COG [Newcastle]
King Street Hotel, Newcastle
04 December 2025
Reviewer and Photographer | Kevin Bull
Warm Thursday nights always make Newcastle feel a little looser around the edges, and King Street Hotel was already heaving by the time I arrived after the drive up from the Central Coast. The crowd skewed mid-to-older in age, and noticeably more male than female, but absolutely buzzing for COG’s stop on their Walk The Line Tour. The room felt tight, humid, and primed – one of those nights where you just know the walls are going to shake. Before COG took the stage, though, Headsend set the tone with a punchy warm-up.
Headsend, a three-piece from Byron Bay, have been together since last year, and immediately proved why they were such a smart choice to open the night. With vocalist/guitarist Rasmus King leading the charge, their sound leaned heavily on thick Silverchair-esque riffs, flashes of Helmet’s rhythmic crunch, and a healthy dose of grunge bite. Their set was sharp, confident, and well-matched to the headliners – muscular but melodic, and clearly appreciated by the swelling crowd.
COG followed soon after, and the room surged forward as if pulled by gravity. For a band with such a distinct legacy, their story is well-known: the explosive arrival of Just Visiting (2002), the boundary-pushing The New Normal (2005), and the refined, atmospheric Sharing Space (2008). Tonight also marked a celebration of new beginnings, with the band showcasing their brand-new single – ‘Walk The Line’ – COG’s first new music since 2019.
Vocalist/guitarist Flynn Gower, drummer Lucius Borich, and bassist Luke Gower played with the kind of precision and power that only a long-running three-piece can muster. Much of the set leaned into The New Normal, its songs still carrying that unmistakable tension between heaviness and hypnotic groove.
A personal highlight was the older track ‘Paris, Texas’ – the song that first introduced me to the band years ago. Live, it sounded enormous: a slow-building, desert-wide swell of bass and delayed guitar that eventually kicked into a pounding, cinematic storm. It’s staggering that three people can make something that huge.
They also ripped through ‘What If’, which landed with sharp, percussive urgency; ‘The Middle’, warm and groove-driven; ‘Silence is Violence’, snarling and politically sharp; and ‘Run’, which pulsed with that signature cyclical riffing that fans live for.
They closed the night with a one-two strike of ‘My Enemy’ and ‘Bird of Feather’, leaving the room ringing and grinning.
Walking back out into the warm night air, ears humming, it was clear why COG’s return still draws rooms this full. Powerful, purposeful, and unmistakably themselves, they delivered a show that felt both nostalgic and forward-moving. Absolutely worth the drive—and then some.
