Cobra Starship Round One (8/25)
Last night inlovewithnight and I drove to Richmond to see Cobra Starship. \o/ They remain the only band I will do in-depth concert recaps for.
We got there late, so we missed most of the openers, but that was fine because there were too many openers. We saw the very end of what I think was Friday Night Boys, but we didn't see enough for me to form an opinion. We saw all of The Audition, who I actually REALLY liked musically, but who were kind of awkward to watch for some reason. The stage presence wasn't quite there - you could see them *trying.* But they were trying hard! And I did enjoy their set anyway because the music was really fun.
Cobra was, as always, fantastic. How do they fit that much hot into one room without spontaneously combusting? I don't know! It's a mystery! And I love how they are all always clearly having so. much. fun.
I'm a little more worried about Gabe than I was *prior* to this show. I was feeling a lot better because it was looking like he's gotten his act together. And last night he was really smiley and happy and clearly in a good mood, but his voice was *rough.* They opened with "Pete Wentz is the Only Reason We're Famous" and he was barely on pitch. It got better as the night went on, but he still passed a lot of lyrics off to the audience and in most cases didn't even try for the high notes. And there were definitely points when Ryland was carrying the vocals. Oh, Gabe bb. I worry. :(
But they were fantastic anyway, really high energy and playing off of each other. Victoria was WASTED, according to Ryland because she'd been doing tequila shots before the show. It was kind of adorable, though there was this moment at the beginning when Gabe said something to her about it and she kind of smacked him in the shoulder and went over to the other side of the stage, and he got seriously concerned that she was actually mad at him, and kind of followed her across the stage going, "Victoria, what?" which was sort of an awkward moment, even though she laughed it off. But later on Ryland told her that her boobs look great when she's drunk, no actually when he's drunk. And she was like, "only when I'm drunk? >:(" and then Gabe was like, "I always think they look great because I love you" and then he dedicated "The World Has It's Shine" to her, which was kind of adorable and also kind of O_o, what?
At one point someone threw a bra at Alex, and then Victoria put it on and launched into "Like a Virgin." She was a lot more effusive and involved than she usually is. Her stage persona just usually strikes me as kind of detached like she's having fun but is also kind of above Gabe's shenanigans, but she was really into it last night, all the dancing with Gabe and the bouncing around.
Gabe was great (except for the worrying voice issue). He was really enthusiastic and he really loves his fans and he kept climbing up on the barricade to say hi to them and hitting his head on the lights and then getting shoved back by security. He spent a lot of time hanging on both Victoria and Ryland and at one point declared Alex to be the hottest guy in Cobra Starship. (Nate is left out of Gabe's stage love. :( I couldn't even see Nate. I have never gone to a Cobra show where I've been in a position to see Nate. It's too bad. His twitter has been immensely amusing lately, so I have new found affection). Gabe had a few earnest moments about the Meaning of Cobra Starship, which I always appreciate, though not as many earnest moments as the last time I saw them.
Ryland and Gabe came out for the encore first and did this whole spiel about how they would make music together even if no one listened to them and all of their friends and family made fun of them. Then they talked about how they wrote "Pleasure Ryland" and Gabe talked some more about how great Ryland is and Ryland went on and on about "see what I did there with vocabulary?" It was pretty hilarious and Ryland is ridiculously charming. Also Gabe loves Ryland a lot. The lack of fic about them continues to be a travesty. Why is there *none?* When I search gabe/ryland on delicious, I get under 20 results and half of those are actually Alex/Ryland. Not that I object to Alex/Ryland because there's not anywhere near enough of that either, I'm just saying GABE LOVES RYLAND A LOT and there should be fic celebrating that fact. The lack of Cobra fic in general continues to be pretty sad, actually. I would read Victoria/Nate! (Has no one else noticed how cute?) I would read so much Alex/Ryland! I would read more Gabe/anyone, because I don't really care as long as the Gabe characterization is solid. I actually really want Gabe het. Elisa, VickyT, Leighton Meester, all acceptable! *sigh* fandom *sigh* 'Night was saying last night that I really should just run a "get Cobra Starship laid" ficathon, but that's in the parallel universe where I have the presence of mind and patience to actually run a ficathon. :/ In this universe I can't even finish a fic.
The only new songs they played were "Pete Wentz is the Only Reason We're Famous" and "Good Girls" (Victoria did Leighton's part). Most of the rest of it was off Viva, with a few While the City Sleeps songs. They did "The Ballad of Big Poppa and Diamond Girl" which was cool; I don't think they've done that at the shows I've been to before. They said they were playing older stuff because this tour was for the fans who have been with them all along. 'Night and I have a theory that they realized how ridiculously lol defensive Hot Mess actually is and just kind of went "...yeah, I don't know what happened there. ANYWAY." I really like Hot Mess, actually and there are a few songs off of it I would have really liked to hear them do live. But still. LOL.
They *did* play not only "Hollaback Boy" but also "Damn You Look Good and I'm Drunk" which I sort of wish hadn't happened. And also, apparently a girl handed Gabe a note before the show that just said, "thanks for putting a black girl on the cover of the album" and they got a little too self-congratulatory about that. I still think the cover is pretty problematic, but people see it different ways and a conversation can no doubt be had about that. Just don't pat yourself on the back too hard there, Gabriel. You don't want to strain something.
In the course of telling that story, he did say that he really liked getting notes and letters from fans and that he reads all of them. GABE DON'T TELL ME THAT. I will write an epic anonymous letter about why I love you and it will be SO CREEPY. My creepiness wrt Gabe (and Cobra Starship) is already a little out of control. As creepy as I am about other bandom bands *cough*Panic at the Disco *cough* I'm completely content to be creepy from a distance and just, like, twitter stalk them and worry about their life choices in the privacy of my own home. The idea of a PatD meet and greet is terrifying to me and I have no desire whatsoever to ever actually meet them. I sort of do have the desire to meet Gabe and be creepy in his general vicinity (I just want to talk to him about politics and also his emo past! /o\), but I at least have the sense not to give into this urge. We may still try and hang out by the buses tonight and say 'hi,' though the last time I met the Cobras I didn't have the ability to actually articulate words at them anyway, and there's really no reason to think that's changed now.
After the show, I bought the "Shut Your Mouth and Get Down on the Floor" t-shirt because you can never have too much hideous Cobra swag. \o/
Tonight! Round Two! FANGS UP.
We got there late, so we missed most of the openers, but that was fine because there were too many openers. We saw the very end of what I think was Friday Night Boys, but we didn't see enough for me to form an opinion. We saw all of The Audition, who I actually REALLY liked musically, but who were kind of awkward to watch for some reason. The stage presence wasn't quite there - you could see them *trying.* But they were trying hard! And I did enjoy their set anyway because the music was really fun.
Cobra was, as always, fantastic. How do they fit that much hot into one room without spontaneously combusting? I don't know! It's a mystery! And I love how they are all always clearly having so. much. fun.
I'm a little more worried about Gabe than I was *prior* to this show. I was feeling a lot better because it was looking like he's gotten his act together. And last night he was really smiley and happy and clearly in a good mood, but his voice was *rough.* They opened with "Pete Wentz is the Only Reason We're Famous" and he was barely on pitch. It got better as the night went on, but he still passed a lot of lyrics off to the audience and in most cases didn't even try for the high notes. And there were definitely points when Ryland was carrying the vocals. Oh, Gabe bb. I worry. :(
But they were fantastic anyway, really high energy and playing off of each other. Victoria was WASTED, according to Ryland because she'd been doing tequila shots before the show. It was kind of adorable, though there was this moment at the beginning when Gabe said something to her about it and she kind of smacked him in the shoulder and went over to the other side of the stage, and he got seriously concerned that she was actually mad at him, and kind of followed her across the stage going, "Victoria, what?" which was sort of an awkward moment, even though she laughed it off. But later on Ryland told her that her boobs look great when she's drunk, no actually when he's drunk. And she was like, "only when I'm drunk? >:(" and then Gabe was like, "I always think they look great because I love you" and then he dedicated "The World Has It's Shine" to her, which was kind of adorable and also kind of O_o, what?
At one point someone threw a bra at Alex, and then Victoria put it on and launched into "Like a Virgin." She was a lot more effusive and involved than she usually is. Her stage persona just usually strikes me as kind of detached like she's having fun but is also kind of above Gabe's shenanigans, but she was really into it last night, all the dancing with Gabe and the bouncing around.
Gabe was great (except for the worrying voice issue). He was really enthusiastic and he really loves his fans and he kept climbing up on the barricade to say hi to them and hitting his head on the lights and then getting shoved back by security. He spent a lot of time hanging on both Victoria and Ryland and at one point declared Alex to be the hottest guy in Cobra Starship. (Nate is left out of Gabe's stage love. :( I couldn't even see Nate. I have never gone to a Cobra show where I've been in a position to see Nate. It's too bad. His twitter has been immensely amusing lately, so I have new found affection). Gabe had a few earnest moments about the Meaning of Cobra Starship, which I always appreciate, though not as many earnest moments as the last time I saw them.
Ryland and Gabe came out for the encore first and did this whole spiel about how they would make music together even if no one listened to them and all of their friends and family made fun of them. Then they talked about how they wrote "Pleasure Ryland" and Gabe talked some more about how great Ryland is and Ryland went on and on about "see what I did there with vocabulary?" It was pretty hilarious and Ryland is ridiculously charming. Also Gabe loves Ryland a lot. The lack of fic about them continues to be a travesty. Why is there *none?* When I search gabe/ryland on delicious, I get under 20 results and half of those are actually Alex/Ryland. Not that I object to Alex/Ryland because there's not anywhere near enough of that either, I'm just saying GABE LOVES RYLAND A LOT and there should be fic celebrating that fact. The lack of Cobra fic in general continues to be pretty sad, actually. I would read Victoria/Nate! (Has no one else noticed how cute?) I would read so much Alex/Ryland! I would read more Gabe/anyone, because I don't really care as long as the Gabe characterization is solid. I actually really want Gabe het. Elisa, VickyT, Leighton Meester, all acceptable! *sigh* fandom *sigh* 'Night was saying last night that I really should just run a "get Cobra Starship laid" ficathon, but that's in the parallel universe where I have the presence of mind and patience to actually run a ficathon. :/ In this universe I can't even finish a fic.
The only new songs they played were "Pete Wentz is the Only Reason We're Famous" and "Good Girls" (Victoria did Leighton's part). Most of the rest of it was off Viva, with a few While the City Sleeps songs. They did "The Ballad of Big Poppa and Diamond Girl" which was cool; I don't think they've done that at the shows I've been to before. They said they were playing older stuff because this tour was for the fans who have been with them all along. 'Night and I have a theory that they realized how ridiculously lol defensive Hot Mess actually is and just kind of went "...yeah, I don't know what happened there. ANYWAY." I really like Hot Mess, actually and there are a few songs off of it I would have really liked to hear them do live. But still. LOL.
They *did* play not only "Hollaback Boy" but also "Damn You Look Good and I'm Drunk" which I sort of wish hadn't happened. And also, apparently a girl handed Gabe a note before the show that just said, "thanks for putting a black girl on the cover of the album" and they got a little too self-congratulatory about that. I still think the cover is pretty problematic, but people see it different ways and a conversation can no doubt be had about that. Just don't pat yourself on the back too hard there, Gabriel. You don't want to strain something.
In the course of telling that story, he did say that he really liked getting notes and letters from fans and that he reads all of them. GABE DON'T TELL ME THAT. I will write an epic anonymous letter about why I love you and it will be SO CREEPY. My creepiness wrt Gabe (and Cobra Starship) is already a little out of control. As creepy as I am about other bandom bands *cough*Panic at the Disco *cough* I'm completely content to be creepy from a distance and just, like, twitter stalk them and worry about their life choices in the privacy of my own home. The idea of a PatD meet and greet is terrifying to me and I have no desire whatsoever to ever actually meet them. I sort of do have the desire to meet Gabe and be creepy in his general vicinity (I just want to talk to him about politics and also his emo past! /o\), but I at least have the sense not to give into this urge. We may still try and hang out by the buses tonight and say 'hi,' though the last time I met the Cobras I didn't have the ability to actually articulate words at them anyway, and there's really no reason to think that's changed now.
After the show, I bought the "Shut Your Mouth and Get Down on the Floor" t-shirt because you can never have too much hideous Cobra swag. \o/
Tonight! Round Two! FANGS UP.