Review: Jack Price
Photography: Dan Maynard

Eaton’s Hill and the air is electric. Literally electric! For Electric Callboy’s final Down Under show on the Tekkno World Tour, Brisbane has unleashed one hell of a lightning storm, and tonight will be wet! From the rain. Get your mind out of the gutter.

From their humble beginnings in Castrop-Rauxel, Germany, the EC boys have steadily built their very loyal fan base. Their first EP, releasing in 2010, paved the way for their global dance domination. Renowned for their tongue and cheek lyrics and more recently, outlandish and comical music videos which are emulated by their live performances. It’s no surprise they have become the neon-soaked, fun-loving brand of goofy awesomeness that has brought so much joy all over the world.

Brisbane party goers continue to fill the Eaton’s Hill Hotel ballroom, aggressively queueing for the merch booth and bar, as emo anthems play over the house PA. Amidst the slew of newly acquired band shirts and old favs, the costumes adorned by fans are just as extreme as the band itself. Fans mimicking the costumes from the Pump It, We Got The Moves and Hypa Hypa videos are a plenty, as well as faces bedazzled, brightly coloured shirts and even one guy with an anglerfish hat! Tonight, will be as crazy as their outfits!

First to take to the stage are Melbourne’s Future Static, who emerge from the depths of backstage as Soulja Boy’s Kiss Me Through The Phone blares throughout the hall, complimented by colour LEDS across the roof. Opening with Waves, the 5-piece come out of the gate sprinting. Frontwoman Amariah Cook is living proof that size doesn’t matter and appearances can be deceiving, as she belts out some amazingly sweet clean vocals before going full demon mode with her brutal, guttural roars! The harmony of Cook’s and bassist Kira Neil vocals is almost angelic, while guitarist Ryan Qualizza beefs up the frontwoman’s howls with deep, demonic vocals.

Future Static impress with their cover of Daddy Yankees‘ Gasolina, before ending their set with Dead End from their 2020 EP Fatalist.

With a rumbling tremor of bass, Self Deception prepare to take the stage as the crowd bounces to their techno intro. Drummer Erik Eklund emerged garbed in a white mask, while bassist Patrik Hallgren opts for a more flamboyant leopard print shirt, shorts and bucket hat ensemble. Front man Andreas Clark rocks a chains and double denim number with a bare torso beneath his overcoat because of course, and guitarist Erik Eklund is the epitome of rock and roll, battle jacket ready to go to war. The Swedish rockers open with Smoke You Out, prepping the crowd to get noisy.

They immediately jump into Tic Toc and rile the crowd up throughout the set, forming circle pits and moshing. It feels like the metal spirit is returning to the Brisbane scene after such a long time without shows that the crowd no longer need instruction for destruction, and ate causing mayhem all on their own accord.

Shirtless frontman Clark thanks and praised everyone for attending before jumping into Scandinavian Dream, followed by Intoxicated Haze and Stockholm Hearts. Andreas kicks off a cover of The Look by Swedish pop rock Duo Roxette, creating an enticing singalong from the crowd.

As Self Deception begins Holy water, 5 giant pink ballons are released unto the crowded ballroom, which are immediately batted around with joy. Clark and Westphal join in when they approach the stage without missing a beat.

Amariah of Future Static is invited back to the stage to perform the final track Fight Fire With Gasoline, proving she has the talent and energy to kick it with artists with a decade more experience. The Self Deception boys take a bow centre stage, thank the crowd for coming to their final (hopefully just for now) Australian show, and snap a quick photo.

The ballroom is absolutely packed! The dull roar of conversations overlapping mixed with the occasional singalong to the house music is proof that Brisbane has no sign of slowing down. For the last leg of the tour, The Electric Callboy lads had best be prepared for a rowdy night.

The cinematic Tekkno Train conductor provides a quick safety brief and runs system checks on the crowd, as well as informing them that standing still during the performance is unacceptable. Pfft, like that was gonna happen. This is it – the Electric Callboy.. ah… boys take to the stage to a deafening roar of cheers from the Brisbane punters in their mullet wigs, fluro spandex, fake moustaches and aerobics gear. The whomping bass initiates the ride on the Tekkno Train and despite the absence of co-frontman Kevin Ratajczak, who had headed home for a family emergency as announced on the bands instagram story, the gang of comedic musical geniuses are in perfect form!

Wanting to deliver a varied set, the band didn’t rely on their most recent record to carry the show with older songs from their repertoire like MC Thunder I & II, and The Scene, which Niko Sallach explains is definitely made for jumping, all holding prominent spots in the set list.

The all German track Castrop X Spandau (originally performed with Kalle Koschinsky) is a surprise hit with the fans and adds a more upbeat club feel to the set.

Nikko proclaims to the crowd “This is our second time in Australia and this tour is completely sold out!”, and it is well deserved. Everything from the stage design and lighting effects to the sound engineering is absolutely perfect. Not to mention how well polished and synchronised the band are.

After his brief expression of gratitude to the crowd, EC bust out Aarow of Love with hands forming love hearts in their fingers shooting up from the crowd, reflecting the gratitude the vocalist had just passed on to them. At this point, the crowd was sweaty sweaty, some were even shaky shaky, but not giving up until they had finished gorging themselves on the musical delights Electric Callboy had to offer.

After drummer David Freidrich played an impressive drum solo/cover of Darude’s classic Sandstorm while the rest of the band disappeared off stage, they emerged ready to kick it off with the track that helped catapult EC into the spotlight, the massive Hypa Hypa. And wasn’t it a fucking blast! They could have hit the stage, played this one track and left, and punters would have been satisfied.

Brining the vibe down to a more aggressive mood, Parasite proved to be an absolute onslaught with the crowd, opening up a circle pit in the middle of the room, forcing anyone outside of it back like the sucking of a great tidal wave. Bodies clashed and raced around as the room spun with energy.

Nico invited the fans with “Let’s sing something together” as he began an acoustic cover of Backstreet Boys‘ I Want It That Way. If there was a single person NOT singing along with him, I would be very surprised. After the singalong, Nico seemed to be suffering some technical difficulties with his inner ears. A tech attempted to fix his equipment and the band continued on to play the amazing hit, Hurrikan. Seriously, if you havent watched the video, you need to. I’m not sure if the song was planned for the video or the video was planned for the song, either way it’s a fucking masterpiece.

After Hurrikan, Nico went to the side of the stage and removed his signature earmuffs and other equipment, palmed his microphone off to bassist Daniel Klossek and asks him to take over. The stunned bass player looked nervously out at the crowd, feeling somewhat out of his league. Not wanting to let the crowd down, they swung into action with their last track of the set, MC Thunder, as Sallach returned to the stage.

A black and white, and clearly not photoshopped, image of the Electric Callboy lads shirtless with chiseled abs, pecs so Swol you couldn’t bounce a 10c piece off them and arms like thick muscular cannons for arms, with Thank You written across their signature coloured Stripes, appeared on the backdrop signaling the end of the show. The crowd was not having it. Not at all. They cried for an encore, Döp-dö-dö-dö-döp echoing from the walls. For anyone familiar with Electric Callboy’s work, you’d know what they wanted.

Their calls were met as the screen turned black with the faces of the two vocalists in circles. They played an almost erotic-sounding message, but it turned out they were just lifting weights. The band appeared once more, ready to play a few more tracks and wouldn’t you know it, Pump It was first up. The satire, iron pumping anthem sent the crowd almost completely mental, but definitely fuel their fires. Mind reader was next, which brought the crowd from pumped up to frenzy with a circle pit engulfing the center of the room. Despite having an absolute blast, the crowd still weren’t satisfied. They knew what they came for and there would be blood if they didn’t get it.

Once more the band left the stage momentarily, re-emerging wearing with polar fleece vests and black bowl cut wigs. This was it, the crowd went absolutely bananas, cries of Döp-dö-dö-dö-döp started from every which way. The familiar techno bassline started to play, We Got The Moves. Right on cue, an eruption of glittered confetti sprayed from the stage as the single moment of the track everyone had been waiting for hit.
The track rounded up the encore and Nico asked the crowd one last favour to sing with him one last time. The chorus of the final track was sung by every single person at the venue, marking an emotional goodbye for now for the band.

As the last of the stragglers made their way through the car park, a chorus of “Döp-dö-dö-dö-döp” echoes across the open grasslands neighbouring the Eaton’s Hill Hotel, the call of thevery satisfied Electric Callboy fan. Let’s hope we hear those calls again soon.