Cobra Starship @ Astor, Perth(21/03/10)

Fri 26th Mar, 2010 in Gig Reviews

Maccah’s Gallery

The Astor was built in 1919 and was used for live singing and dancing throughout the early 20th century before opening up to multipurpose activities such as bingo nights and karate lessons in the late 50s. Rumor has it that the old theatre is haunted, and has a number of stories about spooky encounters. Looking like an old movie theatre, you’d expect it to host shows by acoustic indie bands or maybe even classical artists rather than New York pop-punk-techno-crunk-whatever-you-wanna-call-it artists Cobra Starship. Who likes being predictable anyway?

Long before doors opened, the line outside the venue was intimidating. A nearly all female crowd, imitating vocalist Gabe Saporta’s neon pop-punk style in bright pants and purple hoodies all waited eagerly, making sure their shoelaces were well tied before they ran to beat one another to the best spot on the barrier. Perhaps being good friends with other popular bands on label Panic At The Disco and Paramore had influenced the spontaneous burst of dedicated and adoring fans. Not to mention Saporta being close to Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz. Yes, the Fueled By Ramen family was a tight-knit one with border-line crazy fans beyond belief (you’d think they were the Beatles with all that female attention), and to think all it took was a song on the radio to land their first headlining tour down under.

Sydney siders Amy Meredith supported the tour as the opening local artist. They too, have a song on the radio and judging by the surprised faces in the crowd that screamed “Hey! I know this song!” during Pornstar, the crowd suddenly appeared to be paying them a lot more attention. Adam Young, more commonly known as Owl City and his entourage of keyboardists and string accords, seemed to be enjoying the show with his expressive aeroplane-dancing and excited stories about his dad. It was cute, even for a twenty three year old with one song everyone knows. Fireflies was the crowd favorite, played not last, but mid-set and the Astor echoed every word for a solid three minutes. Love it, or hate it, we still knew all the lyrics. Young wrapped his set up with Hello Seattle before bowing gracefully and leaving centre stage.

The playlist between sets was quite an interesting one. A little bit of Lady Gaga and Ke$ha to get things rolling, before the band themselves rolled out onto stage with a piercing high pitched scream and performed single The City Is At War.

Half way through their third song, the stage lights unexpectedly turned off, sending the stage into complete darkness. Saporta was able to merge the lyrics “I don’t need no damned lights!” into the song for a laugh, and weren’t granted light again until the end. Assuming it was because the theatre was haunted, the band experienced several blackouts throughout the set, some for only a few seconds but nonetheless creepy.

Cobra performed a number of songs off their latest album Hot Mess, including ironic numbers Pete Wentz Is The Only Reason We’re Famous, Hot Mess and Good Girls Go Bad, but also threw in a few old time favorites such as Guilty Pleasure, The Church of Hot Addiction and Snakes On A Plane. Before the third verse, which is typically performed by Gym Class Heroes vocalist Travis Mccoy, Saporta chose four very lucky fans from the crowd to sing the rap on stage with him.

Being the last show of the tour, Saporta was very warm and grateful to the crowd, praising his audience and thanking everyone “from the bottom of his heart” for coming. Overall, a solid performance despite the lack of seriousness or meaning put into any of their songs. Maybe a little less talking, a little more dancing, and a few less drinks before the set.

Maccah’s Gallery