Gwar: House of Blues - Anaheim, CA - 10/19/24
Scumdogs of the Universe Gwar returned to the USA to wreak havoc on their unsuspecting audience. Supporting them came from Swedish black metal legends Dark Funeral and Squid Pisser. In 2022, they released their fifteenth studio album The New Dark Ages. Gwar is easily one of the best and most entertaining live bands. If you’re in the metal scene, you’ve heard of Gwar and most likely have seen them. They are most famously known for “killing” political figures and celebrities on stage. They are also known for spraying “blood” (red dye) into the crowd where the crowd purposely get sprayed with various liquids and even wear white shirts, so the shirt ends up looking like a tie-dye shirt by the end of the night. One of the early stops on the tour was the House of Blues in Anaheim, California.
The venue was fully packed by the time Gwar was ready to hit the stage. The lights went out and the crowd cheered. They were greeted by caricature characters of presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. After exchanging speeches and smack talk, the members of Gwar made their way to the stage and incited for the two candidates to fight. After some fighting, Gwar started their show with the first song, “El Presidente.” Gwar eventually tore apart each presidential candidate to expose gore underneath their suits. Blood started spraying everywhere and the fans started cheering as they happily let themselves be covered in blood and bodily fluids. The next song let the fans take it a little easy as they played “Ham on the Bone.” For the third song, the audience was greeted by former president Barack Obama. After giving a speech of his own, he too, was torn apart and beheaded by Gwar as they played the third song, “Happy Death-Day.” In between songs, Gwar would participate in their usual antics which also included telling jokes and making fun of each other and talking smack to the audience. They would play more of their hits which included “Hail, Genocide!,” “Lets Us Slay,” “Bring Back the Bomb” and “Maggots.” Gwar continued to douse the audience in a variety of liquids and the audience happily took it all. Gwar continued to bring out political figures from the past including Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan and even Hitler. The show came to an end with “America Must Be Destroyed” and they brought out an extra special guest. Their time machine had gone haywire and brought out a mishmash of The Founding Fathers. Gwar left the stage, and all seemed quiet. The fans kept chanting, “Gwar! Gwar!” as they clearly wanted to be punished more. After a brief break, Gwar came back out to deliver more debaucheries to the audience. The next political figure to be brought out was current president Joe Biden. He was promptly beheaded as Gwar started the encore and one of their best songs, “Sick of You.” Ending the show was Gwar’s usual ending song, “Fuck This Place” and they ended it with a bang as multiple members sprayed the audience for one last chance to get drenched. Gwar wrapped up their show and the audience cheered with excitement even though they were drenched in different colors. Hopefully it’s not long before Gwar come back to destroy SoCal again.
