ELECTRIC SIX + US – CONCORDE 2, BRIGHTON 10.12.23
Believe it or not, it’s now twenty years since Detroit’s Electric Six burst into the British public’s musical consciousness with their hit single ‘Danger! High Voltage’, a piece of insanely catchy, sleazy disco rock that reached number two in the UK charts. The ensuing Top Ten album ‘Fire’ spawned a further instant classic in the even sleazier ‘Gay Bar’. Originally formed as The Wildbunch in 1996, the band has gone through numerous personnel changes, but has maintained a relentless schedule of touring and recording over the past two decades.
The fifteenth official studio album ‘Turquoise’ came out on 8th September 2023, and tonight’s show at Brighton’s Concorde 2 is the final date on a tour that is both promoting the new release and celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the one that started it all. The band are due to play two sets, the second being ‘Fire’ in its entirety. The buzz of anticipation this has generated is confirmed by an impressive queue outside the venue as the doors open at 7.30pm.
First up though we have Us, a five-piece band formed in Helsinki, Finland in 2021. They’re using Electric Six’s drums and backline, which is good of the headliners and cuts down on gear cluttering the stage. The band sports a strong and distinctive 1960s look, with retro haircuts and a band uniform of paisley shirts (bassist Rasmus has broken ranks with a black polo neck) like they’ve stumbled across a copy of the classic ‘Nuggets’ garage psych compilation. Musically though, it’s high-energy blues rock, and the main influence I’m picking up is early Dr Feelgood, played at Ramones speed with a commendable and unwavering intensity. It’s great fun and I like it straight away.
Opener ‘Black Sheep’ is super fast, with guitarists Teo and Max sharing the vocals. Pan interjects with blasts of wailing harmonica and occasional backing vocals, whilst ramping up the vibes with freaky dancing and leg kicks. Rasmus looks cool and composed on bass and drummer Leevi fires brisk tight fills around the kit. They do a cute Beatles-style bow at the end of each song to wildly enthusiastic applause from the crowd. ‘Citroen Blues’ is built on an urgent two-chord thrash, and there are impressive riffs and fills on ‘Snowball Season’. Frontman Teo is fretting over the top of the neck of his Telecaster, slapping the strings right up to the pickups in an absolutely stunning lead break.
‘Just My Situation’ is the first noticeable drop in tempo, if not in intensity, and the contrast works well. ‘Paisley Underground’ is classic psych pop, and after the bass-driven ‘Don’t Call A Cavalry’ there’s a manic Sly & The Family stone cover with a nifty vocal section where Pan and Max share a mic. Leevi fires off a blistering drum break to launch screaming harmonica in ‘Night Time’, and there are some effective changes of pace in ‘While You Danced’. It’s introduced as the last number, but segues into a high-velocity 12-bar that turns out to be a Gene Vincent cover. I’ve been hugely impressed with Us. Avant-garde they ain’t, but if classic bluesy riffs played with breathtaking energy and panache sounds like your sort of thing, check them out.
Us:
Teo Hirvonen – vocals, guitar
Pan Hirvonen – harmonica, vocals
Max Somerjoki – guitar, vocals
Rasmus Ruonakoski – bass
Leevi Jämsä – drums
Us setlist:
‘Black Sheep’
‘Citroen Blues’
‘Snowball Season’
‘Just My Situation’ (Jim Pembroke cover)
‘Paisley Underground’
‘Don’t Call A Cavalry’
‘I Ain’t Got Nobody (For Real)’ (Sly & The Family Stone cover)
‘Night Time’
‘While You Danced’
‘Say Mama’ (Gene Vincent & His Blue Caps cover)
There’s not much of a changeover required, just the headlining guitarists bringing their pedalboards onstage, and after a fairly brief interval it’s time for Electric Six. Drummer Dr J, in a striking op art shirt, takes his place behind the kit, with the familiar high-rise quiff of Tait Nucleus? visible behind a bank of keyboards at the back of the stage. Across the front, house left to right, we have guitarist Herb S. Flavorings, frontman Dick Valentine, tidy-bearded bassist Rick Schaple, and “The White Wolf”, guitarist Johnny Na$hinal, with his trademark B C Rich guitar. The front row are all rocking a smart casual look, with non-matching suit jackets.
There’s enthusiastic cheering from the crowd as Dick sets out tonight’s agenda. “The first set is gonna consist of tracks from albums two through fifteen. Of course album fifteen is the record we’re desperately trying to sell you,” he quips. A thumping beat and a naggingly catchy guitar riff launch the steady-paced ‘Turquoise’, the title track of the current collection. ‘Dr K’ is faster with a particularly insistent rhythm and a “Let’s party” lyrical motif. The newer material is well-received, but the crowd goes predictably crazy as the familiar piano-led ‘Down At McDonaldz’ starts up. There’s a huge bounce underway, and much punching the air and chanting along to the “My people need a place to go” hook. The bass bins are serving as handy podiums for the guitarists, and at one point Herb and Rick get a synchronised headstock dance going, which is visually very effective.
Staccato hammer-ons open ‘Five Clowns’, a new number with some nifty stops and pushes. Less new, to the point of being comfortingly familiar, are Dick’s between song anecdotes. Introducing the disco groove of ‘The New Shampoo’, he recounts how the band were berated for their lack of cool whilst “pumping gas in Shoreham-by-Sea”. Coincidently, they suffered identical slights in 2019 and 2021, if I recall correctly. Time for an electric vehicle? What is new to me is Dick’s surprising prowess on the timbales, a pair of which receive a proper battering during ‘Dirty Ball’. We’re treated to more tracks from ‘Turquoise’, of which ‘Hot Numbers On The Telephone’ is classic Electric Six, dirty and dancey: “I can feel the heat you’re bringing when the phone starts ringing.” Choppy rhythm guitar drives the more strident ‘Window of Time’.
During the synth-led ‘Future Is In The Future’, Dick takes a moment to introduce the band, and thank the audience and the support act. Their long-time European tour manager Steve Coombes gets an acknowledgment too, with Dick managing to persuade the crowd to chant his name and create a path through the middle of the hall for him to dance down. He doesn’t take up this opportunity, so an audience member is invited to make use of the space and take the applause on his behalf. There’s vigorous dancing to the disco-rock strut of ‘(Who The Hell Just) Call My Phone?’, and I like the “Wash your hands and tell me you love me” lyrical hook of the reassuringly sordid ‘Panic! Panic!’ from the latest album. The first set concludes with the magnificent ‘I Buy The Drugs’, with the crowd bouncing and chanting along to its soaring chorus. “Don’t nobody go nowhere,” Dick warns sternly before relenting slightly: “Go get yourself a beer.”
There’s just about time to do that, before the scudding beat of ‘Dance Commander’ launches the second set. There won’t be too many surprises, as it’s the classic album in order and in full. I certainly had it on heavy rotation twenty years ago, and every number feels like an old friend. I’m amused by Herb and Rick’s synchronised dancing in circles during ‘Electric Demons (In Love)’, and Dick is making some alarming eye contact with the front rows as we hit peak sleaziness with ‘Naked Pictures (Of Your Mother)’. Herb launches the familiar intro riff to ‘Danger! High Voltage’ and everything gets very lively indeed on our side of the barrier, with plenty of ecstatic dancing and enthusiastic chanting. Dr J ends the number with an impressive barrage of drum fills.
Something must have gone down out in the crowd during ‘Improper Dancing’, as the normally amiable security staff suddenly get serious, and for the next few numbers there’s several hundredweight of muscle standing up on the barrier scanning the hall and shining torches. Good luck spotting anything during ‘Gay Bar’. The White Wolf’s iconic guitar riff launches a kinetic maelstrom down at the front as the band thunders through this most urgent of classics. There’s plenty more air punching to highlight the big stabs underpinning the vocal hook and a few hundred backing vocalists giving it their all. There’s no let up, as ‘Nuclear War (On The Dance Floor)’ is absolutely thunderous, propelled by Dr J’s thumping floor tom. We crack on through the rest of the album and it’s all pure joy.
“Well, we’re coming to the end of the second set, end of the album, end of the tour…” acknowledges Dick. “…I love you so goddamned much. Thanks for twenty years of Electric Six. We’ve signed on for twenty more.” I suspect he really means it too. The final number ‘Synthesizer’ is appropriately embellished by Tait’s wavering and swirling synth riffs. There’s not much chance of leaving without an encore though, rhythmic clapping and cheering from the crowd brooking no argument. We get a romp through ‘Hello I See You’ for our trouble, mischievously introduced as being about “the ecstasy of accepting Satan as your master”.
The love between band and audience is clearly mutual, and the musicians take a well-deserved bow at the end, accompanied by the previously elusive tour manager, Steve. Tonight was a fine evening’s entertainment, a celebration of a classic album and the band’s continuing mission to get down and dirty with anyone willing to listen.
Electric Six:
Dick Valentine – vocals, percussion
Johnny Na$hinal – guitar, vocals
Tait Nucleus? – keyboards, vocals
Herb S. Flavorings – guitar
Rick Schaple – bass, vocals
Dr J – drums
Electric Six first set:
‘Turquoise’ (from ‘Turquoise’ 2023)
‘Dr K’ (from ‘Turquoise’ 2023)
‘Down At McDonaldz’ (from ‘I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me From Being The Master’ 2007)
‘Bride Of The Devil’ (from ‘Bride Of The Devil’ 2018)
‘Five Clowns’ (from ‘Turquoise’ 2023)
‘The New Shampoo’ (from ‘Mustang’ 2013)
‘Dirty Ball’ (from ‘Flashy’ 2008)
‘Hot Numbers On The Telephone’ (from ‘Turquoise’ 2023)
‘Window Of Time’ (from ‘Turquoise’ 2023)
‘Night Vision’ (from ‘Switzerland’ 2006)
‘Future Is In The Future’ (from ‘Señor Smoke’ 2005)
‘(Who The Hell Just) Call My Phone?’ (from ‘Human Zoo’ 2014)
‘Panic! Panic!’ (from ‘Turquoise’ 2023)
‘Dance Epidemic’ (from ‘Señor Smoke’ 2005)
‘I Buy The Drugs’ (from ‘Switzerland’ 2006)
Electric Six second set (all from ‘Fire’ 2003):
‘Dance Commander’
‘Electric Demons (In Love)’
‘Naked Pictures (Of Your Mother)’
‘Danger! High Voltage’
‘She’s White’
‘I Invented The Night’
‘Improper Dancing’
‘Gay Bar’
‘Nuclear War (On The Dance Floor)’
‘Getting Into The Jam’
‘Vengeance And Fashion’
‘I’m The Bomb’
‘Synthesizer’
(encore)
‘Hello I See You’ (from ‘Heartbeats And Brainwaves’ 2011)
