GWAR November 11th, 2009 - Gothic Theatre

GWAR has been kicking ass, saving earth, and spewing gallons of extra terrestrial bodily fluids on metal heads nightly for over 25 years now! Their 25th anniversary tour stopped by Denver's Gothic Theatre on the 11th of November to a crowd eager to have alien juices stain their clothes and to see Oderus Urungus literally rock out with his cock out.

The two opening acts were the Red Chord and Job for a Cowboy. The Red Chord started the night out pretty decently with great cookie monster vocals (Guy Kozowyk), a good accompanying bass and tons of drums. However, the crowd really started to act up when Job for a Cowboy started their set. Their sound was more refined, heavier, and the guitar (Ravi Bhadriraju) and vocals (Jonny Davy) were clear, fast and had a sense of mystery, without losing their great metal edge. They were a great choice to get the crowd bouncing around and to get the moshers warmed up for GWAR.

While the openers did their thing, the crowd was able to buy a $20 program, and use that as a backstage pass to meet GWAR. This was one part of the band's 25th anniversary program called “Meat and Beat,” which also included a $1 raffle for Oderus' mask.

GWAR kicked so much ass! They played a mix of old and new, but most of their set was from their newest studio album, Lust in Space. While I'm sure many people wanted to hear older stuff, it didn't matter because it rocked just as hard. By the last quarter of their performance President Obama was nice enough to come out on stage and personally thank GWAR for repeatedly saving the earth from other sexual alien threats. He was shortly thereafter decapitated by a gigantic alien robot and after splattering the crowd with gobs of blood and frantically running around, casually walked off stage. The robot was dismembered in an epic battle that ended with Oderus raping an alien baby with a sword and spraying the crowd with its bile. The Gothic was covered in plastic, and filled wall to wall with fans dressed in white when GWAR took stage; but when GWAR left the Gothic was covered in alien blood, bile and gore, and the fans were red, green, brown and had a lot of new bruises, but all were smiling or laughing.

Once you see them live, it's immediately clear why GWAR has been such a big name in metal for over 25 years, and I hope they get 25 more! Happy 25th GWAR!!!

-Chris Berstler