Wednesday September 16th, the Reverb in Reading, was host to GWAR on their 30th anniversary tour.

GWAR 30 Years Tour

The exterior stage was populated by a bunch of local openers, among them, metal favorites Dick Vomit.

Inside, Gloominous Doom started the party off right. Admittedly, we made our way inside to catch the very end of their set.

Battlecross ©2015 Henry Chung 11Photo by Henry Chung

Next up was Battlecross, the Michigan thrash metal band hot off of the release of Rise To Power. Even though the band was down a guitarist, Tony Asta (home for the birth of his child). They had their guitar tech fill in and things went smoothly. As you would hope, songs from all three of their releases were represented. One has to think that as the word continues to get out about these guys, they will continue to rise in the ranks of the thrash metal scene.

ButcherOfBabies ©2015 Henry Chung 03Photo by Henry Chung

In all honesty, not being the biggest fan of the Butcher Babies‘ recorded output (the do have a new album out now, ‘Take It Like A Man’), I was pleasantly surprised by their energetic live show. Their songs, while still rooted in rudimentary themes (Raising Hell! Drinking! Etc!) got the crowd going. This culminated in a Climb of Life at the band’s urging, where as many people as possible would crowd-surf to the front and high-five the band.

GWAR ©2015 Henry Chung 01Photo by Henry Chung

Finally, the mighty GWAR took the stage. With the passing of Oderous Urungus, this incarnation of the band is led by Blothar. While witnessing the chaos from a distance, I was able to take in the visuals of blood (and other bodily fluids) being sprayed onto the eager audience as the band took down the Internet. Kanye West, Hillary Clinton, EDM artists and others were all skewered (literally and figuratively). This was the first time I had seen the band live after hearing stories over the years. They also ran through a good cross-section of their discography including a few off of their most recent ‘Battle Maximus’. For a momentous anniversary, it gave a nice sampling of what the band has created over three decades.

It would have been nice to see GWAR with Oderus at the helm but this proves that the band is in good hands with Blothar and the rest of his bandmates.

Before we caught any of the show, I was lucky enough to talk to Don Slater, bass wizard extraordinaire for Battlecross. We talked about Detroit, recording Rise To Power, differences between the three riff-writers in the band, Goatwhore, and of course, plenty more.

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When J.J. Ellis isn’t writing as the Allentown DVD Examiner, his Decent Exposure Radio can be heard on the air every Friday night from 10:30 to midnight (EST) on WXLV 90.3 FM or wxlvradio.com!

Photos by:

Henry Chung – When Henry’s not busy updating this page and speaking in third person, he’s busy shooting and editing pictures from concerts and designing logos for bands.