By Andrew Bansal
Nov. 13th 2011, Glass House, Pomona CA: Shock rockers GWAR have been around for 27 years. They have never stopped, and never will, no matter what. Even if one of the members dies in the middle of a tour. Yes, on their current North American touring run, GWAR went through the extremely sad and sudden loss of guitarist Cory Smoot, AKA Flattus Maximus. But still, they didn’t back out from the rest of the tour, and continued as a four-piece. This is sheer testimony to the fact that GWAR truly love playing music and entertaining their loyal fans. So, after Cory’s memorial service which affected merely two shows, the horde of GWAR, Every Time I Die and Warbeast resumed in Hollywood on Saturday night. They continued to invade Southern California with a stop at the Glass House in Pomona last night, a show I was fortunate enough to witness.
Observing the scene at a GWAR show is a major part of the experience. By the time I arrived at the venue, there was a long line of people dressed in white shirts, waiting to get in, waiting to get soaked in GWAR blood. I’ve always enjoyed going to shows here at the Glass House. If I lived a few miles closer to the place, I would totally go there more often. I love the all-ages vibe, and I like the whole set-up, because of how everything is clearly divided. The merchandise tables are separate from the hall, the food stall is at the very back, and the restrooms are upstairs. It is worth mentioning that water bottles were being sold under the label “GWATER”. A lot of people dislike this venue because there is no alcohol, but quite frankly that has never bothered me and I don’t feel the need to consume alcohol in order to enjoy a show. Plus, as a reviewer, it wouldn’t help me all that much if I was fucking wasted, now would it?
As I waited for the show to start, System Of A Down songs were being played on the PA. That band gets way too much air-play. But that’s a whole another debate. Warbeast promptly hit the stage at 8 PM, and by the time they were done, they had won over quite a lot of new fans. Their performance was absolutely crushing, to say the least. Frontman Bruce Corbitt and his band mates had the crowd’s complete and undivided attention. I saw them open for Destruction in May, and after seeing them tonight, I have no doubt in my mind that they are one of the best opening bands I’ve seen this year. Even though I would describe their music as thrash metal, it has a uniqueness to it that is absent in most of the retro-thrash bands that have risen in the recent past. They exude a strong Dallas Fort Worth element through their sound. Their aggression and passion truly seems to come from within, and they definitely keep it real. Besides playing songs from their extremely solid debut album “Krush The Enemy”, they played two unreleased songs “It” and “Birth Of A Psycho”, and these sounded even better than the ones on the album, to be honest. As soon as they were done, I went over to their merch stand to try and set up an interview with Bruce (link below), and there was a non-stop line of people coming over to say, “Hey man, never heard your music before, but you guys were awesome!” They were buying shirts and CDs, and taking pictures with him. It was indeed a highly successful night for Warbeast.
Following Warbeast, there was a 15-minute changeover, during which there was another barrage of SOAD on the PA. After I somehow managed to get through that ordeal, Every Time I Die hit the stage, and as they say, “tore it up”. Their energy was insane. The stage at the Glass House isn’t the smallest one you’ll ever see, but with GWAR’s setup already in place, ETID didn’t have too much room to move about. They still managed to pull off all of their usually athletic stage moves, specially guitarist Jordan Buckley who not only kept jumping around the entire time, but also dived into the crowd during one of the songs and surfed on top of them for a good few seconds, doing all this while playing the guitar. I’ve seen singers dive quite often, but for a guitarist to do that, it must have required some amount of skill and timing, and JB seemed to have both in plenty. In terms of the music alone, I thought ETID fit the bill to perfection. They fell mid-way between Warbeast’s aggression and GWAR’s old-school punk elements. Vocalist Keith Buckley was great on the vocals, doing a lot more than he does in The Damned Things, a band metal fans must have heard of, because of the Anthrax connection.
For some reason, it’s supposed to be cool to hate ETID. Almost every metalhead I’ve spoken to hates the band. I’m sorry if this disappoints or offends any of my readers, but I enjoy ETID’s live performances, and I don’t care if this makes me “gay”, or “less metal”, or whatever term of inferiority you might want to insert here. From the moment they stepped onto that stage last night, they were heavy, passionate and energetic, and succeeded in transferring a large portion of that energy to the crowd, proving themselves as an excellent warm-up for the GWAR massacre that ensued.
During the 30-minute wait for GWAR, the house DJ finally redeemed himself with some Black Sabbath. Almost everyone in the crowd sang along to War Pigs, and I said, “Yes! That’s more like it!” That put us in the right mindset, and as soon as the lights went out singaling GWAR’s entry, the place went nuts. Everyone started pushing to get closer to the stage, to get a taste of that blood. Frontman Oderus Urungus decapitated a zombie to kick off the show with a massive blood splash onto the thirsty humans in the audience. Things only got bloodier from then on, and with each subsequent killing, there was a larger amount of blood. And then later in the set, Oderus’ long penis showered a large section of the crowd, for an entire song. The band created such an amazing atmosphere that it pretty much compelled anyone and everyone in attendance to have a great time. It was impossible to not have fun.
GWAR set lists never disappoint, and last night was no different. They came up with a great selection of tunes, and the set not only allowed them to present the theatrical side with the killings and the blood and what not, but also gave everyone a taste of their musical repertoire. People don’t give them enough credit for their music because the shock value simply overshadows everything else. But behind those giant costumes, the dudes write some good music, music that fits together perfectly with their theme. Solid guitar riffs and deep, aggressive vocals define them musically, and the lyrics in most of their songs carry a very old-school punk vibe to them, even though the subject matter is not the same.
Obviously, Flattus Maximus was mentioned by Oderus, as he looked skywards and shouted, “Flattus! Why did you have to leave to outer space without our permission?” Although he was saying it in character, I could feel the pain and emotion in Dave Brockie’s voice, and it simply amazes me that this show even went ahead as scheduled.
But among the highly enjoyable music, killings, and tributes to Flattus Maximus, for me there were two events that stood out as highlights of the set. First was the violation of Snooki. They brought her up on stage, did all sorts of horrible things to her, and finally annihilated her, much to the delight of the audience. And the second was the return of the World Maggot 2, as three pretty-looking girls were dragged onto the stage and fed to the giant maggot. That thing was a sight to behold.
It comes as no surprise to me that GWAR sells out every single show, year after year. You seldom get a chance to have this much fun within a 90-minute timeframe. As compared to last year’s show, I would say I got more soaked, and as a result, enjoyed it more. You can see that for yourself in the picture here. Special thanks to Tim Morris (with me in picture) for lending me a white shirt!
All in all, GWAR and the two support bands made this an amazing evening for everyone. Check out all the tour dates here, and if this tour is coming to your town in its remaining couple of weeks, do not miss it.
Rating: 10/10
Related: Warbeast interview
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