GalleryDitch This MagazineNovember 30, 2023gallery, live, melbourne, Rebecca Houlden

Electric Callboy + Self Deception + Future Static @ PICA 29-11-23

GalleryDitch This MagazineNovember 30, 2023gallery, live, melbourne, Rebecca Houlden

photos: Rebecca Houlden @rebecca_houlden

German electronicore band Electric Callboy returned to Australia this week for another sell out tour, following their visit exactly one year ago for Good Things Festival where they were one of the hottest bands to see live at the festival.

The venue was packed full from early in the night, with the line for Electric Callboy merchandise snaking all the way around the venue as Melbourne's Future Static opened the night, followed by Stockholm's Self Deception.

Fans packed in the undercover of PICA (a relatively new music venue in Port Melbourne that's essentially a huge outdoor cattle shed) while the rain drizzled outside, and by the time Electric Callboy took the stage after 9pm their fans were so squashed in the mosh pit that you could feel the heat coming off them. Once the band took to the stage for their both equally impressive and hectic live performance, members of the crowd were being pulled out left, right and centre for either being crushed, injured from a crowd surfer, or they needed fresh air.

The band opened with three of their most popular hits - Tekkno Train, MC Thunder II (Dancing Like A Ninja), and Spaceman. They're constantly jumping and dancing around as their two vocalists Kevin Ratajczak and Nico Sallach work the crowd from up the front and swap vocals duties - Ratajczak on the growling vocals, while Sallach takes care of the more melodic cleaner parts.

The band comment that they always talk too much, but it's their funny banter in German accents that make them so likeable. Ratajczak sits down on the front of the stage and says to the crowd "Sometimes you have to sit down and take it all in. We wrote all these songs back home and now we're on the other side of the world in f*cking Australia, so thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts." Cue the intro for their song Arrow Of Love with heart graphics playing on the video background behind them.

The band are joined by their friend Eric Vanlerberghe from I Prevail on vocals for Hypa Hypa (he's in town for Good Things Festival this week). Later vocalist Ratajczak tells the crowd they want to help cool the crowd down, and ask everyone to get out their phone torches as they launch into a partial cover of Frozen's Let It Go on keyboard and then Backstreet Boys' I Want It That Way.

Part of Electric Callboy's appeal is their comedic humour and matching costumes demonstrated in their video clips, and throughout the night there's multiple costume changes including matching 80s tracksuits for Pump It, and white jumpers with brown bob wigs for every member as seen in their video for We Got The Moves during their encore.

The band are, no pun intended, electric live. Their songs are fun, catchy and danceable, and the band members are fun, energetic and loveable. What's not to love?