Watch Gwar Behead Tony Abbott At Soundwave 2014

“Once they have played/spilled shit everywhere the stage might as well be burned down…”

That was Soundwave 2014 promoter AJ Maddah’s take on costumed thrash metal band Gwar when putting together the festival timetables, and as any member of their cult-like fanbase will gleefully tell you, the self-described “heavy metal holocaust” have built their career on their flashy, gory stage theatrics.

On Saturday, audiences at the Brisbane Soundwave were the first to get a taste of Gwar’s new blood-soaked stage show, including a ridiculous dollop of plasma provided by none other than Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

Gwar were a few songs into their afternoon slot at the metal stage when the befuddled replica of the Prime Minister wandered onto the stage, demanding an end to the set, swiftly followed by some sword-based justice.

As our Tone Deaf reviewer at the RNA Showgrounds details: “When a mannequin of Tony Abbott appears on stage, front-thing Oderus Urungus breaks character, laughing and asking a stage hand, ‘Who the fuck is this dude?’ before slicing his head off with a sword and setting off chapter two of the afternoon bloodbath.”

The severed PM then comically sprayed his lifeblood “about 15 rows deep” in the first of many gory spectacles in the set, as the fan footage of the decapitation shows.

If you’re looking for an extra chance to see the PM getting his head chopped off, Gwar are taking their metal theatrics to a pair of Soundwave 2014 Sidewave shows this week, headlining a bill that features metal in three exciting flavours: viking (Amon Amarth), black (Satyricon), and melodic death (The Black Dahlia Murder).

While Gwar were having some riotous fun with their sense of spectacle, later in the afternoon Sydney band Thy Art Is Murder risking causing a literal riot when they encouraged their hundreds-strong audience to “smash security, wreck the barrier and fuck shit up,” in the words of a very pissed off Maddah. The promoter labelled the band “disrespectful arseholes” after the incident and (temporarily) booted them from the Soundwave 2014 tour.

Gwar’s blood-soaked show, and the rest of the Soundwave 2014 lineup, hit Melbourne and Adelaide this weekend (view the revised set times below), before the festival wraps up in Perth, at it’s new home at Arena Joondalup.

Maddah has hinted that the Perth leg could be Soundwave’s first and last at the new site after ongoing battles with Perth’s Claremont Council, while indicating that the annual event would be scaling back to an “East Coast only” festival next year. “We’re looking at 4 cities,” Maddah recently tweeted of plans for Soundwave 2015 – “I count Adelaide as East Coast.”

(Image: Maria de Vera. Source: Soundwave 2014 Sydney photo gallery