Fans of metal from all across the Valley united on Monday night for an evening at Marquee Theatre that won’t be soon forgotten. Satirical heavy metal band GWAR, known for their elaborate live performances, teamed up with New York-based hardcore band Every Time I Die for one of the most unpredictable live shows ever seen.
Thrash metal band Warbeast started the night off well, getting the crowd pumped up for the following bands. The Texas rockers performed a high energy set that got the testosterone-ridden crowd banging their heads to the heavy music.
The next band to hit the stage was the considerably more well-known band Every Time I Die. As the lights dimmed before the band’s set, a somber and serene choral tune was played as the members of the band took their instruments in hand. The band instantly launched into their set, getting the crowd involved the way only front man Keith Buckley knows how.
The band’s live set reached its peak when they played the song “We’rewolf” from ‘07s “The Big Dirty.” The band, known for their sardonic and cryptic lyrics, got the audience screaming along to the words, “You don’t live until you’re ready to die / Which one of you sons of b----es / Is gonna make me feel alive / Which one of you mother f---ers / Is gonna get inside my heart attack?”
As Every Time I Die left the stage, the audience began donning their white T-shirts in preparation for GWAR.
It would have been understandable if GWAR, who canceled two shows last week to attend the funeral of guitarist Cory Smoots (better known by his stage name Flattus Maximus), put on a more toned down version of their typically extravagant live shows. However, the band came out making just as many death jokes as usual and squirted fake blood all over the eager fans, a staple for every GWAR show.
Before the show started, a voice came over the PA system and said, “If you are with the blood vomit people, go to stage left.”
As the band took the stage, a masked figure introduced himself as Death, inviting the crowd to come with him into his home. The members of GWAR, sporting grotesque monster outfits, gladly accepted the challenge to raucous applause from the audience.
The music had the audience in a frenzy, with circle pits and crowd surfers going strong throughout the entire set, but the music was a mere accompaniment to the theatrics of the members of the band on stage. The band played a two-hour long set full of staged battle scenes, jokes about taboo subjects and doused the audience with gallons of fake “blood.”
The crowd only grew louder as the band left the stage, as chants of “GWAR” echoed until the band came back to stage and played three more songs.
When they left the stage, the lights dimmed and Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” calmed the audience. Many of the audience raised their lighters and sang along until the house lights came back on in what was a surprisingly heartfelt fitting ending for a night full of obscene jokes and heavy metal music.
As the crowds made their way into the night, one word that was overheard from nearly every exhausted fan was: awesome.
Reach the reporter at tpaxton@asu.edu Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press newsletter.
