Live at The Tuning Fork
27 March 2026
Live Review by Music Journalist: Paul Marshall
Electric Six Turn The Tuning Fork Into a High-Voltage Circus of Chaos, Comedy and Cult Rock Glory.
Tonight, I’m heading out to see a group of lads with names like Dick Valentine, Johnny Na$hinal, Tait Nucleus, Herb S. Flavourings, Dr. J, and Rick Schaple. If that reads like a roll call from some alternate-universe glam militia, you’d be right. Of course, you already clocked it from the headline, this is Electric Six, the infamous Detroit absurdists who’ve spent over two decades walking the tightrope between satire, sleaze, and straight-up rock ‘n’ roll chaos.
Arriving at The Tuning Fork, there’s an immediate curveball, no support act. No warm-up. No easing in. Just straight to business. As I grab a drink and drift toward the front, the PA hums with the unmistakable swagger of Detroit Cobras, a nod to Electric Six’s hometown roots that feels less like coincidence and more like a curated prelude.
The room is rammed. Sold out. A proper cross-section of Auckland humanity, black T-shirts, indie hipsters, seasoned gig rats, and a gloriously unhinged crew of five super fans decked out in multicoloured caps like they’ve just walked off the set of some surrealist rock opera.
The intro track,“It Ain’t Punk Rock” from their Zodiac album, blasts through the speakers:
“And if you’re on land… you can come and see my piece of shit band…”
And just like that, the band appears.
Electric Six take the stage as a five-piece tonight, with Valentine casually dropping the first curveball of the evening:
“Our synthesiser player couldn’t be here tonight… he has Lyme disease.”
Delivered deadpan. No follow-up. No clarity. Classic Valentine. Truth or fiction? Doesn’t matter. The crowd’s already in.
“Song number one goes out to the memory of our synthesiser player… it’s called Synthesizer.”
And we’re off.
By the third track, Pulling the Plug on the Party, it’s clear this isn’t just a gig, it’s performance art wrapped in garage rock theatrics. After Naked Pictures (Of Your Mother), Valentine hits the crowd with:
“Those are the worst five songs we’ve got for you tonight.”
It lands perfectly. His charisma is surgical, equal parts stand-up comic, cult leader, and barroom philosopher. Few frontmen command a room like this, not by force, but by sheer, off-kilter magnetism.
“This is where we thank the support band… but there is no support tonight.”
Again, pause, grin, chaos.
This tour, aptly titled the Greatest Hits Tour, is no lazy retrospective. Since exploding out of Detroit in 2003 with their debut album Fire, Electric Six have quietly built a staggering catalogue, 15 albums deep, fusing disco, garage rock, new wave, and satire into something uniquely theirs.
And New Zealand? There’s history here. Over two decades ago, on their first U.S. tour, they shared stages with The D4, yes, Jimmy Christmas and co. a connection that still lingers in the band’s ongoing love affair with Kiwi crowds.
At one point, Valentine stands motionless, one hand raised high, slowly waving at the audience like some bizarre preacher of rock ‘n’ roll absurdity. The crowd mirrors him, tons of hands raised back in unison. It’s weird. It’s brilliant. It’s completely Electric Six.
Then comes Danger! High Voltage.
The place detonates. Bodies collide, hands shoot skyward, and for a few glorious minutes, The Tuning Fork transforms into a sweat-soaked cathedral of chaos.
Lenny Kravitz, from the gloriously titled I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me from Being the Master, lands as a razor-sharp parody of rock excess, dripping in irony and absurdity.
By the final stretch, a lone crowd surfer emerges, hoisted above the masses like a sacrificial offering to the gods of sleaze rock.
The encore? Three tracks. No filler.
“First one of three…” announces Valentine.
Riding on the White Train rolls through, before Valentine casually declares:
“I believe this is the greatest city in the region.”
Then comes the closer: Dance Commander.
And it’s game over.
The band line up, arms locked, front and centre, taking a unified bow to a crowd that’s given everything and then some. No ego. No hierarchy. Just a band that understands exactly what it is and delivers it without compromise.
Outside, cooling off in the Auckland night, I chat with a fan named Meg. She nails it:
“Valentine actually acknowledges his bandmates… not like a lot of frontmen.”
She’s right.
Behind the madness, the satire, and the surreal humour is something rarer than you’d expect, a frontman who gets it. Who respects the machine around him. Who knows this only works because it’s all of them.
And that’s the secret.
Electric Six aren’t just a band.
They’re a beautifully chaotic, self-aware, rock ‘n’ roll anomaly.
And tonight in Auckland, they were untouchable.
Electric Six full set list at The Tuning Fork:
- Synthesizer
- Turquoise
- Pulling the Plug on the Party
- The Hotel Mary Chang
- Naked Pictures (Of Your Mother)
- Down At McDonaldz
- The New Shampoo
- Gay Bar
- Gay bar part 2
- She's White Academy
- Randy’s Hot Tonight!
- Future Boys
- Hot Numbers On the Telephone
- Window of Time
- When I Get to the Green Building
- Future Is in the Future
- Improper Dancing
- Danger! High Voltage
- Lenny Kravitz
- Dance Epidemic
- I Buy the Drugs
- Bite Me
Encore
- Riding On A White Train
- Germans in Mexico
- Dance Commander
Reviewer: Paul Marshall
Photography by Paul Marshall
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