Gwar/Soulfly: The Belasco - Los Angeles - 4/18/26
The Scumdogs of the Universe Gwar have returned to lay waste to the American people in the form of a 40th anniversary tour. Joining them on tour would be Brazilian thrash metal band Soulfly and King Parrot. This tour would be called Gor-Gor Strikes Back and celebrates the life of the T-Rex mutant known as Gor-Gor. Los Angeles doesn’t mess around when it comes to metal music and they further proved it as the Belasco was sold-out in advance. A Saturday night was perfect to experience one of the best bands around.
The venue was fully packed by the time Soulfly was ready to hit the stage. The lights went out and the audience cheered as the members made their way to the stage. Their thunderous performance started with “Seek ‘n’ Strike.” With how fast and heavy their music is, it’s no surprise that the floor came alive with moshing and crowd surfers. The frontman for the band is the legendary Max Cavalera who is most famously known as the founding member, singer, and guitarist of the Brazilian thrash metal legends, Sepultura. Even though he left the band in 1997, Cavalera continues to perform in bands like Soulfly, Cavalera Conspiracy, and Nailbomb. The man has no limits when it comes to music. Soulfly continued to shred through classic tracks like “No Hope = No Fear,” “Prophecy,” “Storm the Gates,” and “Jumpdafuckup.” Fans could not keep still as they love moshing to some awesome thrash metal music. The finale of their set was “Eye for an Eye” which is the first song off their 1998 self-titled debut album. Their set ended and the crowd clapped and cheered for an amazing set. Yet, the headlining band of the night was still to come.
The stage was set for Gwar, and the speakers were covered and plenty of fans were seen wearing white shirts for a very obvious reason. The lights went out and the crowd once again cheered. A humanoid character came out to talk to the audience about the egg that was randomly sitting in a carriage in the middle of the stage. After a while, the members of Gwar came out to start a fight and eventually the face of the humanoid was ripped off and started squirting blood at the audience. The first song performed was “Fuck This Place” and it was appropriate as blood was sprayed to anyone and everyone near the front of the stage. Next was the song “Crack in the Egg” and it featured the egg on stage cracking open and revealing a baby Gor-Gor being born and taken to be fed and cared for. The baby even bit off an arm of another humanoid character and blood continued to spray at the audience. During the performance of “Have You Seen Me?” their character Dickie Duncan came out wearing an ICE shirt. Singer Blothar announced that, since they were from outer space, that they too were illegal aliens too. Gwar wasn’t having it and so they ripped his shirt off and cut him down the middle using a sword and both halves of Duncan sprayed blood into the audience. One of the more notable songs was “I’m in Love (With a Dead Dog).” It featured Kristi Noem who is the former secretary of homeland security. The parody was taken from the incident that she shot her own dog. Gwar brought out a dog and Kristi shot that one, too. The dead dog sprayed blood into the audience. Gwar had enough of her and ended up cutting off her breasts and having them shoot out blood. The audience just took it all and kept moshing. More classic Gwar tracks were performed which included “Lot Lizard,” “Saddam a Go-Go,” and “Metal Metal Land.” Another one of the more notable songs was “El Presidente.” Trump came out to talk smack to Gwar and, naturally, Gwar wasn’t having any of it. Gwar tore his shirt off, cut off his stomach with a sword and had blood sprayed all over the audience. The ending of their set featured a monster-sized Gor-Gor coming on stage for the performance of the song, Gor-Gor. Gor-Gor fought Gwar but was eventually impaled in the head and blood continued to spray into the audience. The show seemed to come to an end as the members left the stage. After a few minutes, Bill Clinton came out to expose the Epstein Files naming other notable politicians. Eventually, Gwar came back out to decapitate Clinton, and the headless body sprayed blood during the performance of “Mother Fucking Liar.” A special treat was given to the audience for the next encore in the form of a Chapell Roan cover of “Pink Pony Club.” A rather interesting cover, but it worked for Gwar as Blothar squirted liquid from his genitals into the audience. The final song of the night was their most popular song, “Sick of You.” Guitarist Grodius Maximus went out into the audience to dance and shred for the audience. All the leftover blood was squirted into the audience, and it was chaos no matter where you looked. By the time the show ended, the floor was super wet with puddles everywhere and people drenched in all kinds of different colors. The most important part is that people were all smiles and definitely made new friends along the way. Southern California definitely can’t wait until Gwar return to wreak havoc in Southern California on their fall tour.
