Review: Electric Six at Freo.Social

Electric Six at Freo.Social
w/ Girl Shaped Gun
Sunday, August 30, 2024

Electric Six have some absolutely iconic songs, with almost equally unforgettable music videos. Danger! High Voltage and Gay Bar have become part of the cultural fabric of many of our lives and can always get people of a certain age up on the dance floor, living out their camp glam punk fantasies for three minutes at a time. However, in the more than twenty years since these hits were in the charts, Electric Six have been writing, recording and performing continuously, with twenty studio albums under their collective belt.

The Detroit band has stayed remarkably consistent over their career. On Sunday at Freo.Social, they played several songs from their most recent album, Turquoise, as well as old favourites from the first two albums and a mix of the band’s favourites from all of the eras in between. The party rock vibes were present in every number, as well as lyrical fixations on partying, drugs and sex.

They didn’t bring much in the way of visuals, preferring a no-frills approach of just a bunch of regular-looking dudes on stage with their instruments. They did bring the energy of seasoned professionals though, ripping their way through guitar-heavy, catchy numbers like Dance Epidemic and Down at McDonnelzzz. The band was without a synth player on the night, which would have added to the sound and contributed melodically, but the remaining members did their best to make up for it with their guitars.

They did play all of their hits but didn’t indulge the audience with particularly extended versions, moving through them without any fanfare in the middle of the set. The exception was the finale, Dance Commander, which got a big reaction from the crowd. In honour of the last night of their Australia and New Zealand tour, the encore was made up of what frontman Dick Valentine described as “deep cuts” the band has never performed live before. While they didn’t get the same response that they might have if they’d saved their hits for the end, the crowd was pretty into it, especially considering it was a Sunday and most people there were old enough to have been partying in 2003.

Girl Shaped Gun, a local five-piece indie rock band, offered quite a contrast as the opening act. Young artists, at the start of their musical careers, they brought raw indie rock with smart, thoughtful lyrics. They had the crowd’s enthusiastic attention and are definitely worth keeping an eye on.

SAMANTHA ROSENFELD

Photos by Karen Lowe