The neon lights of Las Vegas set the perfect stage for the hotly anticipated Cobra Starship reunion on Thursday night. Brooklyn Bowl was packed to the rafters with fans ready to put their fangs up in celebration of the band’s first show in over 10 years to kick off a weekend at When We Were Young Festival.
Millionaires- the sassy, neon-hued scene queens- opened the show by strutting onstage to “Take Your Shirt Off” and suddenly it was 2010 all over again. The current lineup of Melissa Marie Green and Meredith Hurley were outfitted head to toe in their signature sparkles and giant bows, proving that nothing needed to change since the start of the band. The crowd was pumped up for their set, jumping along to “Party Like a Millionaire” and “Prom Dress”. They fully encouraged everyone to get lit to start the weekend and ended their set with the aptly-titled “Alcohol”.
If you need to start the party in a hurry, 3OH!3 will do the trick every time. Nathaniel Motte and Sean Foreman inflated a pair of giant yellow hands in their signature shape and walked onstage like returning victors as the thumping bass of “PUNKBITCH” blared. As the only band on the lineup consistently playing shows all these years, many fans in attendance were just happy to see them be the perfect complementing co-headliners for this sidequest show.
Their hilariously irreverent songs still hold up, with the room screaming along to “Richman” and the impossibly catchy “Starstrukk”. The set was interactive as well, with Motte leaving the stage to bounce with the crowd and getting everyone to put their hands up in the 303 pose throughout the night. After a medical emergency briefly derailed the set, the guys got things back on track with “Double Vision” and an interpretive dance to “Colorado Sunrise”. The fans had worked up quite a sweat at this point but 3OH!3 didn’t leave the stage until we’d all exhausted ourselves during “I’m Not Your Boyfriend Baby” and- of course- “DONTTRUSTME” to end the set.
The room was humming with anticipation as Cobra Starship took the stage in a haze of blue light and ear to ear grins on everyone’s faces. Singer Gabe Saporta immediately deviated from the expected album play, instead starting off with “Nice Guys Finish Last” and “Pete Wentz is the Only Reason We’re Famous” before dropping right back into ¡Viva La Cobra! The room absolutely exploded when “The City is at War” began and longtime fans recreated the music video dance to “Guilty Pleasure”, prompting a delighted reaction from the band.
It was clear that this enthusiastic reception to the band’s reunion was more than a little unexpected and Saporta gave all the credit to keytarist Vicky T for putting in the work to make it happen. The rest of the set was a purple-tinged blur- from fist pumping in unison to the chorus of “Smile for the Paparazzi” to shaking the floor with “Hot Mess”. Then it was time for Saporta’s story time as he introduced the original members of the group, giving well-deserved props to drummer Nate Novarro and Vicky T before closing the set with the first Cobra song to exist- the iconic “Snakes on a Plane”.
A barrage of cheers summoned the band back once more for an encore of “You Make Me Feel” and “Good Girls Go Bad” and the fans did their best cheerleader chanting to end the night with a burst of energy. This was only the beginning of the festival for Cobra Starship and the reception absolutely propelled the band and the fans into a nostalgia-fueled weekend of fun and a plethora of purple hoodies.
