Performing: One Morning Left, Blind Channel, Electric Callboy
Concert date: Sunday, 1 May 2022
Venue: Graz / Orpheum Teater / Austria
In a sold-out Orpheum Teater in Graz, on what happened to be a public holiday, Electric Callboy finally took the stage — after a tour that had been postponed no fewer than four times. These are the same Electric Callboy who, not so long ago, were forced to change part of their name from Eskimo to Electric in the name of ‘political correctness’.
More than three hours before showtime, the queue outside the venue looked endless. You could feel the collective euphoria peaking well before a single note had been played. When the doors finally opened at seven in the evening, the most hardcore fans made a beeline straight for the barrier separating the stage from the rest of the floor. And wave after wave followed them in. Everyone was after the best spot. The crowd spanned all ages. And the variety was impossible to miss — goth-clad girls on one side, businessmen in ties on the other, the latter good for a laugh. Some people hadn’t forgotten their gym gear, let alone their rustling tracksuits.
The debauchery was expected to go off the charts, and the event promoter had stationed no fewer than eight security guards in front of the stage behind a tall safety barrier.
A full half hour before the evening got underway, the crowd was already warming up their vocal cords with spontaneous sing-alongs, laying down a perfect runway for the opening act: Finland’s One Morning Left. They’ve been a metalcore outfit since 2008, and while they don’t make it to our corner of Europe very often, their performance here fully justified their role as support for Electric Callboy. Their stage presence is right up there with the scene’s heavyweights, and their energy is closer to something you’d expect from a Japanese act like Crystal Lake. Guitarist Leevi Luoto single-handedly dismantled the myth that Finnish bands don’t know how to have fun on stage and just stand there like statues. The band worked the stage with serious skill — it felt like the Finns were playing pinball up there, in the best possible way. One Morning Left are absolutely a band with enormous potential to win over the rest of Europe and beyond. The only complaint about the set is its length, which was definitely too short. It’s rare for concertgoers to genuinely want to hear more from a support act. This time, the calls for the band to come back for an encore were completely warranted.
One Morning Left setlist:
1. Ruby Dragon
2. Neon Highway
3. !liaF cipE
4. Sinners Are Winners
5. Beat It (Michael Jackson cover)
6. You’re Dead! Let’s Disco!
After a solid half-hour break, the stage was seized by Eurovision veterans Blind Channel, also from Finland. As mentioned, they’re best known to the wider public from last year’s Eurovision with their track “Dark Side”, which finished in sixth place. Despite being known to most as ‘new-wave’ nu metallers — largely thanks to “Dark Side” — their live show had more in common with a post-hardcore band than those nu metal outfits from the turn of the millennium.
Softer and more melodic — but the crowd wasn’t put off in the slightest. Throughout the set from these hot Finns from Oulu, the audience backed them with enthusiastic participation. Any time vocalists Joel Hokka and Niko Moilanen wanted to ramp up the crowd response, they pulled it off with effortless ease. The crowning highlights of the Blind Channel experience, as expected, were their Eurovision entry Dark Side — which the crowd had been breathlessly waiting for right to the end of the set — and, just before it, their cover of Anastacia’s Left Outside Alone.
With Blind Channel too, it was the guitarist who stood out on stage. The ferocious Joonas Porko. Blind Channel’s performance proved they are a tight, well-oiled unit that doesn’t lack for experience — or battle-hardened routine. Blind Channel have been on the scene since 2013, which tends to catch off guard anyone who only discovered them at last year’s Eurovision.
Blind Channel pulled in the younger crowd especially — particularly the female contingent. The girls were going wild throughout the set, armed with a sea of banners poking up from everywhere: from the packed floor and from the balcony level alike.
Blind Channel setlist:
1. Balboa
2. Died Enough for You
3. We Are No Saints
4. Over My Dead Body
5. Lose Yourself (Eminem cover)
6. Snake
7. Timebomb
8. Bad Idea
9. Left Outside Alone (Anastacia cover)
10. Dark Side
It’s ten o’clock — at night, obviously — and the euphoria is so thick you could cut it with a knife. The Hypa Hypa banner goes up, and Electric Callboy crash in with Pump It. The crowd explodes. In less than a minute the temperature in the hall shoots up by a solid few degrees. (Almost) the full Electric Callboy lineup flies onto the stage in their full Pump It gear. Sadly, once again without ailing vocalist Kevin Ratajczak, who won’t be rejoining the band on tour until Hamburg. No worries though. Clean-vocal singer Nico Sallach (also a member of To The Rats And Wolves, among others) more than held down the fort all night, handling a solid helping of real growls along the way. After all those tongue-in-cheek videos Electric Callboy have been dropping lately, this tour finally gave audiences a proper glimpse of just how good a singer Nico actually is.
Already on Pump It the crowd was squeezing out every last atom of energy you’d expect from a typical concert crowd — you could feel the floor shaking every time the entire hall jumped in perfect unison. It wasn’t without minor technical hiccups, though. To the audience’s disappointment, there was no confetti shower in the first part of the set. But that was the least of it — other technical slips stole the spotlight. By the second song, “My Own Summer”, it was already clear the security guards were there for a reason, because the crowd showed no signs of letting up on the madness. It was like people had deliberately slept for three days just to stockpile all that energy, which was being released so gloriously inside the Orpheum that evening. Before the third number, Hate/Love, the guys did a quick costume change into “normal” clothes — though who could ever define “normal” when it comes to Electric Callboy? — and stayed in those for the rest of the main set, rounding it off with MC Thunder II (Dancing Like A Ninja).
Bang! The mandatory encore kicks off. We Got The Moves smacks you round the ears like a Balkan grandma with an Adidas slipper. The whole hall dances and bobs in unison to the track — mirroring the official music video to a tee. The place absolutely loses it on the first breakdown of the song, with its “Döp dödödö döp Döp dödödö döp Döp dödödö döp Döp dödödö döp Döp dödödö döp Döp dödödö döp”, where the crowd literally snatches the singing right out of the vocalist’s mouth and drowns him out. Just when you think there’s no topping that, the second encore lands — the hit MC Thunder. The song that put the band on the map to begin with. And we’re right back there. The security guards are shedding crocodile tears, knowing full well that if the crowd charges the barrier again, they simply won’t be able to hold them. But the crowd stays gracious. The venue’s bricks and foundations remain where they are, and the security guys can breathe out. Well, they hoped so, at least. But the spectacle wasn’t over yet. The crowd called Electric Callboy back to the stage one more time, and the band launched into Hypa Hypa — the song that gives this entire tour its name. After all that jumping, screaming, and dancing, you’d genuinely think the crowd had finally run out of gas. But again, no. When the confetti cannon finally fired its salvo at the very end, Electric Callboy took their theatrical bow.
A stellar performance from the whole band — with special credit, of course, going to singer Nico Sallach, who masterfully commanded the entire situation, and whose contribution made the show in Graz the roaring success it was. After such a long stretch of lockdowns and isolation, it feels simply fantastic to be at a show like this. A seismic concert that blasts away the Covid-19 memories and instantly puts everything back where it belongs — that old, familiar place.
This was a spectacular event, executed at the highest professional level, pulling nothing but good vibes, laughter, and pure joy out of the crowd. That kind of post-concert glow from the audience hasn’t been felt in a long time. And since the »Hypa Hypa« tour sold out in a flash, Electric Callboy have already announced their next one — titled »Tekkno«.
Electric Callboy setlist:
1. Pump It
2. My Own Summer
3. Hate/Love
4. The Scene
5. Castrop X Spandau
6. Supernova
7. Best Day
8. Back in the Bizz
9. Crystals
10. Prism (Acoustic)
11. Spaceman
12. Rehab
13. MC Thunder II (Dancing Like a Ninja)
encore:
14. We Got the Moves
15. MC Thunder
16. Hypa Hypa
Author: Denis Paradiž
Photos: Denis Paradiž
