Rockhal, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg28th April 2023
Electric Callboy - “Tekkno Tour ‘23”
One of the most famous German Metal bands at the moment visited Luxembourg on Friday and turned the Rockhal into a party dance floor. The band in question is ELECTRIC CALLBOY. In the last few years, the guys from Castrop-Rauxel have been in the media quite often. Be it drummer David Friedrich winning the Bachelorette and participating in the jungle camp, the departure of former singer Sushi, the unsuccessful Eurovision Song Contest application or the change of their band name. After ten years of band history, the guys from the Ruhr area have managed to get into the front ranks of the German top acts. This was also noticeable on Friday night at the Rockhal, which was very nearly sold out.
Formed in 2010 under the name ESKIMO CALLBOY, the band has already made plenty of noise in its first decade of existence, picking up newcomer awards, achieving top ten placements and causing a worldwide sensation, but judging by what’s been going on in the last two years, that was just the prelude. Since singer Nico Sallach, who joined the band in 2020, the guys from Castrop-Rauxel have been really going for it! The very first single with him broke all previous dimensions: ‘Hypa Hypa’ not only reached over 60 million plays on YouTube and the usual streaming portals. In April 2022, the band announced their sixth album ‘Tekkno’ which was released in September. ‘Tekkno’ entered the German charts at number 1 in its first week of release, the highest ranking achieved by an ELECTRIC CALLBOY album.
Music & Performance
At quarter to 10 ELECTRIC CALLBOY entered the stage after a short introduction of a train attendant and immediately got into the evening with ‘Tekkno Train’ including confetti rain and some fire for ‘MC Thunder II’. The audience was immediately into it. Within a few minutes, Nico Sallach as singer, Kevin Ratajczak as shouter and the three instrumentalists set off one bomb after the other, leaving very few breathers in the 100 minutes of playing time. Three instrumentalists? Yes. Unfortunately, guitarist Daniel couldn’t attend the Luxembourg show due to familiar reasons. With ‘The Scene’, the gentlemen also performed older works, but by ‘Castrop X Spandau’ at the latest, the Rockhal was literally shaking, and the fire was lit up again, with the flames from the stage literally being felt all the way to the back of the hall. Even for those who don’t quite feel at home in post-hardcore and metalcore, it's really hard to escape this spectacle. It just had so much speed, energy, playfulness, and dynamism.
Certainly, ‘Mindreader’ is known as the more serious note of the album ‘Tekkno’. The performance to this song was flawless and the clip in the background provided the right vibe. The band, of course, didn't hesitate to get the audience pumped up. It so happened that the audience had to sit down for the intro of ‘Best Day’ and then jump around as much as possible. Of course, a drum solo could not be missing, but here a sample of Darude’s ‘Sandstrom’ was used, which provided the necessary “tekkno” in this solo, for which drummer David was praised with loud cheers. The time had come to really get the party going and with sexy outfits the guys returned to the stage for ‘Hypa Hypa’, the temperature rising noticeably, and that was certainly not only due to the flames on stage. During the chorus, it looked like a Scooter concert, as you would expect. ‘Fuckboi’ also turned out to be one of the more popular songs from the ‘Tekkno’ album and was well received. Singer Maria Lessing from the support band FUTURE PALACE helped out here vocally, with Maria delivering a very good performance.
With an unexpected acoustic block, the band had a surprise for their fans: not only that the mood was getting more romantic, they also had a piano in the shape of a penis. The crowd was thrilled by this and the band members once again proved their creativity and sense of humour. They played a cover medley with ‘Careless Whisper’ by GEORGE MICHAEL, ‘Let it Go’ from the Disney film Frozen, ‘When You Say Nothing At All’ by RONAN KEATING and ‘I Want It That Way’ by the BACKSTREET BOYS, before returning to harder sounds with ‘Parasite’. The acoustic medley was very popular among the audience and was sung along with all their heart. Especially, the ‘I Want It That Way’ version was sung so loudly that it was almost like being at a BACKSTREET BOYS concert. The set ended with ‘MC Thunder’ and left the crowd hungry for more. After a short break, they came back on stage for an encore. Those who are familiar with the band could of course guess that the musicians would use the time to change and open the encore with ‘Pump It’, dressed appropriately in tracksuits.
And so it was: Sexy tight suits, sweatbands, and wigs. Jane Fonda in the house! What followed were tongue exercises that belonged to ‘Spaceman’, before things really got going with straight haircuts during ‘We Got Moves’, time for the last confetti cannons and loud roars from the crowd. After a collective photo, with the whole hall doing their best to be in the picture, the audience was able to go home satisfied and sweaty.
Setlist
01. Tekkno Train
02. MC Thunder II (Dancing Like a Ninja)
03. Hate/Love
04. The Scene
05. Castrop X Spandau
06. Supernova
07. Arrow of Love
08. Mindreader
09. Best Day
10. Drum Solo
11. Hypa Hypa
12. Crystals
13. Fuckboi
14. Hurrikan
15. Careless Whisper / Let It Go / When You Say Nothing at All / I Want It That Way
16. Parasite
17. MC Thunder
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18. Pump It
19. Spaceman
20. We Got the Moves
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 9
Sound: 9
Light: 8
Total: 8.8 / 10
All Pictures by Elena Arens
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