The Queen’s Birthday Eve kicked off in the strangest manner. The obligatory line to get into the second sold out Cog show stretched a fair distance, but most talk amongst punters circulated around the last-minute surprise withdrawal by Cog the night before.
As there had been no word on the official status of tonight’s show, punters were hopeful that the gig would go ahead, despite the tension and apprehension in the air.
Calling All Cars jumped on stage to kick off proceedings, flying through the general crowd pleasing set that forms a major part of their arsenal, including new single Not Like Anybody.
Calling All Cars are an exuberant band who enjoy prancing around from side to side, so the fact the Oceansize’s gear was set up behind them left little space for the Ing brothers to move about except to plant themselves firmly on top of the foldback speakers.
Manchester quintet Oceansize cast a spell on the audience from the get go. Whether it was the sparkly pink drum kit or Mike Vennart’s ankle-skimming pants, there was no doubt that tonight would be a very special evening.
Oceansize have stated that this would possibly be their only ever Australian tour, but they sure as hell gave the audience their money’s worth. With five members on stage, things could appear a little crowded seeing as three of them are on guitars and one on bass, but the complexity of the time signatures, combined with the intricacies of their work served to mesmerize the audience, many who had never heard of the band before.
Oceansize seized their chance to showcase their strongest material, including One Day All This Could be Yours and Women Who Love Men Who Love Drugs, and came very near to dethroning Cog for the best performance of the night.
It is a shame that a return to Australia is highly unlikely for the band, particularly after their generosity the night before in extending their set to compensate for Cog pulling out winning them many new fans. Without sounding completely overwhelmed, however, it was a sublime privileged to watch one of the most underrated bands to emerge from the United Kingdom.
Cog were welcomed on stage with rapturous adulation from the packed out venue, to the opening strains of It’s Doors (Now and then my life feels like it’s going nowhere), which has definitely been missed in their live shows. All eyes were on Flynn Gower to see how his voice would hold up as Cog launched into one of their best live performances in recent history.
It’s hard to say if cancelling the previous night was responsible for upping the ante of tonight’s set, which drew heavily from Sharing Space but the heartfelt apology from Flynn following The Movies Over not only swept the crowd into a mad frenzy, but also lifted the spirits of the many who formed the contingent of doubting punters.
Moo from the Just Visiting era was a surprise addition to the set list, resulting in Cog performing to a sea of blank faces, which lit up as the title track of the current album followed.
Bassist Luke Gower may have replaced the hair on his head with the lumberjack beard since his last visit to Melbourne, but the unbridled enthusiasm he brings to each and every live show hasn’t changed at all, right to his trademark bounding about before songs kick off.
Lucius Borich, arguably one of the most talented drummers of our generation, is generally a focused, intense presence on stage. Tonight, however, the repertoire is broken up by Lucius’ appeals to the crowd to appreciate and support Flynn Gower’s efforts to perform despite the voice problems.
There was no doubt that Flynn was struggling to hold notes tonight, yet the sheer magnitude and intensity of the live show was such that it was overlooked by many. The strain, however, was noticeable as small bridging vocals were dropped during certain numbers to give Flynn a chance to recuperate. Not that anyone minded too much.
In true Cog style, there was no encore following the anthemic epic Problem, Reaction, Solution (where Luke happily donned a curly mop-wig thrown in from the audience), but that didn’t deter fans from asking. Despite the voice issues, Cog are back to the form that ensconced them as one of Australia’s premier live acts a few years back, washing away the memory of somewhat mediocre performances of recent times.
to listen to their music now on 
