Electric Six – Tuning Fork: March 27, 2026 (13th Floor Concert Review)
If there is one band that understands the very fine line between precision and chaos, it’s those crazy dudes of Electric Six. Twenty-plus years and thirteen albums on from the 2003 breakout Fire, the Detroit disco-techno-punk-rockers remain gloriously committed to the cause: sharp suits, sharper riffs, knowingly tongue in cheek lyrics, and a live show that has no filler and no filter.
Electric Six delivered exactly what the sold-out audience was drawn to — a high-octane, sweat-friendly greatest-hits party, executed with the ease of a band that knows exactly what they are about and exactly why people keep turning up.
There’s no easing into an Electric Six show. Once vocalist, founder and centrepiece Dick Valentine loitered onstage — equal parts frontman, stand-up comic, and chaos merchant — the band launched straight in, locking into the dance groove with Synthesizer, Turquoise and Pulling The Plug on Party grabbing the fans attention.
From the outset, the sound was thick, punchy and unapologetically loud, with guitars sitting heavily over the relentless disco-rock pulse that is the band’s signature. Known for a somewhat revolving lineup the current tour band in addition to Valentine is I believe known as Herb S Flavours (guitar) Mr Poison (bass) El Charr (Drums) and The White Wolf (guitar).
Electric Six have always been something of a paradox. On record, they can sound like absurdist provocateurs; live, they present as a seriously tight rock band masquerading as funtime guys. The playing is muscular without being showy, with a deliberate motif that keeps bodies moving. The Hotel Mary Chang, Naked Pictures (Of Your Mother), Down at McDonnelzzz and New Shampoo each hit their grooves and sat there, letting the heaving crowd do the rest.
Valentine, was a constant stream of semi-surreal monologue — rambling, occasionally philosophical, and largely filling the space in the best possible way. His between-song patter feels unscripted but calibrated to keep things loose without breaking momentum. He rarely commands the crowd; instead, he gently misdirects them, like a talk show host who knows that being off script is half the fun.
Mid-set, the band leaned hard into their best-known stretch: Gay Bar, Gay Bar Part Two,She’s White, Randys Hot Tonight and Future Boys a song run that remains one of the great endurance tests of any crowd. The reaction was immediate and communal — shouted hooks, arms pumping, bodies bouncing — proof that these songs have genuinely lodged themselves into people’s musical muscle memory.
What’s easy to forget until you’re in the room is just how funked-up the band can sound live.
Tracks like Hot Numbers on The Telephone, Future Is in the Future, Window of Time and When I Get to The Green Building carried a real weight, the rhythm section drilling away while guitars layered over the top with disciplined menace. Even the lighter moments landed because the band never sacrifices control.
Late-set highlights arrived in the form of Improper Dancing, the supersonic Danger! High Voltage, which they play hard, straight, and without irony — and the crowd hits the roof, Lenny Kravitz, Dance Epidemic, I Buy The Drugs took us to the closer Bite Me.
The encores were all loud, and completely on brand with Riding on The White Train and Germans in Mexico before finishing naturally with Dance Commander— a final, over the top victory lap that left the room steaming and smiling.
Production stayed refreshingly no-frills throughout. Lighting was busy rather than flashy, the mix clear and balanced, and nothing about the staging competed with the band’s natural energy. Electric Six don’t need spectacle; they bring the spectacle.
What this Auckland show reinforced is something the band have quietly proven all over the world: These crazy guys endure because they are exceptionally good at what they do. They’re capable performers masked behind a party band image, delivering a live experience that’s funny, physical, sometime ferocious and with absolutely no filler …and no filter!!!
John Hastings
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