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GWAR in Boston

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GWAR
Citizens House of Blues Boston — Boston, MA
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About GWAR

GWAR is a shock rock band that formed in Richmond, Virginia in 1984, though the project's roots trace back further to the late 1970s. The group is built around Dave Brockie's larger-than-life stage persona and the band's commitment to elaborate, grotesque costumes and theatrical brutality. Their shows are essentially performance art projects where the line between music and spectacle dissolves completely. Songs like "Rag Time" and "Sick of You" established them as serious musicians underneath the carnage, with actual songwriting chops that proved this wasn't just novelty act stuff. The band has maintained a cult following for decades by refusing to soften their approach or explain the point. They tour relentlessly, treat every show like it's their last, and have influenced everyone from shock rap to modern metal theater bands. The costumes have evolved constantly, the venue damage is real, and the audience expectation is simple: come ready to be horrified and entertained in equal measure.

Known for Rag Time, I'll Be Your Bolton, Sick of You, Slaughterama, Have You Seen Me

GWAR + Boston

GWAR played Paradise Rock Club on November 5, 2024, and stuffing 19 songs into a room that size is exactly the kind of thing they'd do. Ham on the Bone and Happy Death-Day were deep pulls, and the run from Let Us Slay through Rise Again into Berserker Mode had real momentum. Maggots and Biledriver kept things heavy in the middle, and the three-song encore — Sick of You, Fishfuck, and Fuck This Place — closed Boston out in the most GWAR way possible. Paradise Rock Club has probably been cleaned since then. Probably.

GWAR in Boston News

Live Music in Boston

Boston has always had a complicated relationship with metal. The city's punk and indie scenes tend to dominate the conversation, but there's a persistent undercurrent of heavier music that keeps venues like Paradise Rock Club viable. GWAR fits somewhere in that gap—too weird for mainstream rock, too theatrical for pure metal purists, but exactly what Boston's weirder corners have always wanted.

Boston road trip to see GWAR?

Stay in the Back Bay neighborhood—it's walkable, lined with brownstones, and positioned between the best dining and the waterfront. Book a table at No. 9 Park for New American cooking that actually justifies the hype, or hit Oleana in nearby Cambridge if you want something fresher and less fussy. Spend an afternoon at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, a genuinely strange and rewarding art collection housed in a deliberately eccentric mansion. The Prudential Center has decent shopping if that's your thing, and the waterfront is legitimately beautiful for a walk before the show.

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