Obituary – Glasgow, Scotland – Garage – 31st August 2023

1st September 2023 0 By Jon Deaux

Go to Glasgow they said, It’ll be fun they said. So off to Glasgow, we go to witness the Floridian Death Metal Legends Obituary‘s sold-out show at the Garage. After 2 hours of traveling in what can only be described as a red-colored Greenhouse, we finally get to the venue for 7 pm doors. Honestly, it was no cooler outside the car than it was inside of it and we had frakking aircon!

Into the venue we go, and of course, the 1st stop is the merch stand whereupon t-shirts, CDs baseball caps, and other accoutrement were acquired.

After the taped intro of the Pat Travers track Snortin’ Whiskey comes to an end, Obituary makes their presence known on stage kicking into a superb version of Redneck Stomp, followed in rapid succesion with Sentance Day.

It’s been a few years since I’ve seen Obituary live (2017 supporting Slayer on their farewell tour and prior to that during the Inked In Blood touring cycle of 2015 with Carcass). Despite only playing for 60 minutes (40-minute main set, 20 minutes encores) they sounded incredible. The band was pure fire and the highlights for me were My Will To Live (from their latest offering Dying Of Everything.) and Chopped In Half (from Cause Of Death) mixed with Torn Apart from Dying Of Everything)

Of course, Slowly We Rot closed the show. Obituary is still a world-class act in the genre and an absolute joy to experience such brutality live.

The crowd was incredible and what made it lovely was the cross-section of ages. You had your die-hard old-school fans there but there was the new generation who weren’t alive when the band appeared on the scene back in 1989 with Slowly We Rot. It’s a lovely thing to witness. Especially watching them crowd surf. I was living vicariously through them.

I’m not ashamed to say that I’m fat, 50, and fucked. My time of mosh pits and crowd surfing are firmly over but to watch the younguns let loose was a real treat. The barrier security did a fantastic job making sure all surfers made it over safely.

We left the venue just after 10 pm in a huge sweaty, aching mess and I was home before midnight to enjoy a cup of Ovaltine and a cuddle with my cats before heading to bed. I’m making sure I’m well rested to do it all again the next time they visit the UK shores.

Setlist
{intro Tape Snortin’ Whiskey (Pat Travers song)}
Redneck Stomp
Sentence Day
A Lesson in Vengeance
Visions in My Head
The Wrong Time
Barely Alive
Slow Death
Find the Arise
Weaponize the Hate
My Will to Live
Chopped in Half / Turned Inside Out
Encores:
War
Dying of Everything
I’m in Pain
Slowly We Rot