Cobra Starship - Gig Review & Photo Gallery 2nd December @ Northcote Theatre, Melb VIC

Cobra Starship
Northcote Theatre, Melbourne VIC
December 2, 2025
Support: Mannequin Death Squad

It’s the first week of summer in Australia, although somebody apparently forgot to tell the weather that, but that means it’s Good Things Festival season!

This year the recently reformed Cobra Starship are on the lineup and they kicked off their return down under with their first show in Australia since 2012 at the Northcote Theatre last night.

Hype band for the night was Melbourne’s own Mannequin Death Squad; a fabulous multitalented two piece made up of Elly and Dan. Both members play guitar, drums, and vocals, which probably really shouldn’t work but it absolutely does. It’s always impressive to see someone drum and sing at the same time, let alone drumming and singing, then switching to guitar and singing. MSD almost give Royal Blood vibes, as well as Elly having some Courtney Love about her but is actually incredibly talented. Highlights of the set include both Elly and Dan saying ‘we know it’s Tuesday, but please dance’, Elly asking ‘who has nightmares?’ and upon being satisfied with the amount of people who said yes or raised a hand saying she’s glad she’s not the only weirdo. Favourite song has got to be ‘Shame’, a song about being too kind and being walked over that I think everyone can relate too. 11/10 performance for the Melbourne pair.

After a brief interlude, just after their scheduled start time of 9pm, Cobra Starship took to the stage. Drummer Nate Navarro, keytarist and backing vocalist Vicky T, and frontman Gabe Saporta are back! With support from their friends, Kevin Thrasher on guitar, and Jake Massanari on bass.

The first three tracks of the set were throwbacks to the glory scene says with ‘The Church Of Hot Addiction’, ‘Pete Wentz Is The Only Reason We’re Famous’, and ‘The City Is At War’, which resulted in everyone dancing and singing from the get go. ‘Pete Wentz...’ is always fun one, especially when Gabe is telling you to raise your right hand in the air to make a fist and scream ‘smash it up, smash it up’. My favourite Cobra song has always been ‘City Is At War’ so I was pretty happy it featured early on in the setlist. We also got an impromptu version of ‘Hollaback Boy’, which the crowd definitely remembered better than Gabe. The band were also introduced to the iconic ‘Aussie Aussie Aussie’ chant, which was answered with ‘Oi Oi Oi’, even when the band was discussing the chant. Kevin also mentioned looking up Australian Slang on ChatGPT, which definitely got a bit of a boo from the crowd, much to his surprise.

Before ‘Smile For The Paparazzi’, Vicky T and Gabe taught us the heys that take place during the pre-chorus because Gabe was already starting to lose his voice, and it was one of the loudest songs of the night. Vicky is the reason why Cobra Starship got back together, and we all did thank her when Gabe this fact to us.

All night, Gabe was full of stories, including a funny one about Jake Massanari at their recent Warped Tour return, in which Gabe thought it was Jake’s last show with Cobra, but really he was just going to play with Poppy and miss Riot Fest and then coming back. It was also at this point that Gabe exclaimed ‘oh shit, we only have 2 songs left!’, which included ‘Hot Mess’ and ‘Snakes On A Plane’ as their ‘final song’. They brought up a lucky fan named Megan to do the rap from ‘Snakes’ which was a nice touch. Despite them telling us it was their last song, the band returned to the stage with the intro to ‘I Love It’ by Charli XCX that they did a version of as well. Their final two songs were biggest hits ‘You Make Me Feel’ and ‘Good Girls Go Bad’ with Vicky T taking only vocal duties of Sabi and Leighton Meester respectively.

It was a night that I wasn’t sure I was ever going to get to see after Cobra’s breakup, and it’s absolutely a night I’m never going to forget. Thank you so much, Gabe, Vicky, Nate, Kevin and Jake, for giving us a night to enjoy and remember forever.

Review by Kelsey Trevan @theaussiegridgirl

Setlist

The Church of Hot Addiction
Pete Wentz Is the Only Reason We're Famous
The City Is at War
Nice Guys Finish Last
Kiss My Sass
Damn You Look Good and I'm Drunk (Scandalous) / My Moves Are White (White Hot, That Is)
Smile for the Paparazzi
Prostitution Is the World's Oldest Profession (And I, Dear Madame, Am a Professional)
The World Has Its Shine (But I Would Drop it on a Dime)
Hot Mess
Bring It (Snakes on a Plane)

Encore

You Make Me Feel...
Good Girls Go Bad

Photo Gallery by Michael 'Piky' White @thirtytwo_creative. Please credit Wall Of Sound and Michael White if reposting photos.