Electric Callboy, Self Deception, Future Static @ Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide 27/11/2023
Something’s sound like they shouldn’t go together but just do. They are called oxymorons. Think of dry ice, act naturally, half full. You can add Electric Callboy to that list with their mix of guttural metal and blast beats fused with European electro dance music.
After last year’s show stealing performance at Good Things Festival, the Germans almost immediately dropped news they were coming back and the amid the mad scramble for tickets, venues – even the upgraded ones – sold out for arguably the most anticipated and eagerly awaited show of the year.
The prime spot for the colourfully adorned, Lycra wearing fans is down front and the queues way before show time alert you that this is no ordinary show. It’s an event, nay, an experience that electrifies every part of your body, soul and being.
Talking of electricity flowing throughout the room, openers Future Static have the advantage of performing to an already heaving room. Having just dropped their debut album Liminality, the band and their music is a sonic and visual mix of warm pop punk fuzziness and brutal crushing metalcore. The dual vocals of Amariah Cook and Kira Neil bounce back and forth throughout creating texture and dynamism to an already overflowing mix of styles that the audience instantly connects with.
Swedes Self Deception start turn the colour up on the nights events with bassist Patrick Hallgren dressed like a cowboy on his way to Club Tropicana, as the band bring the appetisers out for the evening with their electro, Manson flavoured music . Chuck in a version of fellow Swedes Roxette She’s Got The Look – which zaps the crowd like a hit to the chest – beach balls bouncing around and finishing with Fight Fire With Gasoline and the forty minute set has flown by before you can say ‘make mine a margarita thanks’.
We are here for the Germans Electric Callboy though. Each level is packed, expectant and the tangible sense of feeling like a kid on Christmas Eve overtakes everyone.
An opening video gets everyone clapping and then the noise from the crowd is tremendous, a surge of giddy excitement as the crowd becomes a roar, as Electric Callboy start with Tekkno Train and chants of ‘Choo choo choo’ reverberate around the room.
The venue resembles a giant bouncy castle for adults and beers, arms and legs go everywhere as MC Thunder II (Dancing Like a Ninja), Spaceman and Hate/Love rip through the crowd. The band, led by dual vocalists Kevin Ratajczak and Nico Sallach, are a frenzy themselves darting around the stage, clapping, chanting and expelling energy like it’s the first time they’ve ever done this.
The band joke with the crowd during the night – a short cover of Backstreet Boys I Want It That Way that has everyone including bar staff singing along – point out the diversity in the crowd as a couple of children literally hang from the rafters to get a closer look as the theatrical and spellbinding performance before them.
Parasite, Hurrikan and MC Thunder bring more confetti than a Greek wedding before the encore and those costumes changes that tell us a bomb is about to explode. The shell suits are donned for Pump It which creates a wave of dancing right to the very last person, before finishing with nuclear and jaw dropping We Got The Moves.
Yes, Electric Callboy, you do have the moves. This was the show of the year.
Live Review By Iain McCallum