As the sun set in Milwaukee on Thursday night, a massive crowd gathered outside The Rave/Eagles Club. A scumdog alien passing by the crowd might have some very interesting thoughts about the people of Earth, as the crowd was composed of a very eclectic mix of people. Amidst the various Halloween costumes – like Ghostface masks, Jesus Christ, Gandalf, and Inigo Montoya – there were also people in corpse paint and a blend of black and white t-shirts.
Photo Credit: Mar Morannon
The annual GWAR show is one of the only times I get to a venue, and a gathering of people in black shirts probably won’t attend the same show as me. On this night, most people in black shirts were headed upstairs to watch rapper Ken Carson while those in white shirts were getting ready to be soaked in all manner of (fake) bodily fluids at GWAR. The two sold-out shows meant the line was massive and chaotic, but security got everyone inside pretty quickly after doors opened, and by the time the lights went down, The Rave stage area was feeling full.
Squid Pisser opened the night with a surreal cacophony of noisecore and chaotic moves. Through heavy guitar distortion and unintelligible vocals, the frontman jumped around the stage, walked through the crowd, and threw out flowers to fans. Interestingly, despite a very active stage show, the band opted to perform in nearly complete darkness for the entire set, punctuated only by occasional strobes.
Squid Pisser
Photo Credit: Mar Morannon
With the crowd warmed up and ready to party, the mood took a bit of a shift. The infernal sounds of Dark Funeral’s sinister black metal filled the air and got the room moshing, crowd-surfing, and headbanging along. They stared down the crowd with a much more serious and menacing stage presence, and their relentless riffs and blasphemous vocal lines blended together to create a dark and mysterious vibe. Celebrating 40 years together, they dedicated the song “Unchain My Soul” to those who are no longer with us.
By the middle of Dark Funeral, it was becoming difficult to move through the crowd as people continued to shove into the venue. Even the halls and bars around the room were filled with people watching the show through The Rave’s various doors and archways. With the bit of space afforded, everyone was dancing and singing along to the house music, a mix of internet hits (like Never Gonna Give You Up, America FUCK YEAH) and pop songs (Party in the USA, All Star).
Dark Funeral
Photo Credit: Mar Morannon
As GWAR took the stage, the mass shifted forward enough to push the barricade at the front of the room forward a couple of feet, and after their third song, the show had to be briefly paused while the venue staff pushed the barricade back several feet to allow security to safely catch the nonstop stream of crowd surfers. Thankfully, the crowd quickly obliged and the show could get moving again.
GWAR has a long history of political parody in their comically gore-fueled shows, and election years are especially heavy-handed. Opening the set, a brutal battle between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris ended with Harris spraying diarrhea all over Trump and the crowd before Trump was eviscerated and spun around the stage by his own intestines while spewing blood around the venue.
After this brutal display, the story focused on the band’s new time machine and burning desires to return to a time in the past where political spam phone calls no longer plague our daily lives and maybe when synths were a bit less complicated. Unfortunately, this plan failed (as have many in their past), when instead they were met with hundreds of years of past US political issues and presidents including Obama, Regan, Lincoln; and concluding with an abomination made of the founding fathers blended together in a giant mass.
Blothar was notably absent from the show, and the missing singer was not acknowledged or mentioned in any way, but then why would our alien overlords explain such an absence to a mass of writhing maggot snacks (humans)? The other characters took turns filling in on vocals, and the only mention of Blothar at all was near the end when the “mass of insecurities” Blothar came out on stage and dramatically pouted about his own disdain and concerns for the upcoming election.
After a long night of filling in on vocals, the band announced they were “Sick Of You,” and the crowd, their white shirts soaked in blue and pink fluids, slowly filed out and dispersed into the night.
GWAR
Photo Credit: Mar Morannon
Photo Credit: Mar Morannon
