GWAR @ Agora (11/1/24)
Squid Pisser opened the night for us on Friday with all of its members shuffling out onto the stage, almost mimicking the movements of zombies. The night before I watched a few horror movies for Halloween, so I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous being a few feet away from the masked band members. They let the audience sit in their nerves for a moment before exploding into hardcore/metal vocals and instrumentation. The lighting on stage was very dark, with most of the light coming from behind the members. It added to the mystique of the band, and make it even scarier when a strobe light would flash, briefly illuminating an unearthly face. Singer Tommy Meehan, who would later play double duty as Grodius Maximus in GWAR, wore a white fur coat with blood stains on the sleeves. Throughout the performance Tommy went out into the crowd, eliciting screams in elation (and potentially a few in fear) from the crowd. About half way through the set, Tommy brought out a measuring cup half way full of an off white liquid that he claimed "this is all the semen we were able to muster in the last five days" before tossing the liquid out into the audience. Squid Pisser had such amazing energy, and I hope to see them again in the future.
Next out was Dark Funeral, a Swedish black metal band that formed in 1993. All of its members were adorned in black leather, spikes, and black and white face paint. Their experience in the industry was evident by their polished sound and their incredible stage presence. While it seemed like Squid Pisser did a lot to make the viewing experience mysterious and obstructed, Dark Funeral did the opposite, often posing for the crowd and the camera. I found it to be really cool that Dark Funeral has existed for 30 years, and I hope they do another round of 30 years!
When it was time for the headliner GWAR to come out, I found myself standing in anticipation in the photo pit. There were nerves amongst the photographers for what we were about to experience. It's not everyday that we bring our 'thousands of dollars' worth of equipment into a situation where there would be blood sprayed at us from a close distance. Additionally, the staff were wearing rain ponchos and the speakers were covered in plastic to protect equipment from what was about to happen to all of us. As nervous as we were, the audience was experiencing the opposite. As the fans waited for GWAR to take the stage, the speakers blasted "Never Gonna Give You Up," the King of the Hill soundtrack, Miley Cyrus's "Party in the USA" and LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem", and the spirits were as high as they could be, with many fans singing and dancing along. The vibes took an immediate turn as soon as GWAR hit the stage and trotted out caricatures of former president Trump, and Vice President Harris. They fought amongst themselves for a bit, before Harris's pants were ripped off and she sprayed blood from her rear end, and Trump was brutally killed, also spraying blood. Many fans wore white clothing to show off how much they got soaked throughout the night, and there was even a fan dressed in a long white tunic, replicating Jesus. With the election only a few days away, GWAR continued their presidential slaughter, bringing out Abe Lincoln, George Bush, and even an amalgamation of the Founding Fathers, who all had a similar bloody fate. They didn't kill everyone with the same brutality though, towards the end of the evening they brought out Adolf Hitler and he (appropriately) got the worst of it. During the second half of the show I went up to the balcony to watch the carnage unfold from a safe vantage point, and while sitting there with a friend I couldn't help but to see the similarities between what I was watching and musical theatre performances I had seen in the past. Sure GWAR is bloody and horror themed, but the overall performance felt more similar to interactive theatre than the countless other music acts I had seen at Agora. GWAR has really found a way to interact with the audience, and build in an additional element into their music that only a few other large bands do. I love the sentiment of "This is my GWAR t-shirt, look how much I got sprayed". As the show ended and I watched the fans file out of Agora, I saw nothing but a ton of blood stained smiling faces, and I think that's a special thing to see.
Photos by Shelly Duncan
Squid Pisser
Dark Funeral
GWAR
