgeist, Electric Callboy thunder from their cover of Sum 41’s ‘Still Waiting’ into ‘Tekkno Train’, complete with coordinated dance moves. It’s joyous to behold, and the hype surrounding ‘Hypa Hypa’ is so real – three minutes of ridiculous throwback that’s as cheesy as it is well done; all neon palm trees and gushing intensity. A virtual guest appearance from Babymetal, who are projected on-screen, delivers a five-metre-high walking and talking cameo during ‘Ratatata’ that only adds to the total hyper-reality of the show
Despite this, it’s not the mirrorball bike helmets or the pumping chords that prove the biggest revelation: a simple YouTube search could have told us about that side of the Electric Callboy experience. Rather, it’s moments like the band popping up in the crowd to reinvent ‘Every Time We Touch’, this time as an emotional piano ballad, that form the night’s highlights. Dropping a house remix medley that includes Drowning Pool’s ‘Bodies’ as well as ‘All The Small Things’? – this is the stuff that Electric Callboy are made of. The constant, whimsical contrasts are what they do best, and that’s why we love them. But, more than that: tonight, when they play it straight for a few minutes, we’re struck by just how talented Electric Callboy are. Playing darts onstage is fun, but really letting it rip on the carnival that is ‘Revery’ and accessing your inner Parkway Drive on ‘Hate / Love’? – that’s something new; a chaser to cut through the bright set pieces. Calling back to their earlier years on a medley of older songs provides a vision of a path not chosen for Electric Callboy, and lets the mask slip for a moment to reveal just how talented they are.
“This is one for the books man, one they’re never gonna take away from us,” grins vocalist Nico Sallach, and within the whooping that echoes amongst the walls above our shuffled feet, we’re right there with then for ‘Spaceman’’s multi-lingual video game energy to propel us to the night’s final stretch. Finishing with ‘We Got The Movies’ cements the moment that the “Metal Cocktail Kraftwerk” fully germinates their seed of all-consuming fun into the kind of experience that can top festival lineups. The sheer sustained bounce of their set is exactly what is needed to blow away the autumn blues, and then some.
Kate Allvey
“It’s gonna get hairy in here!” – screams a guy from near the side of the stage just before ‘Tanzneid’ kicks off the show, an omen of just how rowdy the night will become. The result: the best turbocharged boyband euro clubnight this side of the eighties. Exhibiting self-aware ridiculousness while precisely tapping into a nostalgic zeitgeist, Electric Callboy thunder from their cover of Sum 41’s ‘Still Waiting’ into ‘Tekkno Train’, complete with coordinated dance moves. It’s joyous to behold, and the hype surrounding ‘Hypa Hypa’ is so real – three minutes of ridiculous throwback that’s as cheesy as it is well done; all neon palm trees and gushing intensity. A virtual guest appearance from Babymetal, who are projected on-screen, delivers a five-metre-high walking and talking cameo during ‘Ratatata’ that only adds to the total hyper-reality of the show
Despite this, it’s not the mirrorball bike helmets or the pumping chords that prove the biggest revelation: a simple YouTube search could have told us about that side of the Electric Callboy experience. Rather, it’s moments like the band popping up in the crowd to reinvent ‘Every Time We Touch’, this time as an emotional piano ballad, that form the night’s highlights. Dropping a house remix medley that includes Drowning Pool’s ‘Bodies’ as well as ‘All The Small Things’? – this is the stuff that Electric Callboy are made of. The constant, whimsical contrasts are what they do best, and that’s why we love them. But, more than that: tonight, when they play it straight for a few minutes, we’re struck by just how talented Electric Callboy are. Playing darts onstage is fun, but really letting it rip on the carnival that is ‘Revery’ and accessing your inner Parkway Drive on ‘Hate / Love’? – that’s something new; a chaser to cut through the bright set pieces. Calling back to their earlier years on a medley of older songs provides a vision of a path not chosen for Electric Callboy, and lets the mask slip for a moment to reveal just how talented they are.
“This is one for the books man, one they’re never gonna take away from us,” grins vocalist Nico Sallach, and within the whooping that echoes amongst the walls above our shuffled feet, we’re right there with then for ‘Spaceman’’s multi-lingual video game energy to propel us to the night’s final stretch. Finishing with ‘We Got The Movies’ cements the moment that the “Metal Cocktail Kraftwerk” fully germinates their seed of all-consuming fun into the kind of experience that can top festival lineups. The sheer sustained bounce of their set is exactly what is needed to blow away the autumn blues, and then some.
Kate Allvey