Blanketing opinions that I'll probably regret soon.

Monday, December 15, 2008

I Finally Saw GWAR; It Was Exactly As I Expected

I've nearly stopped going to see live bands because they're mostly boring as hell to watch. I mean, how many nerdy white guys with guitars can a person watch sing about their feelings?

Any show I decide to attend lately must REALLY entertain me. That's how I found myself in the audience of a GWAR concert last night.

In case you haven't paid attention to the hard rock genre since 1985, GWAR is a band of drama geeks who perform generic heavy metal music dressed like monsters from the game World of Warcraft. This is what a typical concert looks like:



The show last night included the lead singer ripping a fake baby in half and blood spewing out into the audience. In addition, various politicians like John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were all gruesomely dismembered, with 50-foot streams of blood and green fluid spraying into the audience from their body parts and stumps.

What's most amazing about this spectacle is not what actually occurs, but that this band has been doing nearly the same act for 25 years. Certainly they don't make any money off album sales. They're known for their live show -- not actual music.

Throughout the show I had a permanent smile on my face, but even though it's entertaining, my saturation point for live music is about 50 minutes. I didn't stick around for the encore, but the pure fun silliness was worth the $20 ticket, and worth doing at least once in your life.

(Photo credit).
Comments:
I saw GWAR in Massillon Ohio six years ago and it was a great show. I even like a ballad they did. I'll have to try and find it.
 
i spent most of my 20s in rock clubs. no GWAR um ever. but still: i bought some tickets to a show in our Big City and when they arrived in the mail, I was all: wait? what?

i'm scared.
 
I first became aware of GWAR back in 1986, when the chef at the catering joint where I worked popped in a tape of theirs, interrupting his usual steady diet of speed metal bands I'd never heard of. I wouldn't have noticed except a co-worker friend of mine and the chef kept going on about their costumes and stage show.

Now 22 years later I find that GWAR are still around. How about that.
 
How about their names? Oderus Urungus! Balzac the Jaws of Death!

Saw them around 1991...sounds like nothing has changed. That would be good!
 
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