Electric Callboy Drowns Rotterdam in Flames and Beats
Electric Callboy’s Saturday night show at RTM Stage in Rotterdam Ahoy felt like a loud and confident kickoff to the final leg of their European tour. This last run is short, just over a week, it’s moving on through France and Spain and closing in Portugal, but the Rotterdam date already had the energy of a band hitting the road at full speed.
WARGASM opened the night at exactly 7pm. While they seemed like a perfect fit for the bill on paper, their set didn’t fully land. The venue was still only half full, with the front of stage Golden Circle especially empty, and the crowd response stayed restrained. Their mix of electronic chaos, punk attitude and heavy riffs was delivered with conviction, but the connection just wasn’t there yet. Whether due to the early slot or a lack of familiarity among European audiences, their 30-minute set passed without much momentum building.
That changed once Bury Tomorrow took over. Also from the UK, they were stylistically the most traditional band of the evening and arguably the odd one out, but their experience showed immediately. Despite being around for nearly 20 years, the band sounded fresh, tight and powerful. Frontman Daniel ‘Dani’ Winter-Bates used the moment to speak about inclusion and community within the scene, stressing the importance of kindness and support. “If we don’t use this platform to talk about inclusion, I’m not doing my job”, he told the crowd. Just before ‘Boltcutter’, he asked everyone to put their arms around the people next to them, forming a massive chain across the arena and the entire floor started jumping together. ‘Villain Arc’ followed and sparked the biggest mosh pit of the night so far, while ‘Abandon Us’ closed a set that balanced heaviness with a clear message.
Electric Callboy hit the stage right on time at 9:15pm and immediately took things to another level. Opening with ‘TANZNEID’, the title track of the world tour, the stage erupted in fire, smoke and blinding lights. The amount of pyro used in the opening minutes alone was impressive, and it set the tone for a fast-moving, high-impact set. The band tore through crowd favorites like ‘Techno Train’, ‘Hypa Hypa’ and ‘MC Thunder’, alongside a cover of Sum 41’s ‘Still Waiting’. With Frank Zummo now a full-time member on drums, the cover felt both natural and well placed as the second song in.
Visually, the show was intense to the point of overload. Neon colours, fire, smoke, aerobics outfits on stage and in the crowd and a giant cross with projected visuals all competed for attention. At times, the constant stream of effects made it hard for individual moments to stand out, as there was barely any pause between one burst of spectacle and the next. Still, the crowd stayed fully engaged, feeding off the band’s nonstop energy.
Late in the set, the mood shifted unexpectedly. During ‘Fuck Boi’ and ‘Everytime We Touch’, Electric Callboy moved to the back of the Golden Circle area and performed acoustic. Fans sat on the floor, phone lights filled the room and the atmosphere turned quiet and personal. It was a rare and effective contrast to the chaos that defined most of the night.
The band returned to the stage to wrap things up with ‘MC Thunder II’ and ‘Elevator Operator’, before coming back for an encore of ‘RATATATA’, ‘Spaceman’, and ‘We Got the Moves’. As the first show of the final European leg, Rotterdam set a high bar, and if you haven’t seen this tour yet, it’s one we strongly recommend catching while you still can.
