I recently attended “The Gor-Gor Strikes Back Tour,” where the band GWAR took the stage and took over Albuquerque, New Mexico, sending a message that the aliens have landed. They brought with them backup, as King Parrot and Soulfly pumped up the crowd to start the show. I believe the city survived, as there are no reports of the roads being closed afterward. 

King Parrot, a grindcore band, opened the show with killer riffs and a bassline that kept the crowd going. It felt like a jack-in-the-box situation with each song, and the supporting band was turning the handle for the featured act to pop out. King Parrot is from Australia and has been grinding it out since 2010, touring all over their mother country and the U.S. With four albums and two EPs, the band has not let their fans down. Their most recent album, A Young Person’s Guide to King Parrot, was released in 2025. 

At the Sunshine Theater, the crowd was gathering when the lights went black. Suddenly, the band appeared on stage, and the crowd went wild. They started out their set with “Bozo,” followed by “Disgrace Yourself” and “Psychotherapy and Valium.” The crowd jumped on each other’s shoulders, and they were crowd surfing from the very first song. When they were wrapping up their set, the crowd didn’t want to let go and shouted for more. 

Follow KING PARROT | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | WEBSITE

Soulfly grew out of the heavy metal scene in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1997 as a Brazilian-American band. Max Cavalera is the driving force behind the band’s creation. Cavalera was a former member of the Brazilian metal band Sepultura. When he was forming Soulfly, he wanted to bring tribal and worldly music blended with heavy metal. With a vision of spiritual, political, and religious themes in their music, Soulfly reflects the struggle of living in a changing world.

Thirteen albums later, the band recently released Chama in 2025, an album with a nu-metal sound that feels like its original, rooted sound. Performing in Albuquerque, they played songs from their self-titled debut album Soulfly and Primitive. Opening their show with “Jumpthefuckup,” “Eye for an Eye,” and “Back to the Primitive,” they closed with “Head Up!,” a Deftones cover. The crowd cheered them on and wanted more, but the band knew that the fans were there to see GWAR, so they exited the stage.  

If you want to learn more about Soulfly, follow these links: WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM

GWAR, a heavy metal band formed in Richmond, Virginia, prides themselves as being a shock rock band with science fiction-themed mythology that portrays the band members as barbaric medieval Nordic, mythological, biblical, or interplanetary warriors, with extremely sexualized and over-the-top violent acts on stage, followed by them spraying fake blood and bodily fluids onto the crowd. GWAR has released 15 studio albums, two live albums, and numerous singles, among other recordings, and has sold over 820,000 records in the United States, proving they are not just a shock rock band but serious musicians that like to tell a story in a very extreme way. 

The stage went dark. The place was deathly silent, then a slow rhythmic beat filled the room. The crowd started clapping and cheering, and they chanted “GWAR, GWAR, GWAR.” The excitement level escalated as one by one the musicians walked out on stage. One stepped forward, held a knife to his neck, and blood sprayed out of his neck into the audience. They opened with “Fuck This Place,” then an egg was moved into the center of the stage. Smoke poured from the egg as it was opened, and a baby was pulled from the egg, soundtracked to the song “Crack in the Egg.” This song was followed by “Eighth Lock” as the story continued. The crowd surfing was a continuous flow of people coming over the rail, and the crowd was shoulder-to-shoulder thick as the show continued.  

GWAR is more than a show; it is an experience everyone should witness once in their lifetime. Click on one of these links to follow the band and to find out if they are coming to your city: 

WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM