Live Review: Electric Callboy Turn Chaos Into Catharsis in Perth
By Sheldon Ang
Photography by Sheldon Ang Photography
TANZNEID World Tour – Australia – 5th September 2026 at RAC Arena Perth Western Australia
The German rave-metal provocateurs delivered a ridiculous, relentless and surprisingly emotional show built on spectacle, sweat and absurdity.
Imagine sonic chaos: the heaviest metalcore fused with the grindiest doof-doof techno, all firing at hyper-speed. Yet somehow, through the noise, Electric Callboy make it cinematic – absurd, cathartic and oddly beautiful. Their sound is a full-body collision of rave euphoria, breakdown brutality and tongue-in-cheek spectacle, a cacophony that seems engineered to hijack mind, body, spirit and soul.
Formed in Germany, the six-piece Electric Callboy have become one of modern heavy music’s most gleefully unclassifiable acts, welding metalcore breakdowns to EDM hooks, Eurodance absurdity and knowingly ridiculous humour. Formerly known as Eskimo Callboy, the band’s rise has been powered by viral, high-energy anthems that turn heaviness into a party without ever letting the joke weaken the musicianship. On stage, that contradiction becomes the whole point.
Coldrain and Ice Nine Kills to Come
Before a single note hit, the show announced its own ridiculous scale. “Tanzneid – Electric Callboy” was printed across the curtain separating the stage from the real world. At T-minus one, smoke plumes rose, the curtain dropped with the theatre of a KISS entrance, and the crowd erupted. All six members stood high on stage with hoods pulled over their heads, wrapped in mystery and matching metallic padded vests. The quilted, armoured look gave them a futuristic tekkno aesthetic – part Eurovision, part sci-fi supervillain, and entirely Electric Callboy. Some might call it cheesy. In this context, it felt like German art in motion.
“Are you ready?” growled vocalist Kevin Ratajczak.
Tanzneid sparked the night into motion.
The opener was chaotic, fast, loud and space-age. Nico Sallach carried the clean vocals while Kevin Ratajczak supplied the growls, the two trading lines as guitarists Daniel “Danskimo” Haniß and Pascal Schillo crossed the stage with restless energy. Bassist Daniel Klossek locked the low end to the drums, giving the song its physical punch while the crowd jumped on the beat and screamed “Tanzneid” at exactly the right moments, punctuating the song with chants of “Oi! Oi! Oi!” as lights painted the stage like hell breaking open.
“Make some noise… are you ready?” came the call again, as the lights pulsed to the cadence of the music. The matching shoulder pads gave the band a cartoonish menace, somewhere between General Zod and a gym-rave invasion force.
That villainy was personified by the growled vocals: theatrical, exaggerated and heavy enough to make the room feel like it was being dragged into the pit. The crowd answered with another “Oi! Oi! Oi!” chant.
It was the start of a show built on excess: all volume, all spectacle, and unmistakably made in Germany.
Then came Still Waiting, the Sum 41 cover, reimagined like someone had dropped a V8 engine into a Camry. The familiar punk-rock frame remained, but Electric Callboy loaded it with more grunt, more speed and a much heavier centre of gravity.
A loud bang followed, then a fiery inferno of sparks burst across the front of the stage. It was arena spectacle with no interest in subtlety – and the room loved it.
“Are you down for a good time?” the band shouted before the drums rolled the audience into the next blast.
The vests came off. After all, it was hotter than hell, at least metaphorically, and probably close enough physically with sparks firing across six cylinders.
“You have to move, you have to sing, and for the next song I just need one sound…” Then came the whistle of a steam train. As expected, Tekkno Train arrived at full speed: Eurodance gloss welded to metalcore force, cartoonish rave chaos revving at redline. Yet beneath the blast beats and synthetic madness, there was still a hint of boy-band melody trapped inside the metalcore bass.
That was only the first three songs, and when the band paused, the break felt necessary. The energy had already been relentless, and the staging suggested a new chapter was about to begin.
A sun appeared on the backdrop like a new day dawning behind the silhouette of a Transformer-like robot. The pause had also been a costume change, setting up the show’s second personality.
The band exploded back into view wearing blazing red PUMA tops, headbands and 70s disco wigs, as if they had been built for speed and aerobics. It was a perfect visual shift for the next run of songs, turning the stage into a retro fitness rave.
Hypa Hypa remains Electric Callboy’s tongue-in-cheek Eurodance revival anthem, and the fluoro wear and headbands captured its spirit: neon, silly, hyper-energetic and deliberately nostalgic. MC Thunder brought the comic swagger, leaning into Euro-glam excess before the set drove toward Pump It, their gym-themed metalcore workout track. By the time Hypa Hypa properly detonated, the audience had turned into one collective shout. It may have been a cacophony, but every lyric was screamed with commitment, and the strobes heightened the sense that the arena was flickering in and out of control.
Hurrikan brought more Eurodance absurdity before the set swerved into a brief DJ interlude. Blink-182’s All the Small Things landed first, and the crowd took over the chorus immediately. Then came Drowning Pool’s Bodies, with the entire arena echoing “Let the bodies hit the floor” on repeat. Lights flashed, flames spilled, and the band rebuilt the room into a wall of sound.
Throughout the night, the pacing was end-to-end cathartic chaos: a constant swing between brutality, comedy, nostalgia and pure rave release.
“Can we make some space in the middle?”
The audience obeyed, and within seconds the floor became a whirlwind. Bodies ran in circles like a human whirlpool, massive enough to swallow anyone not ready for it.
There was also a drum solo by Frank Zummo, formerly of Sum 41, reflected on the back screen by the looming robot visuals. It gave the set a rare moment of focused musicianship amid all the chaos with plummeting savagery of the drums, reminding everyone that beneath the memes, costumes and pyrotechnics, Electric Callboy are a tightly drilled live machine.
“It needs the ups and downs,” the band explained. “You need the high-energy part, and you need the acoustic part… and the most emotional part you can get. This is where it all comes from.”
Believe it or not, that emotional pivot was Backstreet Boys’ I Want It That Way.
Sitting in a row, dressed in white like a 2000s boy band video come to life, the band leaned fully into the joke and then somehow made it sincere.
In one of the night’s strangest and most joyful turns, the show went from metalcore fury to boy-band balladry, with thousands of mostly metal fans singing along as if the arena had briefly become karaoke night.
They also played The Way You Are, a newer song that opened with the warm, nostalgic glow of a great early-2000s pop track before dropping into the hyperactive rave-metal energy that has become their signature. It was another reminder that Electric Callboy’s joke works because the songwriting underneath is real.
Then came Ratatata, one of Electric Callboy’s signature tracks. It was chaotic, but deliberately so: Haniß and Schillo moved side to side under blade-like beams of light, their guitars slicing through the rave pulse while Klossek’s bass kept the floor shaking beneath them. By then, nearly every voice in the room knew the lyrics, and the stage had become a synchronised rave-metal machine.
The night ended with Spaceman and one final surge of neon-metal absurdity. By then, the point of Electric Callboy was obvious: they are not asking anyone to choose between heaviness and humour, brutality and melody, rave culture and metalcore. They take all of it, throw it into a blender, and blast it back with such conviction that the ridiculous becomes triumphant.
Sheldon Ang Media would like to thank Dallad Does PR, Destroy All Lines, and Electric Callboy for the Media Accreditation.
Electric Callboy are touring across Australia. Tickets and info are available from Destroy All Lines.
Setlist in Perth
TANZNEID — TANZNEID (2024)
Still Waiting — Sum 41 cover (2002)
Tekkno Train — TEKKNO (2022)
Hypa Hypa — MMXX (2020)
MC Thunder — The Scene (2017)
Pump It — TEKKNO (2022)
Hurrikan / Overkill / All the Small Things / Bodies — Covers medley
- Hurrikan — Electric Callboy single (2019)
- Overkill — Motörhead cover (1979)
- All the Small Things — Blink‑182 cover (1999)
- Bodies — Drowning Pool cover (2001)
Revery — TANZNEID (2024)
Hypercharged — TANZNEID (2024)
Mindreader — TANZNEID (2024)
The Savior — TANZNEID (2024)
Drum Solo — Non‑album performance
I Want It That Way — Backstreet Boys cover (1999)
The Way You Are — Others (non‑album track)
Heartclub — TANZNEID (2024)
Everytime We Touch — Maggie Reilly cover (1992)
Let the Good Times Roll — TANZNEID (2024)
Elevator Operator — TANZNEID (2024)
RATATATA — BABYMETAL × Electric Callboy (2023)
Spaceman — TEKKNO (2022)
We Got the Moves — TEKKNO (2021 single / 2022 album)
About Sheldon Ang Media: Sheldon Ang, photojournalist, writer and the founder of Perth-based Sheldon Ang Media (est. May 2022) has been accredited to over 250 of the hottest acts including Taylor Swift (ERAS Tour in Sydney), Coldplay (Perth), AC/DC, KISS, Metallica, Iron Maiden, RHCP and P!NK with reviews shared by the likes of Belinda Carlisle, UB40, Delta Goodrem, and Roxette. He has interviewed the late Ace Frehley (KISS), Suzi Quatro, John Steel (The Animals), Frank Ferrer (Guns N Roses), Phil X (Bon Jovi), Andrew Farris (INXS) plus over 100 artists. He’s also a contributor on Triple M Radio as a music journalist.
