GWAR band photo 2024 – with permission from PR

In what seems like an impossibly long time, this reviewer found his way back to the legendary club on Delmar Ave, The Pagent. Not much had changed in the intervening five years, and it felt like home. On this particular evening, crossover, extreme, theater, sci-fi, porno-grind what nots, GWAR would be taking the stage, and staining the dance floor.

Step one of course is finding a drink, and it’s a sad duty to report that there’s only one IPA available at the venerable club, 4 Hands Incarnation IPA. It’s a heady brew with a delightful hop kick, but avid IPA enthusiasts, much like their vinyl brethren, prefer a selection.

Opening the festivities this evening was a band called The Native Howl. They play a combination of thrash metal and bluegrass they’ve termed ThrashGrass. In order to show proof of concept, they played a mash up of Harvester of Sorrow by Metallica and “Man of Constant Sorrow” by the fictional Soggy Bottom Boys. The show just went on from there. This is a band to keep an eye on. They’ve taken the modern concept of genre alchemy to the extreme. This isn’t Melo-Death-Neo-Thrash, but a whole other thing that even non-metalheads would notice. 

Great show, by them and up next was another odd duck in the metal world, Brat. Again, this was an unknown group to your friend and humble narrator. Before they took the stage, a medley of dance songs assaulted us. It was gratifying to hear Gloria by Laura Brannigan, because PLAY GLORIA!!! This is St. Louis after all.

What followed was a group of your standard metal guys hitting the stage followed by, what I could only describe as a young woman dressed in cheerleader practice attire.She was wearing all black, a midriff top, and biker shorts. Please don’t take cheerleader as an insult, as during the show she was doing cheer moves including pulling her knee up to her face. What came as a shock was the band was like BABY METAL, in reverse. Instead of her singing wonderfully melodious lines, she howled some of the best grindcore ever played on that stage and the wonderful dichotomy rang throughout every song Brat played. 

After the two openers and all of the gladhanding, thanks for having us, great to be on the tour, etc, it was time for the first part of the GWAR show. A DJ from WSUX came out to introduce them and make an intended series of announcements including, the win a date with Balsac contest. As this bit was getting stale, the band came out to put a fitting end to it. This talking head soon became a shooting stump and the first of many GWAR spooges rained onto the crowd as the band played Let Us Slay.

Moving on, there were many special guests who took the stage, a pregnant Taylor Swift in an Kansas City Chiefs’ Travis Kelcie #87 jersey, Benjamin Netanyahu, giant monsters, etc. Naturally, each person had some relation to the show. This is where the theatricality of GWAR really shines. They don’t simply do an effect, like breathing fire, that has nothing to do with the song. They made these interludes a part of the show. In essence, the music is simply part of a dramatic portrayal that’s taking place.

This stage play centered around both the personal anxiety of Blothar the Berserker and the fact that newest member Grodius Maximus loves having sex with dolphins and his personal proclivities. Now, were this any other band, these stories, portrayals, and antics would come off as offensive, but with GWAR, it’s just funny. Thankfully, by the end of the night, The Berserker was able to end on a high point as he let us know how sick of us he was.

They were able to always keep up their energy and the fun. The Slave Pit members deftly swapped in and out the cables and props needed to tell the stories. Sawborg Destructo’s onstage downfall was particularly gruesome and looked amazing, but there was a question that was in the mind of this guy here.

It’s been a very long time since I’d taken in GWAR. It was during the time when Oderus was still walking among us. Would the new character play out well? Would he be able to make me forget that this band was largely devoid of core and/or classic members? Well, Dave Brockie himself said that GWAR was a band that could theoretically last thousands and thousands of years.

Based on the show that took place in St. Louis, we should all be hoping that GWAR does continue on until the collapse of humanity, so they can finally take their rightful place as the Kings of Earth and use our resources to finally topple The Master all while writing some kicking songs and putting on some fun shows. 

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WORDS BY NIK CAMERON
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