First up was a band called Legacy of Disorder. They are a metal band from New Zealand that have a really good heavy sound. They're a four-piece band with a singer, guitar, bass and drums. They were good, but as an opening band, not many people were getting to into them. Which is a shame, as I see a lot of potential in them.
Second band playing was a death metal band called Ghoul. These guys are from Oakland, California. As a four piece band, they have an incredible sound. With names like Cremator, Digestor, Dissector, and Fermentor, they have hoods covering their faces, growling lyrics, and a rather impressive stage show. Actually, their stage show looked like a cheap imitation of Gwar (see earlier posts or later in this one), but it was really entertaining. Like Gwar, they squirted "blood" (basically just colored water that comes out in the wash or in the shower) into the audience, have foam-latex characters that wander out on stage to be "killed", and a decent amount of in-character interaction with the crowd. A lot of voodoo overtones are in their music and stage show, with Baron Samedi as a song and a character on stage.
The third band, I'm sorry to say, didn't really belong. Kylesa is more of a mix of psycedelic, progressive, and just plain weird rock. They are a five piece band, with two of them being on drums. The lead singer had some weird hand-shaking wiggly-wobbly thing that made me think of drugged out dream sequences from low-budget movies. They didn't have that bad of a sound...but each song sounded basically the same. The band didn't interact with the crowd at all, except to say "our last song of the evening is...". Overall, I'd give this band a 3 out of 10. Not good for a metal show at all.
Finally, Gwar came on. This is the second leg of a long tour. The main tour was put on hold for a bit when the lead guitarist, Flattus Maximus (Cory Smoot) died in his sleep on the tour bus due to a coronary artery thrombosis brought about by his pre-existing coronary artery disease, and they decided to continue as a four-piece band and dedicate the rest of the tour to him and his family. Instead of replacing him with the same character, Flattus, they retired him, saying that the character returned to their home planet (confused? Read their "history" on their website...link is on their name above).
On this tour, the story is that Gwar bought the deed to Death's castle, and they're checking it out. Long time whipping boy, Bonesnapper the cave troll, brought them a house-warming present: Snookie from Jersey Shore. Gwar proceeded to enthusiastically dismember her (it's all fake, remember!). Turns out that "Death" is actually one of their main enemies, Sawborg Destructo, and he's hidden the World Maggot in the basement to try to eat Gwar. They also had a run-in with the janitor of the Castle of Death.
As for the tribute to Cory Smoot...it was really pretty touching. After the last song was played, the stage went dark, and the house lights stayed dark. Suddenly, a spotlight shone on Cory's guitar that was now sitting in it's guitar stand on stage. Frank Sinatra crooning "My Way" came over the speakers, and the audience started singing along, holding their lit lighters in the air. After the entire song played through, no-one really moved or said anything for several minutes, until the house lights finally came on.
If the rest of the bands were at a volume level of nine...Gwar upped it to about fourteen. I stared off just to the right of center stage, two people back. With the wave motion of the crowd, I soon found myself to the extreme right, up against the rail that separates the crowd from security and the stage. I got knocked down, into a plastic garbage can, was helped up, knocked down, was helped up, crushed against the wall and rail, and generally felt like a ping-pong ball. Right now, I feel like I went through the entire Biggest Loser exercise program during the two hour Gwar set-list. My legs and feet feel like jelly from the constant moving, pushing, bracing; I have a rather nice bruise on my side, and my arms feel wobbly from pushing back against the crowd.
Yeah, it was fun.
Before:
After:
Will I go to Gwar again? Of course. Will I get in the pit again? Might.
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