As the October weather continues to flip flop between autumn and early summer one thing is hot and that’s the inside of Portsmouth Guildhall, which is packed to the brim with people excited to see one of the hottest new(ish) bands on the scene – Electric Callboy.
First up to warm up any part of the buzzing audience that is still not up to California temperature is As Everything Unfolds – all brightly coloured guitars, keyboard samples and a frontwoman who walks the stage like she knows it won’t be long before its her band headlining.
Unfortunately for them they are suffering from a severe case of ‘support band sound’, but it is clear they are tight as fuck, especially given their use of samples, which this writer doesn’t always agree with. There’s enough members of the band to do backing vocals without some of those needing to be samples and the use of drum triggers instead of just a good fat live kit sound was a little off putting, but that said, when given the risk of the aforementioned support band sound’ maybe that was a wise decision.
By the end of the set most of the floor is cheering well enough and a respectable amount of cheering goes up when singer Charlie Rolfe announces their upcoming headlining tour.
The main event though, begins before it even starts, with a background music tape that one can only assume is, in fact Barney Stinson’s Get Hyped Mix, so by the time the video intro leads us all into Tekkno Train, the place is ready to go off and go off it does.
The use of video screens on the stage is very effective in terms of lights, sounds and even a spot of karaoke for those not cool enough to know all the lyrics.
We get our first of several salvos of confetti cannons for MC Thunder II, while Hate/Love gets everyone clapping to the beat at the start, before the most mathcore middle 8 possibly ever performed in the prestigious venue, that once saw Slipknot entice the crowd to rip out the seats.
As the audience sings happy birthday to drummer David Friedrich he treats us all to a drum solo backed by a remix of Sandstorm (of course) which leads the band nicely into Hypa Hypa, not giving the audience any quarter to catch their breath.
Finally there is a bit of a breather as the road crew piece together a piano, which the band have insisted is in the shape of a penis, bringing a whole new meaning to tickling the ivories.
A quick blast of Let it Go for shits and giggles followed by the entire room singing a word perfect I Want it That Way by one of the biggest boy bands in America takes us into Hurricance, and it really begins to sink in just how popular this band is and how much they have honed their craft, to not just put on a show, but create a whole party for 90 mins.
Charlie Rolfe returns to the stage to help out on Fuckboi and it’s more confetti cannons before the first encore of Pump It and Mindreader, then the natural ending on We Got The Moves complete with costume change to match the video.
With the entire tour sold out it seemed clear the band really wanted to give people their money’s worth – they were tight, they were fun, they were charismatic and after they took their bows and the house lights came up, vocalist Nico Sallach led the audience in one more chorus of ...Moves and fetched a t-shirt cannon.
Electric Callboy – you have the moves and the sounds. See you again soon.
