12 September 2026 – Riverstage, Brisbane – words by Lucas Bell – pictures by Bec Harbour
Australia promoter Destroy All Lines have been on an absolute tear of tours this year. Despite dropping some insane triple bills, like Karnivool/Tesseract/Car Bomb, Motionless in White/Make Them Suffer/Currents, and I Prevail/Imminence/Invent Animate, somehow, these weren’t even the most anticipated line-ups of 2026. That, was reserved for German electronicore superstars, Electric Callboy. After getting an insane response at Good Things 2022 and 2024, with a very quickly sold out headline tour in 2023, the love for these guys has been undeniable in Australia.
And off the back of their latest record Tanzneid, the world tour stops off in Australia in September, with two shows in Brisbane. The only city to get two shows. I haven’t even mentioned the undercard for this tour yet, but it also featured the Boston horror metalcore geniuses Ice Nine Kills, and one of the most exciting Japanese post-hardcore bands in the scene, coldrain. When I saw that this tour was the most anticipated line-up from Destroy All Lines in 2026, just know the weight that holds.
Hitting the stage earlier than advertised, was coldrain. Very loudly, and excitedly, lead vocalist Masato Hayakawa introduced the band, and got Brisbane hyped up with the opening track, ‘EX-HUMANITY’. With an “Arigatou” at the end of literally every song, showing Brisbane how much they loved the crowd, Hayakawa was always checking in with the crowd, and really pushed the mosh to their limits early on with songs like ‘FREE FALL’ and ‘CHASING SHADOWS’. All three of these songs will be on the band’s new record, OPTIMIZE = OPTDEMISE, which drops in two weeks.
coldrain – Riverstage – photos by Bec Harbour
Hayakawa told Brisbane that tonight was not going to be a rock show, but it was going to be a work out to prepare them for Callboy later, as we got some tracks from the last record, Nonnegative, in ‘Rabbit Hole’ and ‘Cut Me’, as Hayakawa told Brisbane to jump high in the pit and bounce with them. We did get a wall of death to open ‘Cut Me’ though, which was sick. After giving shout outs to Callboy and INK, Hayakawa thanked Brisbane for the early love, and kicked into the track ‘VENGEANCE’, which for the anime nerds, is the theme song to ‘Ninja Kamui’, a banger anime. Not that I get to flex this muscle very often, it’s a big thumbs up from me to watch if you’re into anime. They closed the set off with ‘MAYDAY’, which is definitely the bands best track, and an amazing way to close out their set.
coldrain – Riverstage – photos by Bec Harbour
The Ice Nine Kills set started off the way they normally do. The lighting board behind the band set up like an old CRT television, as commercials and movies played on the screen. We then get a trailer for a commercial about sleep, as the intro to ‘The American Nightmare’ started to play. The band all wandered on stage, with lead singer Spencer Charnas sporting the iconic Freddy Kruger glove, as he ran around on stage, hyping the crowd. Running on stage with a knife glove isn’t how I’d want to handle a Saturday night, but Ice Nine were in their element, as song after song just destroyed the Riverstage.
Charnas told Brisbane that people call them Ice Nine Kills, and asked who wants some more, as Hannibal Lecter was rolled out on stage for ‘Meat & Greet’. They did the usual fare, with Lecter getting out of the restraints and eating a man on stage. If you’ve seen an Ice Nine show, you know the deal. But it still is just as awesome to have seen the theatrical components again. More commercials played, as a clip from Pet Sematary played on screen, as ‘Funeral Derangements’ started up. Charnas of course, holding a shovel in hand throughout the entire song.
The first new song of the night, was ‘The Laugh Track’. Inspired by ‘89 Batman, Charnas came back out, fully decked out in The Joker attire, as the music video played on the back board. This has been my favourite of the new songs, and hearing it live was just as insanely fun as the studio version. This was then followed up with ‘The Great Unknown’, as actors playing Neo and Agent Smith came out and fought on stage. Charnas put a bullet in the back of the head of Agent Smith which was also pretty sweet. We then got the ‘Opening Night…’ intro from The Silver Scream 2, as ‘Welcome to Horrorwood’ played. Despite a catalogue of songs where horror movies are the inspiration, this track has been my favourite for a long while. And the fact it’s an original, not based on anything, makes it even better.
Charnas shouted out Callboy and coldrain, before ‘Hip to Be Scared’ started, which got probably the best reaction from the set, as the song closed out with Charnas cutting up ‘Paul’ on stage with a chainsaw. Alex Reade from Make Them Suffer came out for ‘Twisting the Knife’, which is the song the band wrote for Scream 7, and Reade was stabbed to death by Ghostface at the end of the song. The Dead by Daylight track ‘Play Dead’ was next, and closing out the set was, of course, Art the Clown, and ‘ A Work of Art’, with Alex being revived from the dead for one more song. Charnas reminded Brisbane that this venue was the first place to hear that song live, and Art even got in on the musical action, playing bass on the song at times, and getting behind the drum kit for the outro, which honestly, I hope we have photos of. Absolutely iconic scenes. And yes, he swung the baby. At this point, if you go to an Ice Nine Kills show, and a baby doll isn’t being swung by an umbilical cord, have you actually been to an Ice Nine Kills show? I rest my case.
As a giant sheet with the Electric Callboy logo dropped from the roof, the anticipation for Electric Callboy was insanely high. As the melody for ‘We Got the Moves’ played, and lights pulsed over the logo for a few minutes, the intro to TANZNEID kicked in. The curtain dropped, smoke cannons went off, and the entire band were on stage in outfits from the music videos, running around the stage like maniacs. We got more pyro at the end of the song. Vocalists Nico and Kevin welcome Brisbane to the show, and asked the crowd to sing on the next one, as they tore into the cover of ‘Still Waiting’. We got a big streamer pop, and Brisbane sang it loud for drummer Frank Zummo.
Electric Callboy – Riverstage – photos by Bec Harbour
The band took the hood outfits off, and spoke about how great it is to be back in Australia. These last two shows in Brisbane are the bands final shows of the year, so whatever gas is left in the tank, they said they’re going to use all of it on these shows, and by God they did. They got the crowd doing train chuggas for ‘Tekkno Train’, which is such a banger. I feel this should still be the opening song. The hype for it is unreal. And speaking of hype, ‘Hypa Hypa’ was next, with full costumes as always, and the lightboard lit up with neon signs and flamingos. They got the crowd jumping high with ‘MC Thunder’, and they then ripped off the ‘Hypa’ gear to reveal that the entire time, they were also wearing their workout gear for ‘Pump It’, as they got Brisbane into full workout mode.
Electric Callboy – Riverstage – photos by Bec Harbour
Nico and Kevin talked about how welcome and loved the band feels in Australia. And that Australia, like Germany, is a crazy place. They asked if Brisbane knew about German Schlager music, and taught Brisbane a little dance, before ‘Hurrikan’ kicked in. This was then followed up by the most insane few minutes of the night, as ‘Electric Bassboy’ made its debut in Brisbane. Busting out some insane high energy techno, and bass that would shake your colon, they played some tracks like ‘Overkill’ by Riot, which also had an insane guitar solo from Dan over it, before getting EDM remixes of ‘All the Small Things’ by blink-182 and ‘Bodies’ by Drowning Pool. The funniest part of this, was when the track finished, the Windows shut down noise played, to massive laughs from the crowd. I hoped we’d get this, and I’m so glad we did. It just absolutely ruled.
Electric Callboy – Riverstage – photos by Bec Harbour
Zummo led Brisbane to clap along for the intro of ‘Revery’ as the back board showed this incredible looking gothic mountainside. Kevin got the crowd chanting fuck yeah, as they introduced ‘Hypercharged’, and they played ‘Mindreader’ and ‘The Savior’ back to back. Zummo got an awesome drum solo, which incorporated elements of Slayer’s ‘Raining Blood’ on it, and the band returned to the stage after the solo in the white boy band gear, as they covered ‘I Want It That Way’. Fully embracing the boy band era, they followed up with a full sea of phone lights, and the newest track ‘The Way You Are’. The second half of this song, the mosh went absolutely ballistic. It was so dope.
We also managed to get a Tank the Tech appearance on stage, as the band dressed him in the white boy band gear and told him he looked like Kid Rock. It’s cool to have seen Tank on stage. I have followed him on YouTube and Twitch for ages, and it’s nice to see the man that keeps all this chaos in check out on stage, even for a moment. A wall of death was started for ‘Heartclub’, which slams even more live than the studio version does. And ‘Heartclub’ is probably my favourite song from the album. Kevin shouted out coldrain and Ice Nine Kills, and talked about how close they’ve all grown on this tour, which was just lovely. He then forgot what was next on the setlist, which Nico roasted him for. And then ‘Everytime We Touch’ started to play, as the light board showed this awesome stained glass picture of Nico and Kevin embracing. It was so funny, and when the breakdown hit, the glass shattered out of the frames. Just cool shit.
Electric Callboy – Riverstage – photos by Bec Harbour
Kevin talked about how he thinks the joke about spiders and snakes in Australia is a lie, and encourage the back of the venue to get loud, and jump around for ‘Let the Good Times Roll’. The final song of the main set, Nico said they wanted to tell the crowd a story about the last song, and flawlessly pivoted into the start of ‘Elevator Operator’, as if they were telling us the song as a story. It was awesome. The band left the stage, and as blue lights pulsed behind the kit, the band ran back out for the encore, starting off with ‘RATATATA’. Kevin told Brisbane the next song was the last one, which Brisbane boo’d at. He told us he actually tricked Brisbane and that was a test. He then split the venue to do the weird noise from ‘Spaceman’, and then they played it, getting the crowd to do that noise on the song itself. I’m so glad this is still in the set. This, and ‘Fuckboi’ are my two favourite songs from ‘TEKKNO’, so getting at least one of them made me happy.
After ‘Spaceman’, the stage went dark for a minute. Then, the intro to ‘We Got the Moves’ played on loop over the speakers. The lights cut back on, as the entire band were standing on stage, in costumes, as the beat continued to play. The lightboard had neon beach balls and penises, it was so funny. The ‘dah dah dah’ breakdown of course set off a sea of confetti, streamers, and fireworks, and the lads danced around and partied with Brisbane, with a heartfelt thank you at the end. Nico led Brisbane to do the chorus and the post chorus melody, as Brisbane cheered and screamed for the band, as they took photos to end the night.
Electric Callboy – Riverstage – photos by Bec Harbour
And what a night it was. All three bands in my opinion, are deserving to headline tours in Australia in their own right. This was an absolute murderers row of talent on display, showing just how good the best of German, Japanese, and American metalcore is. And that the scene is in such safe hands with bands of this quality all joining forces for this run of shows.
