The Australian music scene is a fickle beast. It has a habit of welcoming or ostracising the success of acts at will. Regardless of whatever reason you believe, be it genuine talent, work ethic or simply luck, to exist as an act for twelve years is a remarkable accomplishment. Most bands are lucky to survive even a quarter of this milestone but for three piece Bondi prog-rockers Cog they have risen from their underground following to become one of the most popular acts in Australia. Even after twelve years they still manage to amass a sizeable crowd inside the expanses of the Tivoli. Through their ingenuity the trio have set the benchmark in Australian hard rock, a benchmark which, on this night, the support acts fail to meet.

Since the demise of Mammal last year Ezekiel Ox has involved himself in a variety of new projects such as Full Scale Revolution, Smash Nova and Ox and the Fury. His new project Over-Reactor appears somewhat misguided and leaves most punters in disarray. Ox has no backing band except for a drummer who plays along to sampled guitar tracks. Ox lays down his traditional vocal delivery which is mixture of rapping, singing and screaming. The lack of a backing band is rather alienating. Not even his renowned charisma is enough to save this performance and prompts the question: has Ox stretched his resources too thin in his quest to present his ultra-leftist ideals to the masses?

Electric Horse is sadly plagued by the song writing issues that so many hard rock bands in Australia suffer from. Each member is a skilled and accomplished musician, but the end results are mid tempo, rock-by-number tracks that almost verge on mediocrity. At times Dane Brown puts on an electrifying performance on drums and his brother Jason Brown delivers some powerful vocals but their set fails to gather too much momentum. Electric Horse may need to consider the scope of their current song writing. It does, however, fit comfortably into its niche market and a handful of members in the crowd lap up the punchy energetic set with enthusiasm.

As the ominous sound of machine-gun fire and explosions echoes throughout the Tivoli, Cog’s Flynn Gower begins the finger picked intro to the Monolithic Doors. Without even needing a moment to catch their breath the band blasts out Are you Interested? to monstrous applause followed by The Movies over. Even the moderately paced Silence is Violence explodes with power unrivalled by most bands in their genre.

Cog are not a band with an overwhelming stage presence, instead they let their ability as musicians charm their audience. Any average musician can pick up a guitar; jump around on stage and sugar-coat shoddy musicianship. To meld together brooding ten minute long prog-rock odysseys with complex time signatures and technical chord progressions takes years of meticulous rehearsing. In fact the very reason Flynn Gower has such an awkward position when singing is that he is cautiously watching his fingers traverse up and down the fretboard making sure that each note falls succinctly into place. If that weren’t impressive enough, he still is capable of delivering powerful vocals filled with lyrical themes of anti-government sentiments and dystopian fears, hidden behind figurative and metaphorical language.

Lucius Borich is a man who is truly in his element behind a drum kit. Each impact on skin or cymbal highlights a calibre of drumming which very few drummers in Australia are capable of. His complex rhythms and fills interlock with the cementing basslines of Luke Gower, serving as the backbone that holds together songs that ebb and flow out of time signatures at will.

Tonight’s set really does reflect the twelve years Cog have existed as a band and has a variety material to please fans both young and old . From the early compositions like Moshiach, to the more audience friendly favourites like My Enemy, What if and Bird of Feather. Ezekiel Ox joins the band briefly on stage for Swamp. Rather than hogging the spotlight with the traditional Ox charisma, he sings a few lines and modestly hands it back to Flynn to continue. The band then showcases the highlight of their set The Spine. From the spoken word intro the song builds ambient guitar and thunderous drums into a Vesuvius-like eruption of colossal sized riffage.

The band takes some brief time out to thank all the people who have been a part of their twelve year journey. It shouldn’t be a surprise that it is a collective team effort to make shows run so smoothly. The sincerity towards their roadies and management staff serves as a testament to Cog’s unchanged humility over all the years, which is sadly not valued by as many bands as it should be.

With their set nearing almost two hours in length the band still has enough stamina to play No Other Way which brings the night to a close. The members of Cog thank the crowd then slip away. The audience shouldn’t have the audacity to ask for an encore. After a few minutes they realise that it isn’t going to happen.