COG: are you interested?
I used to love the shit out of COG. I really enjoyed The New Normal, and their EPs. I went to see their gig at Coogee Bay Hotel, and it wasn’t too bad, but it doesn’t have the same vibe they used to have back in my UOW days. I’ve seen these guys at least 10 times, 5 or so with my mate Doogsey, who I think has to be their number 1 fan. On the What If? tour (just before Sharing Space came out), we went to both Metro shows and bootlegged their stuff, one example is Town of Lincon (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2qyyLhNIZs). But there’s something missing. The new album didn’t really grow on me. I really loved their older, heavier, and longer songs, all the new songs seem to be shorter and much more pallatable to the mainstream. Whilst this isn’t a good thing, they’re selling tickets and making money, it really ends an era of my total love for COG. From The New Normal (a really strong debut album), they only played Silence is Violence, Resonate and Doors (which opened the gig), I would have liked to hear Spine and Elephant (which apparently never gets played). Moo was also an old song from Just Visiting (a new one I haven’t heard live). Are You Interested?, The Movie’s Over, What If, Bird of Feather, Swamp, Sharing Space, How Long, Problem/Reaction/Solution where also played. There was no encore.
The venue wasn’t too bad. Nothing special, there was an upper level, and it was quite small. I am bad at guessing numbers, maybe 800 or so people? It didn’t seem that packed, and apparently it holds 1800 people. The crowd were quite subdued – a big change from the early days when you’d expect an actual moshpit with at least a circle, I remember coming out that those gigs with a drenched shirt and requiring a purchase of a shirt just to change out of it. I really miss that COG. Most of the gig I was moving around, people entering and exiting the pit (I was next to sound desk as usual), some faces I recognise as they were going for that vital beer refill, seems like there is more interest in the drinks than the band, but then again could be the venue and clientele of Coogee. I’ve only ever seen COG either at the Metro or in the gong at Unibar or maybe Shelly’s Workers. It was quite annoying, beer spillages were rife, and mad exchanges of sweat as some of these people really liked to just shove instead of carefully weaving through tactfully.
While I’m sure that they’re catering for a wider audience now, I think the aura and their special sound when they were just starting has changed to become something more mainstream, and I long for the old days where there seemed to be much more energy eminating from this three peice band. At least this time there was no speech about the government or some conspiracy theory.
Still, there were some great COG memories to be added to my extensive list (Metro bootlegging with Doogsey and Maryam, COG supporting at Workers, headlining Unibar Garden Parties, Unibar gigs)… maybe I’ll revisit their album sometime in the future.
On another note, we threw in some Rammstein Live aus Berlin in the car on the way home, Doogsey mentioned that Rammstein are recording a new album. I got home, logged into their site, and bought a ticket to see them in Paris on the 8th of December! \o/
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