Just as you have become tired of checking out bands at the Blind Pig and you've been to the Nectarine one too many times this summer, GWAR has arrived on its "Carnival of Chaos" tour in hopes of alleviating your terminal boredom. GWAR is definitely not your typical heavy-metal band and its live performance is the proof of the pudding. During the show, the members of the band dress and act as horrific monsters, bent on destroying America.
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GWAR in concert Thursday, 8 p.m. St. Andrew's Hall $12.50 at Ticketmaster |
The group's theatrical stage show is meant to excite and at the same time disgust. While the band is pumping out jams, rubberized humans are sliced open and "GWAR blood" begins spraying out of arteries covering the audience below. In fact, everything on stage is rubber and huge, including the lead singer's two-foot-long penis, which he uses to coat the crowd with a variety of "GWAR bodily fluids."
This may sound extraordinarily grotesque, but as Oderus commented, "When I'm dressed like an eight-foot-tall rubber monster from outer space and I'm fighting a giant penguin with a seven-foot-long broadsword, I won't be taking myself too seriously."
The origin of GWAR can be traced through two routes. One story tells of a time billions and billions of years ago when the "Master of all Reality" created Oderus and his cohorts because he had nothing better to do. After causing absolute chaos in the cosmos, GWAR was imprisoned to the frozen wastelands of Antarctica. After being woken by capitalist/entrepreneur, Sleazy P. Martini, the monsters chose the obvious option of becoming a rock 'n' roll band.
The other story, spun by Oderus himself, dates back only 10 years when GWAR was, "A bunch of art students who played too much D&D, smoked too much pot, played too much punk rock, and basically let their imaginations run amok."
GWAR's influences range from Black Sabbath to pro wrestling and from Monty Python to Kiss. This eclectic list gives them an advantage over the competition of "shock value" bands like Marilyn Manson. "I think he is lame," Oderus said, "He does a good job at convincing 14-year-old, wealthy, middle-class, high school students that they can dress up like an idiot one night a week and be part of some kind of 'revolution.'" Yet, on the other hand, Oderus candidly noted, "I'm also jealous and pissed that he makes way more money than I do."
GWAR will command the stage at St. Andrew's this Thursday night with Chemlab and local hardcore band Universal Stomp. The show promises to be a long set, and besides, there is no way to stop it. As Oderus put it, "As long as there are blood-soaked legions of foam-flecked, fanatical fans to come to our cannibalistic death orgies and urge us onwards in our blood conquest, there will always be a GWAR! Hail GWAR! And death to toilet Earth!"
