WARGASM Announces 'Why Play Around?' 20th Anniversary Reunion Concert

Boston's legendary WARGASM will perform live at the Middle East in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Saturday, September 13 as part of the 20th anniversary celebration of the release of the band's classic "Why Play Around?" album. The show will be recorded for future release as "Why Play Alive!"

As with WARGASM's 2004 reunion concert, the upcoming show is happening in conjunction with Rawkstars, a music education-based non-profit that benefits low-income Boston-area kids.

TartareanDesire.com's Tony Belcher recently caught up with WARGASM bassist/vocalist Bob Mayo for a rare interview. An excerpt follows.

Q: Since thrash is back in a big way are the planets perhaps aligned for a more than casual reunion of WARGASM?

Mayo: We'll never be a band again in the same way we were from '85-'95, but as long as we're all still breathing, and we feel that there's something cool to do, we'll 're-activate' for this or that project. The 20th anniversary of "Why Play Around?" is a no-brainer we couldn't let that go by without celebrating it somehow. So there's a bunch of WARGASM stuff happening this year.

Q: What about the band's long-in-the-making live DVD?

Mayo: The DVD will definitely be out this summer. I actually just saw some raw footage from it today and it looks great. Beyond the entire '04 reunion show, we're including tons of live video from the European/U.S. tours we did, and also the "Dreadnaut Day" video lots of archival stuff as extras.

Belcher: What about any previously unreleased recordings? Surely there are some such skeletons in the closet....

Mayo: We have six or seven unfinished recordings that have been sitting around for years, and we'll be finishing them up sometime soon, as part of the 20th anniversary Our two web sites, www.myspace.com/wargasm and www.wargasm.org are currently being reworked, so those are the best places to stay in touch with everything that's going on with us this year. Eventually you will be able to get those songs, as well as other merchandise, through those sites.

Belcher: Are there additional plans to perhaps have the out of print, hard to find WARGASM back catalog reissued, too?

Mayo: We are researching the possibilities there, but we're not waiting around. For the anniversary of "Why Play Around?", we've decided to re-release that particular album in a different way: we're going to do a 20th anniversary show, play the songs from the record in sequence, record the show, and release a live version of the "Why Play Around?" album. The show is scheduled for Saturday, September 13th at the Middle East in Cambridge, Massachusetts. That's the same venue where we filmed the reunion show for the DVD, and once again the show is being produced and promoted in conjunction with Rawkstars, the music-based non-profit that we partnered with for the reunion show in '04. So if you weren't part of audience for the reunion show DVD, come down to this show and be on the "Why Play Alive!" CD.