“It went off to death”

This is the quote that will forever define this night. Let’s rewind a bit first though. 

Electric Callboy had initially been due to hit the UK in September and it feels like I have been waiting to see them for about 30 billion years. Or maybe it’s two. I don’t know, I’ve been known to exaggerate. Unfortunately for September Sarah, the band were forced to postpone their UK/European and USA dates due to health concerns for vocalist Nico. AND then on the day I should have seen them, I split with my then man friend. It was just a sucky time to be September Sarah. 

November Sarah is much perkier and grateful that Electric Callboy have managed to rearrange their tour so quickly. Glowsticks at the ready and a belly full of Archies, we (we being myself, Kyle of Ashen Reach fame and Runcorns infamous Metal Yeti Mike) plant ourselves in the crowd and have a little dance to Limp Bizkit to get ourselves ready for tonight’s support act Annisokay.

Also coming from Germany and offering something a little more serious than our headliners, Annisokay are a posthardcore/metalcore type act that do one thing so incredibly well – face melting breakdowns with some ravey undertones. Now I’m a huge fan of anything that goes squeak bleep bloop or wub, so I was very much looking forward to seeing Annisokay for the first time and they did not disappoint. 

Opening with ‘Like A Parasite’, the band command the audiences attention straight from the off. The band even break away from their own set list to deliver a cover of Slipknot’s ‘Duality’ which is met with adoration and nostalgia across the crowd. Finishing with the massive ‘STFU’ , Annisokay were a great way to kickstart the audience bouncing. 

Let’s just talk about the audience for a moment. Electric Callboy fans are a special breed of party animals. There are people kitted out in  80’s style lycra leotards, bowl cut wigs, and glowsticks everywhere you look. Not to mention a blow up sheep getting flung around the crowd. We’re handed all manner of freebies, like beer mats and Fuckboi EC condoms. I’m allergic to latex but thanks anyway. I’d worried immensely pre gig I’d maybe look a little old in the crowd (like I did the time I went to a Galantis gig on my own, I must have looked like I was dropping my kids off and I was about to order a cuppa from the bar) but thankfully the age range is mixed quite well across the audience.

We don’t manage to keep our excellent spot because we are morons who need to use the bathroom and buy soft drinks but we do manage to squeeze back in near (ish) to the front left for what turns out to be a pretty decent view.

Electric Callboy are a hyperactive German Rave Metal band whose core values seem to rotate around pumping a serious amount of silliness and fun into their music. There is an element of cheese to them, just a touch of ridiculousness… and yet, they are absolutely astonishingly brilliant at what they do. 

Kicking things off with hit song ‘Pump It’ they burst onto stage in their exercise gear amidst a flurry of confetti canons and set the tone for the entire set. We’re treated to seemingly endless high energy antics from all the band members. Nico is still visibly recovering from the aforementioned health problems and is wearing some kind of ear defender, but impressively still gives the performance 101%. The rest of the band are super sharp, Kevin’s roar rising above Nico’s clean vocals.

The audience is just a sea of jumping bodies and I even go for a little dance with Kyle in the mosh pit during ‘Hurrikan’ . I have no regrets, but my knees are saying otherwise. We end the night throwing mad shapes to ‘Spaceman’ and probably my favourite EC song ‘We Got The Moves’ .

What grabbed me about the set tonight was how it felt like it could be festival headliner worthy. So many of their songs are massive hits already (‘MC Thunder’, ‘We got the Moves’, ‘Hypa Hypa’) and if this sell out tour is anything to go by it could be a sign that Electric Callboy have found the special blend of noises that set them apart from the rest and could potentially catapult them into metal superstardom. Maybe I’m just biased because I love the squeaky bleepy bloop, but I do expect the venues to get bigger in the future.

As the crowd filtered out into the frosty November darkness, I asked the lads what they thought. Kyle just grinned and said “It went off to death” and I know exactly what he means but I couldn’t explain it if I tried.  

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos! Electric Callboy, Annisokay