By Brent Michael, Rock At Night Tampa Senior Correspondent
Venue: The Ritz Ybor, Ybor City/Tampa, Florida–June 17th, 2024
Band Websites: Squid Pisser, X-Cops, Weedeater, GWAR
Band Facebook: Squid Pisser, X-Cops, Weedeater, GWAR
It was a dark and GWARmy night in the Ritz on Monday night, where a capacity crowd became part of the spectacle that is GWAR! But first, we had to piss around a bit with Squid Pisser! For a band formed in 2023, they came out swinging on the metal scene, releasing two albums already! Their website puts it well:
“SQUID PISSER is a nastied up tapioca nest of black pus and shiny plasmatic hair-loss infomercials…Guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Tommy Meehan (Cancer Christ, Deaf Club, The Manx, Chum Out!, etc.) and bad boy drum savage Seth Carolina (Starcrawler) come together to fuck up your cephalopod daddies in this blasty and noisy cluster bang of smooth garbage and panty lust…”
Let’s just say there was way more discussion of, and distribution of, ejaculation cumming from the stage than any other band outside of the headliners, which seemed oddly appropriate, given the staccato sounds and pumping volume of the band.
Following them there was a literal riot on the stage, with X-Cops chasing felons, one of which became their slave-drummer! It’s rather difficult to find accurate information about them, not surprising since the website tells us,”X-COPS are back! After 25 years on the lam, the original Bad Boys of Law Enforcement have returned, bringing their unique brand of heavy metal with them. The world has never been more in need of the message they bring: “Respect authority, or else!”, and they have the riffs and the firepower to back it up! Rumors about the identities of these uniformed thugs are rampant, with some even going as far as to say that they are made up of members of such legendary bands as GWAR, Rigor Mortis, and Darkest Hour, but the truth is they are actually former police officers who have banded together to beat the world into submission, force feed the public their own brand of Justice, and spread the word that All Cops Are Beautiful!” Well, if you believe that malarkey, you’d probably vote for a felon for president! They did put on one helluva show, theatrical enough to make one believe GWAR had a hand – or some other body part – involved! By the way, this link will take you back to a previous invasion of the Ritz, which I was also present for! Damn, has it really been 6 years?
Fortunately, the cops, X or otherwise, were nowhere to be seen when Weedeater took the stage. Y’know, I just love it when a band’s appearance leads you in a totally different musical direction. I mean, here we have two old, bald, bearded, biker-types and one good ol’ boy younger guy that looked like they’d be pure Southern rock. Knowing they were formed in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1998, would do nothing to dissuade you from that impression. But,…WOW! They hit the stage like a cross between Mad Max and Pantera, and describing them as an American stoner metal and sludge metal band, or a doom metal band, gives the short shrift! Despite some personnel changes, Dave “Dixie” Collins – vocals, bass, and Dave “Shep” Shepherd – guitar, have been there from the start in 1998 to the present, and their childhood friend Ramzi Ateyeh has taken over on drums. They seem to be having a great time touring! Next they’re headed to Europe, the UK, and Ireland!
I’m not sure who inspired who, but going to see GWAR is similar to going to a Gallagher show. Bring your plastic! (See my write-up of one of his appearances here.) Various bodily fluids may, at any given time, be spewed out at the audience – and the photographers in the pit are not exempt, we just have to dodge as best we can! For this show, they replaced Donald Trump with his best buddy: Vladimir Putin!
Of course, GWAR has several mainstays/rotating characters you may recognize: Balsac the Jaws of Death, Jizmak Da Gusha, Beefcake the Mighty, Blothar, Pustulus Maximus, Sawborg Destructo, Bonesnapper, and assorted other characters making stage appearances including Balsac’s mother-in-law, generic slaves, the CEO of Glomco, Inc., Donald Trump, and now Vladimir Putin! See my previous write-up! Of course, starting things off was their Emcee, spraying directly at me!
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When not in custody, I've been involved with music, photography, and writing my entire life. Ever since I was a young boy and played those silver tunes, I've had the beat, but being a drummer didn't suit me so I became a lead singer, which lasted a few years. Settling down, sort of, I translated my knowledge of audio and glib tongue into mobile emcee work, and my training as a photographer and videographer into a living in the wedding, party, bar/bat mitzvah, and entertainment industry. During this time I also managed to bamboozle my way into a master's degree in writing, worked for a couple of magazines (yes, I took photos for a nudist magazine!), have photographed hotels, done commercial work (shot the cover of Tablet and Capsule magazine), published a few articles, hosted some public access shows (a couple times in drag, but that's another story), and generally made a nuisance of myself until I landed here.
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