My City Buzz - What's YOUR Buzz??? - Metro Station w/ Cobra Starship @ Magic Stick 01.26.07

Home

Live Show Reviews

Metro Station w/ Cobra Starship @ Magic Stick 01.26.07

Written by Art Michalski

Tuesday, 29 January 2008

After having to sit through pretty standard emo fare with openers the Cab and We The Kings, Hollywood’s Metro Station came to rescue the day for a sold out crowd for headliners Cobra Starship.

Easily the liveliest band up to that point of the show, the quartet showed off a 35 minute set that showcased their brand of upbeat electro-pop from their self-titled debut. Straying from the Fall Out Boy style of alt-pop, Metro Station does a good job mixing elements of rock-based pop with sprinklings of electronic music on tracks like their catchiest material, such as “Shake It” and set closer “Control.”

After listening to the first two bands blabber about quoting The Lion King and keeping their words and between song banter as clean as possible, lead singer Mason Musso had no problem being a little loose in both aspects. The crowd of high schoolers ate up all of Musso’s semi-profane banter in between the bouncy and energetic material.

At times, Musso’s voice sounds somewhat similar to his contemporaries, but doesn’t get whiny, like most of those singers. Songs like “Seventeen Forever” come close to that, but the guitars and percussion made things enjoyable during their set. Now that “Control” is starting to pick up steam on alt-rock satellite radio, perhaps Metro Station may be on the up way.

Already celebrating one of their numerous sellouts on this tour, Cobra Starship kept that electro-pop party vibe going during their 70-minute set, in which just about every song from their first two albums were touched upon. Starting with the current single “The City is At War,” Gabe Saporta and company tore through older numbers like “The Church of Hot Addiction” and “Send My Love to The Dancefloor.”

The newer material from the Viva La Cobra album seems to have the band leaning more in an electronic direction and it looks as if the band is more comfortable in that sort of musical setting. Even though the songs off their first record While The City Sleeps, We Rule The Streets were highly catchy, it seemed that it was the sound of a band just feeling out their sound. Cobra Starship seems more confident on the direction of the sound, and the fans were more than happy to go along for the ride.

Some of the between song banter might have been too above the heads of the teenagers, but most older people in the audience could relate to the good natured ribbing mostly going on between Saporta and guitarist Ryland Blackinton. For a night of entertaining and mostly unoffensive musical fun, Cobra Starship and Metro Station definitely provided the goods. .

No one has commented on this article.

< Prev		Next >