Cobra Starship, ready to party

By John Benson

The band has found a niche in the dance-rock genre.

After spending this past summer having a good time on the Vans Warped Tour, dance-rock outfit Cobra Starship is ready for a headlining gig in support of its 2007 studio effort “ °Viva La Cobra!”

In fact, it sounds like the fun party band is planning to take its onstage histrionics and rock-star shenanigans to a new height at its Sunday show at the House of Blues in Cleveland.

“Basically it’s not a headlining tour, it’s a shred-lining tour,” Cobra Starship guitarist Ryland Blackinton laughingly said, calling from New York City. “We want to be very specific about that. It’s going to be unlike any other headlining tour ever. It’s going to be the shred-iest. And basically be prepared to dance and puke, probably at the same time.

“You can shred on anything. You can shred on drums, vocally. Basically everybody will be shredding to maximum capacity. It’s going to be disgusting.”

Blackinton, who has fond memories of celebrating a birthday a few years ago at the Mongolian Barbeque on Coventry Road in Cleveland Heights and then drinking too much after the band’s Grog Shop show, points to the fact the group is now playing the House of Blues (“Amazing catering and great bathrooms,” he said) as evidence Cobra Starship has recently found some altitude in its career.

While perhaps lumped into the post-emo world of alternative acts, this quintet has found a niche within the dance-rock genre. However, what remains to be seen is whether the dance-rock scene can sustain itself in new directions or quickly become clich d and tiresome.

“I don’t know. I think that bands that are just limited to that kind of sound — the synth sound — and the sort of new rave thing, if that’s the only thing they have going, then maybe so,” Blackinton said. “We all know that one sound, it was in style in 2003 in New York City. I remember hearing it a lot, and it’s very predictable.

“Maybe like Franz Ferdinand, but I think they’re a great band, so I don’t mean for that to sound bad. We’re trying to break away from that mold, bring our sense of humor into it and bring our references to pop culture things that we find interesting and are relevant. We try to spice it up a little more. We just try not to take it seriously.”

After the current tour is finished, Cobra Starship, led by singer and former Midtown member Gabriel Saporta, will begin working on its third studio effort, which it hopes to have out in 2009.

Already Blackinton said the outfit has about half of the album’s material recorded, which he characterizes as exploring more of a lo-fi party music sound with synthesizers, programming and electronic beats. Considering “ °Viva La Cobra!” featured a mixed bag of styles and influences, ranging from Latino and pop-punk to electronic, Blackinton acknowledges some fans may still be waiting to hear that definitive Cobra Starship sound.

“I think the book is still kind of open for us,” Blackinton said. “As long as the music is catchy and interesting, I think that people will be into it. Hopefully that’s what we’re doing, but I don’t know if that’s what we’re doing.

He added, “I hope it is.”