GWAR: THE BLACK DEATH RAGER WORLD TOUR WITH SPECIAL GUESTS NEKROGOBLIKON & CROBOT

This was an interesting show as it was being held on a Monday night, and it was GWAR playing Brooklyn Bowl, a larger venue here in Vegas, both things you usually don’t see happen here, but you know what? It worked….

For a Monday night it was a really decent crowd, and entering the venue the first thing you noticed was the plastic protective covering the soundboard, photo pit, all stage monitors and even 15 ft back on the sides up by the bowling lanes. Ready or not, here they come.

The opening act was the melodic death metal / comedy metal band from California, NEKROGOBLIKON, touring in support of their sixth album The Fundamental Slimes and Humors. Out front is their mascot / hype master, the goblin himself, John Goblikon, who is a creepy looking ghoul who gets the crowd hyped up during the entire show by acting like a cheerleader for the band. Musically the band is very good, and keeps up a torrid pace. They are a ridiculously entertaining band and the perfect fit to be on a Gwar tour.

Next was more of an odd pairing for this tour, as the straight up hard rock band CROBOT took to the stage. This band does not have a goblin, does not wear outrageous outfits and blood, this is true to the core hard rocking band. Singer Brandon Yeagley is someone who you will remember and talk about long after the tour is over. Brandon's incredible vocals and stage presence are the perfect match for the rest of the band, composed of Chris Bishop on guitar, Dan Ryan on drums and Tim Peugh on bass. Crobot is the REAL DEAL and always a treat to see. The band'ss set was blistering and it was apparent these guys love playing together.

Finally it was time for the mighty GWAR. I have never seen Gwar play anywhere but smaller club venues in Vegas so we were excited to finally see them play in the 3000 capacity Brooklyn Bowl. Entering the photo pit we could see security getting last minute instructions from their boss, who told them no matter what, DO NOT TURN AROUND. They were covered in plastic rain gear and for protection they laid plastic sheeting over the entire stage barricade and put carpet down on the floor in the photo pit. One thing is apparent - at a Gwar show you can expect BLOOD, and there was lots and lots of blood spraying all over the fans who pushed forward to be baptized in the experience of Gwar. The show started with a brief video of some of the best comedic and goriest moments from the band's past. Then walking

out on stage was a normal man looking character who helped with the chant of "Gwar, Gwar, Gwar" followed by the individual band members taking their places in their over the top larger than life costumes. Another character sneaks up behind the man and with a huge blade chops off his head and blood begins spraying everywhere all over the crowd as the band plays “The Cutter”. The fans got what they came for as they were totally soaked in fake blood. This is the theme of a Gwar show and continued throughout.

Politics anyone? About half way through the show a cartoonish looking oversized Puntin character came onstage and started a fight with a Gwar creature which resulted in Putin

getting both hands chopped off and resulted in blood spraying wildly everywhere once again. This was followed by a female character who was obviously pregnant and was laid on her back onstage and disemboweled and had the baby yanked from her which resulted in the biggest amount of blood so far, spraying everyone, even way back on the sides past the protective plastic. Then lead singer, Blöthar the Berserker , with his 4 grotesque penises sprayed fake pee all over the already bloody crowd. Keeping up with the leaders of the world characters, a Joe Biden character and a Donald Trump character took to the stage and had a fight over the alleged secret documents, and was revealed that Trump had them in his ass which Biden pulled out, resulting in another bloodfest.

No one or no thing is off limits at a Gwar concert. A nice moment was when the band played tribute to their former leader Oderus Urungus (Dave Brockie) near the end of their set. It had to be quite the sight when fans exited Brooklyn Bowl out to the shopping promenade, looking like a massacre just occurred inside the concert venue. A solid night of fun rock in roll on a normally dead Monday night in Las Vegas.

GWAR photos: JustAFanPhotos/Harold Mountain