By Jase Walker
Twenty twenty-six is certainly starting off with a massive bang so far as my Saturday in mid-January finds myself off to Netherlands’ second city, Rotterdam. January sees the continuation of Electric Callboy’s most ambitious tour yet after stomping around a massive chunk of Europe including their home country of Germany seeing many dates. It’s a bit of a change of scenery for myself with coming down to Rotterdam for AHOY, which serves as a similar venue to Amsterdam’s Bijlmer Arena.
Along for the ride are electropunk/metal crossover act, Wargasm and UK metalcore scene stalwarts, Bury Tomorrow. It’s going to be a loud one and shows that Rotterdam has the appeal to host some of the biggest acts around too!
Wargasm kicks things off with their typical energetic style and do their best to get things going for tonight’s big party. They do seem a little bit frustrated that the golden circle area isn’t quite giving them the attitude they need to get things going but it doesn’t stop them baiting out a pretty decent circle pit going to kick things off, these aren’t a band that’s satisfied unless they’re getting back the energy they deal out.
Admittedly the sound is a bit off as the guitars and instruments aren’t quite padding out all the air left by how strong the drums are. I think looking back on the other times I’ve seen Wargasm (and it’s been quite a few), this isn’t a mega engaging performance from them and I know they can do a lot better.
For what it’s worth though they’ve clearly picked up some new fans around me that have gone from being a bit indifferent to jumping around with a huge grin on their face and I think when you’re trying to get in on cross appeal with bigger acts, that’s all you can really ask for.
A 30-minute slot is always pretty tough to really make a solid impact as an opener but towards the end of the set, finishing on a much stronger vibe, the pit is more active as well as the overall sound of Wargasm coming across much better. I’d say on the whole it was decent, not the best they’ve done but still solid.
Bury Tomorrow kick off with an emergency broadcast signal and message aping on the ‘Purge’ films, it’s go time!
Opening with ‘Choke’, I’m guessing tonight’s set is going to be an all-killer set rather than leaning too heavily on the most recent album. While I’m overjoyed that I get to see these again I still find myself counting the minutes down because this is only going to be a condensed set compared to the typical headline sets I get to see them do but it’s great seeing them on ever bigger stages!
‘Death (Ever Closer)’ into ‘Cannibal’, keeping it along the lines of the big bangers with the furthest reach, Bury Tomorrow are making sure that people are gonna get familiar with the biggest hits and keep the existing fans happy at the same time.
I’ve definitely picked a bit of an odd spot because I’m directly in the beams of some of the most piercing lighting that they’ve got on stage which is leaving me with constant after images in my vision. A jump much further forward for their newer stuff, it’s time for a string of the latest album numbers jumping through ‘Let Go’, ‘Villain Arc’ and ‘What If I Burn’.
Despite me not being totally won over by the most recent album, I’d be lying if I said these songs didn’t go hard live. ‘What If I Burn’ sees hundreds of the crowd put their phones up to wave their lights around, this might be a condensed show, but Bury Tomorrow don’t care, it’s another platform to deliver their message and they’ll make the most of it.
It’s the last couple of songs of the set and of course ‘Black Flame’ remains another strong entry in their set. And to finish, easily one of the biggest recent bangers, ‘Abandoned Us’, this one really took me by surprise when they dropped it but my god it makes me want to deck people in the pit. Excellent short but sweet finish, make sure you lads are back soon ya hear?
The room darkens, the stage lights up behind the massive, draped scene hiding the stage behind it. I can feel the hype building up to the kick off for this insane production I’ve seen clips off prior to this show. It’s time for a mash up of dance party and headbanging scenes, Electric Callboy are about to lay waste to Rotterdam.
The curtain falls with an incredible bang that genuinely scares the absolute shit out of me but we’re kicking off the ‘Tanzneid’ show with, uh, ‘Tanzneid’! I’ve never seen a band use so much fucking pyro on literally the first song in the set, this is absolutely nuts! And without skipping a beat, covering Sum 41’s ‘Still Waiting’ and blasting confetti into the audience.
Electric Callboy clearly don’t give a fuck about keeping all the fire and flair for the end of the show, it’s go time from the first second and it’ll keep going the whole evening! It’s genuinely mind boggling how much these have developed their live show in such a short time: a huge screen behind them, a gigantic floating X above the stage with even more screens attached to it alongside all sorts of lighting and the band changing outfits as the show goes on. ‘Hypa Hypa’ followed by ‘MC Thunder’ and I think it’s time to ignore whatever aching legs I’ve got in favour of giving in and jumping around like an idiot!
The band rips off their outfits to reveal workout outfits under and it’s time for ‘Pump It’ and I feel fully in my element, because ya know, I live in the gym so it’s kinda my anthem! Anyway, time to change the gears a little bit for ‘Hurrikan’, it’s eurodance time so get ready to bust some moves out. Admittedly I wasn’t quite ready for them to bring a DJ on, when did that happen!? It was up until this moment a metal show still but we’re now in the midst of a dubstep set!
Wait, is that also a cover of ‘All The Small Things’? And a dance remix of ‘Bodies’ by Drowning Pool? What a trip. I’m constantly entranced by the production, the videos that are playing along to every song, the amount of fire, the changing outfits, it’s keeping me constantly focused on the band in a way that few bands do. At times the way the videos work along with the music reminds me heavily of the astounding production that Bring Me The Horizon are known for these days, I can’t wait to see how Electric Callboy do with it next.
They have a quick chat about the first ever show they played in the Netherlands over in Arnhem as a prelude to a medley blasting through their oldest material and the difference in sound is pretty staggering. There’s a clear streak of synthy party music to it still but it’s pretty obvious that they progressively found that the party elements were getting better responses and led to the infamous sound they roll with today.
Following a drum solo which drew the attention of the crowd, some of the others in the band took this moment to jump into the crowd and gather people around for an acoustic and piano version of ‘Fuckboi’, this show has definitely had some interesting twists and turns but I don’t know how they managed to get a piano to the middle of the crowd without drawing too much attention. A few verses of ‘Every Time We Touch’ in the acoustic version before dropping their gear and running through the middle of the crowd back to the stage to complete the rest of the song in full band style.
I feel that we’re slowly approaching the end but for once I’m astonished about how much I’ve enjoyed it and at the same time somehow felt like I’ve been watching one of the most comprehensive live shows I’ve seen since King Gizzard. ‘MC Thunder II’ and ‘Elevator Operator’ serve to wrap up the main part of the set but clearly they’ve got the real big guns saved for the final encore.
The robot… thing that’s been pervasive through the show appears with a disco helmet on which can only mean one thing, it’s time for ‘RA TA TA!’ alongside visuals of Babymetal as they chip in with their parts. As it turns out the outfit they had under their jackets were NASA jumpsuits so it’s time for ‘Spaceman’!
And finally, the song that took the viral fame from ‘Hypa Hypa’ and sealed the deal with its even more ridiculous music video and outstanding dancey vibe, ‘We Got The Moves’.
A truly incredible show and setlist from the German dance metal outfit that sets the bar phenomenally high. They’ve not let the chance of seizing the opportunity to capitalize on their viral fame slip away from them and have built something truly mind-blowing off the back of it.
The bar for shows in 2026 is already staggeringly high.