Review: Jack Price
Photography: Dan Maynard

It’s been a solid couple of years since we have been graced by the Callboys, but this week has seen them crawl across the Australian landscape and ending the down under portion of their Tanzneid World Tour with a back-to-back weekend at Brisbane’s Riverstage. The German partycore behemoths have been joined by their horror counterparts, Ice Nine Kills, with both bands being absolutely cemented in their crafts – one delivering ridiculous bangers and the other presenting part metal cabaret, part stage horror show, all awesome. Rounding out the tour is melodic metalcore ensemble Coldrain from Japan, a band that has been building in reputation since 2007 and backed by their own successful tri-annual festival, BLARE FEST, in Japan.

As the temperature dropped and the sun started to disappear behind the city skyline, punters of all walks of life began to fill the hillside of Riverstage. The gentle breeze disturbing the already foggy stage, begging for the first band of the evening to confront the ever growing crowd. And with the stage lights dimming and the PA system lowering, Coldrain take their place to get the crowd fired up for the 3 hour onslaught ahead.

“What’s up Brisbane?!” shouted frontman Masato Hayakawa as they sprang full force into action with Humanity. Immediately the crowd surged and bellowed, embracing the opening band’s sound like a starving beast. With a set list that showcased Coldrain’s almost two decade career, no one was left unhappy with their performance. Songs like Free Fall and Chasing Shadows gave the crowd the energy injection they needed, with the energetic frontman conducting them, while guitarists Y.K.C and Sugi dueled face to face on the side of the stage, and bassist RxYxO supported Hayakawa on vocals.

“It is an honour to be here with you tonight” Masato announced before beginning Rabbit Hole, followed by Cut Me. There was plenty of audience interaction, including a little guilty jest and tease of their position on the bill with Hayakawa asking with a grin “Who’s ready for Ice Nine Kills? Who’s ready for Electric Callboy? Who’s ready for some more Coldrain?”

Ice Nine Kills were guaranteed to absolutely kill it tonight (get it?) but I was not prepared for the showmanship or production of what was presented. Usually, a band with high production will have less audience interaction, and ones with less big theatrics will interact more with the fans. INK found an extremely rare middle ground whilst also including their cinematic entertainment and practical effects, as well as some special guests to the stage!

But kicking the set off with American Nightmare, complete with Freddy Kruger-style claw glove adorned by Spencer Charnas, set the scene (bah-dum tiss) perfectly. The theatrics of licking the claw blades, the smokey stage and energy of the band, everything was perfectly rehearsed and timed.

“Brisbane! They call us Ice Nine-“ spouted Charnas, encouraging the crowd to finish, screaming “KILLS”. The unmistakable intro to Meat & Greet begins on the rear display, the Hannibal Lector-style monologue echoing across the hillside. As the band slashes through the track, a jumpsuit-wearing cannibal pounces on another actor, ripping and tearing and feasting on them behind the stage riser.

The set is broken up by VHS-style ads which brings a sense of comedy to the theatrics and shock horror of INK’s performance. The band exit the stage between songs, emerging in new costumes and set pieces such as grotesque animal masks and a child-size body bag for Funeral Derangements, during which Spencer’s vocals are absolutely insane.

The Laugh Track sees Charnas adorn a purple crocodile skin jacket and Joker mask and addresses the “people of Brisbane” through a purple megaphone while a stilted black and white clown parades across the stage. The Great Beyond enters The One and an agent who battle on stage with Spencer finally shooting the agent.

Welcome to Horrowood’s monologue plays while yellow writing appears across the backdrop screen, and the band once again appears on stage but this time wearing matching Leatherface-esque masks and are eventually joined by two masked “killers” either side of stage.

Hip To Be Scared brings Charnas out in the classic plastic jacket splash cover as well as a pair of trumpeters, and after Spencer brutally attacks an intoxicated actor, he proceeds to show the audience the disembodied head which he kisses, before retrieving a chainsaw because why not?

The set isn’t just for props and theatrics though. Spencer invited Alex Reade of Make Them Suffer to perform Twisting The Knife and Art the Clown during their last song, A Work Of Art, which Spencer states, “The first we ever played this live was here in Brisbane!”

After some stage mischief, Art then decides to take up the mantle as drummer for the rest of the track, bringing the set to its eventual climax.

Having not witnessed Ice Nine Kills live, actively avoiding any footage online, it was everything and more than I expected. More so for Charnas’s, and the supporting band members’, vocals. I was expecting the performance to ride the theatrics but holy dismembered teens in a slasher film, the vocals overshadowed the theatrics by a country mile. I hope this tour has shown that a headlining tour in Australia would be absolutely worth the trip.

It was around late 2011 that I first discovered Electric Callboy, with Is Anyone Up being my most played video on YouTube at the time. Bury Me In Vegas became one of my all-time favourite albums and ever since, I have watched with pride as the boys pushed to create, evolve and entertain their way to their current superstar status.

While their older songs are no longer really in rotation for their live performances, their newer material has seen a huge influx of younger listeners (I’m talking very young, including my own children) becoming fans and attending shows with their parents. Tonight is no different with punters of all ages attending in and out of costume.

The stage lights finally fade once more, with the Electric Callboy logo across a banner, backlit and pulsating as the techno portion of Tanzneid starts and stops, teasing the now packed hillside venue. The banner rose to reveal the band, dressed in their alien jackets as the song burst into action. The hillside roared as the surging mass of fans screamed the catchy partycore track back at the band, with Nico and Kevin dancing and jumping across the stage.

From Tanzneid it was straight into their cover of Still Waiting by Sum 41. Ex-Sum 41 drummer Frank Zummo has been a fantastic addition to the Callboy lineup, after David Friedrich hung up his drumsticks in 2025, and having seen both drummers perform, Frank is doing a great job to fill the shoes of David.

“It feels so good to be back here in Australia, it feels even better to be back here in Brisbane,” announced Kevin Ratajczak, “These last two shows here in Brisbane are our last shows for the year.”

The theatrics didn’t stop with INK, as Electric Callboy’s set was themed to each released single. Tekkno Train showed the inside of a rushing train cart, an animation of the band’s robot rose across the three screens, holding a boombox and switching through radio stations before settling on Hypa Hypa, which kicked off as the band returned to the stage in the appropriate costumes which stayed on during MC Thunder.

The band took their places before ripping off their costumes to reveal the Pump It attire, an absolute crowd favourite, which resulted in a huge wall of death.

“We feel so fucking welcome here! You guys are just like us, you’re fucking crazy,” announced Ratajczak.

The German schlager-inspired Hurrikan is next before a DJ deck is brought on stage for Electric Bassboy, an EDM break that featured remixes of Blink-182’s All The Small Things and Drowning Pool’s Bodies.

The robot returned to the screens before being swallowed by black smoke and becoming the creature from Revery, a personal favourite of mine. Hypercharged followed with crowd participation and huge amounts of smoke from the stage, while Mindreader brought the heavy to the show, the screens flicker between black and white and negative effects of the band and crowd, with pyrotechnics exploding from the stage riser.

After a heartfelt thank you from Nico and Kevin to the fans, their families and the crew, and The Savior from the recent record, Frank Zummo had his time to shine, entering a drum battle with the robot who had returned to the screens.

The band returned dressed in their “boyband” costumes, complete with poses and a piano. As mobile phone torches lit the venue, the boys covered I Want It That Way by The Backstreet Boys and of course their own boyband song The Way You Are.

The end of the set included the awesome cover of Everytime We Touch, which featured some amazing stained glass imagery including depictions of Kevin and Nico, the glass exploding in the frames with fire crackling behind the shattered windows towards the end of the track, Let The Good Times Roll, and the oh-so catchy and hilarious Elevator Operator, whipping the crowd into a frenzied mess as blue lighting enveloped the stage and audience before pyro and smoke exploded across the stage.

As the stage lights died, a cry for more erupted from the crowd. In the darkness of the stage, the figures of Electric Callboy took to the stage once more. In their hands, shiny disco ball helmets. Light pierced through the smoke in tiny rays of excitement as Ratatata started playing, and the crowd once again burst to life as they had done at the start of the set.

Spaceman came next with exactly the same reception, people jumping and jiving along as Nico and Kevin rapped and sang. The encore came to a close with everyone’s favourite We Got The Moves, with accompanying costumes.

Nico spouted “We Love You Brissy!” and with that, the night was done.

Three amazing bands, more than 3 amazing hours of pure awesomeness in a variety of flavours. Coldrain brought a completely unexpected culture shock to the night, standing out from the other two bands in their performance and sound, Ice Nine Kills delivered exactly what everyone hoped for from the horrorcore heavyweights, and Electric Callboy did exactly what they do best – partied.