It’s the beginning of a new era for German metal/electronica band Electric Callboy and the hype has never been more real. The group roared into Arizona Financial Theatre, performing for a packed house alongside Polaris and a metric ton of confetti for one memorable Sunday night.
Aussie metalcore group Polaris provided the opening salvo for the night with their firebrand songs pumping up the crowd from the very first song. Vocalist Jamie Hails prowled across the stage, lit from below by the raised platforms beneath his feet while the rest of the band bashed away at songs like “Inhumane”, “Overflow” and “Hypermania”. The band’s magnetic stage presence pulled the audience into their orbit for a riveting performance, leaving them searching for a second wind of energy before the night’s headliner.
Electric Callboy quite literally dropped the curtain on their Tanzneid Tour, emerging from a cloud of fog right into their signature theatricality- all while being highly encouraged by the screaming fans filling the room from the pit to the ceiling. The band is joined again by former Sum 41 drummer Frank Zummo, which was fitting for their metalcore cover of the defunct band’s hit “Still Waiting”. The band shed their initial group costume of metallic puffer vests into 80’s-inspired tracksuits for “Hypa Hypa” and “MC Thunder”, all while ensuring that no one in the room remained seated as they showered the pit in masses of confetti.
The band seemed to be drawing from an impossibly deep reservoir of energy, keeping the audience dancing and headbanging along to older songs and new tracks from their latest EP. They also threw in a lighthearted cover of Blink-182’s “All the Small Things” mashed up with “Bodies” to really get the room singing along.
Electric Callboy let Zummo have a spotlight moment with a crashing drum solo as vocalists Nico Sallach and Kevin Ratajczak snuck into the pit for a special acoustic moment surrounded by a respectful circle of fans. Running through “Fuckboi” and “a cover of a cover of a cover” (“Everytime We Touch”, the Maggie Reilly version of a Cascada classic), the two made their way back to the stage to finish the set strong.
The pit was moving and grooving for “Elevator Operator” before the main portion of the set closed out, but they didn’t make the theatre wait long for an encore. With collaborators Babymetal projected on the screen behind them, the energy was once again dialed up for “RATATATA”. The night came to a very reluctant end on “Spaceman” and “We Got the Moves” but Phoenix was still amped up as the audience exited the venue buzzing with the excitement of another incredible show with Electric Callboy.
