Cobra Starship: Intoxication at its finest.

"I've crashed up joints in Tokyo, and I may not be loved, but they always recall my name. I'm the last man standing, yeah, and I am never scared. Smash it up, smash it up, I'm gonna kick it down. Be cool tonight, don't wanna start a fight."


I've already reviewed Cobra Starship once on this blog, yet I can't help but review them again. The outdoor pavilion show last night was a vastly different atmosphere than the club show they headlined this fall, so it is completely fair to review them again.

Cobra was the second of five acts to perform at the Believers Never Die Part Deux show in Columbus, Ohio, but they definitely did not perform like a traditional opening act. I'm completely biased towards Fall Out Boy, but were I not, I might argue that Cobra actually upstaged them last night. Considering Pete Wentz's worship of lead singer Gabe Saporta and his former band, Midtown, I'm fairly certain that Pete would agree with me on that point. Because if there is one thing that Gabe has, it's stage presence. From the moment he stepped on stage, downing a red Solo cup full of Red Bull and vodka, to the moment he introduced Metro Station, dove into the crowd, and then dashed backstage, the audience was intoxicated. (I know what he was drinking because not only is it all he ever drinks, but he threw the cup into the audience and I found myself covered in Gabe's drink of choice.)


They started the show the way they always do, with their strongest, fastest, and most popular song, "City Is At War." Rarely does a crowd sing along with an opening act, but the audience last night knew every word of every Cobra Starship song, including a song that is barely a month old, "Pete Wentz Is The Only Reason We're Famous." This was especially surprising when Fall Out Boy took the stage and played a few songs that the majority of the audience did not know. Granted, Fall Out Boy has five albums and Cobra has only two, but it was still supposed to be Fall Out Boy's tour.

When Cobra started playing my personal favorite song, "Kiss My Sass," it was clear that Gabe was overflowing with exactly that: sass. If Gabe ever stops playing music, I suggest that he become a motivational speaker. Despite the fact that Gabe is incredibly nerdy, he has so much attitude and is so unique that the audience rallies behind him as if he held the cure to cancer. Gabe is known for his dance skills, and there is no doubt that the boy can move, but I enjoyed being one of the few in the crowd who realized that he was copying Carlton's famous dance from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. At the after-concert party, I decided that Gabe could also definitely make a living as a DJ. Because no one else could go into a club and play everything from D.J. Assault to Journey and have the crowd dancing and singing along.


Due to the extremely short set, the other members of the band were not able to shine as much as they had when Cobra headlined, but they nonetheless remain the best live band I've seen to date.

Gabe's energy is difficult to describe, so I included a video of him singing "Kiss My Sass." Sorry the sound quality isn't the best:



Photos and video by Sarah Maloy in Columbus, Ohio on May 13, 2009.

Best. Concert. Ever.

So last night was probably one of the greatest nights of my life. It was the best concert, both entertainment- and musicality-wise, that I have ever been to. Not to mention the fact that I met and had the opportunity to hang out with all of my favorite musicians. In short: It was amazing, and I will now proceed to write show reviews for each of the bands!

The Cab: My New Obsession.

Normally I don't become obsessed with a band until I see them live. So far there have been only two exceptions to that rule, not including the days when I was a little teeny-bopper who wasn't allowed to go to concerts. The two exceptions to my live-show-obsession rule were Fall Out Boy and the Sex Pistols. Until recently, that is, when I popped Whisper War into my computer and instantly fell in love with The Cab.

The first thing I thought when "Bounce" began to play out of my speakers was that I had found some sort of wonderful N*sync reincarnate. But as I listened, I began to realize that The Cab has all the goodness of N*sync, but with enough musical talent that they aren't a pop "boy band."
19-year-old
Alex DeLeon's lyrics aren't quite as cheeky and me-against-the-world as I like songs to be, but it's only their first album. And I have to consider that not everyone is as witty as Pete Wentz or Gabe Saporta and not everyone writes music because they hate the world.

Essentially The Cab is a wondrous hybrid of N*sync and The Academy Is..., Fast Times at Barrington High-style, of course.

The Cab's music video for "Bounce"

The Cab - New Music - More Music Videos

They came here to make me dance tonight.

It surprises me that everyone says Fall Out Boy are horrible live, considering that the other Fueled By Ramen bands are some of the best live performers I have ever seen. While Panic at the Disco tops them all in terms of live quality, no band can beat the show put on by Cobra Starship.

Gabe Saporta is one of the most entertaining vocalists in this industry, and when combined with Cobra's tongue-in-cheek lyrics, the songs are just as laughable as they are danceable. Most people know Cobra Starship for their movie theme song, "Snakes On a Plane (Bring It)". While I love that song, it's really not a representation of who Cobra is today, considering that all but one of the vocalists and instrumentalists on "Snakes On a Plane" are not actually in the band today. To be perfectly honest, "Snakes On a Plane" is probably better quality the the band's new songs, but it just isn't as funny. Some people also know about Cobra, or at least about Gabe, because he used to be the lead singer for the band Midtown.

One of my personal favorite songs is "Damn You Look Good and I'm Drunk (Scandalous)". Cobra was accompanied in the studio by the V.I.P Party Boys for this song, and it is beyond outrageous. Go listen to it... unless you're easily offended. But so long as you can take a little vulgarity, I promise you will enjoy it, and "S-C-A-N-D-to the A- to the L-O-U-S" will forever be stuck in your head.

I highly suggest that everyone listen to Cobra Starship. Especially to "Guilty Pleasure" (video posted below), "City Is At War," "Prostitution is the World's Oldest Profession (And I Dear Madame am a Professional)," and "Kiss My Sass."


Cobra Starship's "Guilty Pleasure" Home Video, produced and recorded by the band.

If any of the links don't work, I apologize. YouTube is currently in a legal battle with Warner Music Group and that has caused all Fueled By Ramen (and many other) videos to be removed.

Photo of Gabriel Saporta by Sarah Maloy at Bogarts Music Hall in Cincinnati, November 22, 2008.

I can't believe you take it so serious... seriously.

I'm tired of everyone trying to document everything. I hate Facebook and I hate everyone's desperate need to take a million pictures to put on Facebook.

I wish we could just live in the moment.

Not that I'm not guilty of doing all these things, but I wish I didn't.

Earlier this week, we had a few inches of snow and a lot of ice, so classes were canceled. Now if there is one thing that can motivate college kids to go outside and celebrate, it's a snow day. Everyone slept in until past noon, something which was particularly noticeable when girls were lining up for the shower around one-o-clock, and then got ready to go out in the snow.

And what did everyone have to grab before heading out? Their camera. So we proceeded outside; ten friends, ten cameras, and very little fun. We quickly realized that there was no point in taking pictures... since everyone was taking pictures. The majority of us returned our cameras either to our rooms or our pockets, and the day was fantastic after that.

But the point I'm trying to make in this very random and likely to be deleted blog is that there is no point in trying to record everything... if you aren't even going to be there to experience it in the first place.

One of my favorite bands, Cobra Starship, set up a camera to film them while they wrote their new album in a cabin in Pennsylvania. One night, after hours of work, a few bottles of wine, and a bottle of vodka, they began calling fans. My friend came into my room to inform me of this development and I pulled up the website at once. The first person whom they called after I began watching spent the first five minutes of her conversation telling Gabriel Saporta, the lead singer, to "hold on a sec" while she tried to find her camera and begin recording the conversation.

As I watched, I thought how pathetic she was to be blowing an opportunity to talk to him, but then I realized that I would probably do the same thing. Because otherwise, what would I put online for everyone to see? How would I prove to anyone that he had actually called to talk to me? Our society has become one in which the experiences we have are not as important as the stories and the proof that we had them.

Gabe told the girl on the phone, "Stop trying to record this. You're wasting the whole conversation; just live in the moment," and after she kept ignoring him in favor of a camera, he hung up on her.

Since that night I've been thinking about my life and about all the things I've missed while trying to capture proof of the moment-- while looking for a story to tell. I'm determined to stop wasting my life taking pictures and trying to have something to brag about. I'm just going to enjoy my experiences and live in the moment. Next time I go to a concert or some sort of event, I may take my camera, but it will stay in my pocket for everything except a meet-and-greet. Anyone with me?

Weekly Recommendations

I'm going to start a thing called "Weekly Recommendations" where I make a list of cool things I've discovered which I think everyone should check out.

First on my list is the blog that gave me the idea to make this list...

--MartinSays.com


Second and third are social networking sites which I have recently become obsessed with.

--Twitter



--FriendsOrEnemies


My last recommendation for the day is an accessory which was shown to me by the lovely Gabriel Saporta of Cobra Starship.

--Jac Vanek bracelets


My personal favorite bracelets are Ruthless, Guilty, Trainwreck, and Legit. Which ones do you like best?

That's all for now.