Tell me about GWAR

Cafe Society
1

First of all, let me say that I am not a big fan of metal. In I liked, and can still enjoy on rare occasion acts like Danzig, Pantera, Metallica (Kill 'Em All through …And Justice for All), and Type O Negative.

I’m into a very wide range of music, from jazz, to old country (nothing newer than 1970 or so), punk-rock (nothing newer than 1993 or so, except some of Rancid’s newer stuff), hip-hop, ska, reggae, 80s pop (I know, I know, but every girl I date seems to love it, and over the years it’s grown on me), classic rock, acts like Simon & Garfunkel, the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan, etc, etc, etc. The closest thing to GWAR that I like is probably older punk like Fear and some of Suicidal Tendencies’ early stuff.

Despite all this, I’ve been fascinated with GWAR from afar for a long time now. Several years ago a friend showed me Phallus in Wonderland and I remember loving it (though I don’t know how it’d hold up today.) I also bought Carnival of Chaos when it came out, but for one reason or another I never ended up listening to it. It’s still at parents’ house AFAIK, and I’ve been thinking about asking them to send it to me. I have, however heard I Hate Love Songs from that album and I thought it was great. Definitely a punk-rock, non-metal song.

So I was wondering, what of their other stuff am I likely to like?

What’s their live show like?

Anything else you want to tell me about them?

2

They’re Beavis & Butthead’s most favorite band. That’s all I got.

Marc

3

Was never a really big fan of Gwar. The only CD i have of theirs and actually like is The Road Behind.

4

Gwar’s not really a band that you listen to on CD. They’re really a live act that’s kind of hard to describe (unfortunatly, I’ve never been to a show, so this is all second-hand).

Basically, you know Gwar dressed up like Troma movie extras and sings all sorts of goofy over-the-top adolescent rebellion songs. Their live shows involve (according to friends) involve lots of stage blood and a giant construct called the World Maggot eating and spooging out fans. One of the habits of fans are to show up wearing white T-shirts and seeing what they can get them stained with. On a great TV show out of Southern Illinois University (this was mid-90s) called “Fistfull of Metal,” they met Gwar and while wearing pink shirts. They proudly told Oderous (I’m sure I’m spelling that wrong; the singer) that they wore these shirts to their first Gwar concerts and haven’t been able to wash the stains out since.

Their videos are kind of fun, but I can’t imagine sitting through an entire CD of theirs…

5

Wikipedia’s take on Gwar.

6

I happen to like GWAR for the music. They’ve actually got a bit more range than your average death-metal band.

7

Gwar’s a death metal band? When did that happen?

My take on them is that they’re kinda entertaining, but nothing real special.

8

I thought This Toilet Earth was quite good. Specifically, Jack the World (which was the first GWAR song I ever saw a video of), The Insideous Soliloquy of Skulhed Face, and The Obliteration of Flabquarv 7. Hell, I even liked Slap You Around and Saddam A-Go-Go.

I first got into Gwar about 8-9 years ago, when a friend picked me up a Tshirt from one of their concerts. He made sure it was stained with blood and semen for me (well, for him…I didn’t request it).

Did anyone see the VH1 special where they were talking with the people in Gwar, out of their outfits and makeup? Some relatively normal-looking people.

But, more to your point, Tentacle Monster, it’s not often that you pop in a “death-metal” CD, and hear a piano/ragtime song like Skulhed Face. Certainly worth a listen.

9

The (now unholy) All Music Guide has a pretty good biography and includes this:

Sounds like the underlying theme is to enjoy them, but not to take them too seriously.

10

Exactly. I never got into their music, but damn, they’re fun. At one concert, IIRC, they marched out a Janet Reno lookalike, and ripped out her spine onstage. They’re play-acting, and having a blast doing it, seeing how far they can push the silliness.

11

Has anyone heard their new song War Party (video here - I’m not sure if there’s an audio-only link but it’s GWAR, you want to see them!)

They’re doing something interesting with the tempo in the song. I don’t know enough about music to put my finger on exactly what it is, but I know I listen to a hell of a lot of music and that song just sounds different. And I mean musically different, not aesthetically.

Anyone following me?

12

GWAR in most cases is stage theatric first and music second. They have some amusing as hell songs, and some that really suck.

The most amusing part is seeing them live, not so much fo the fangoria reader’s urge to be splattered as much as possible, but just to see the level they take their show to. I mean even Alice Cooper in his heyday can’t match the level of special effects, stage costumes and sets as a GWAR show.

The funny thing is my wife was going with me to a Misfits show, and she can tolerate the Misftis pretty well. Turns out GWAR was the opener. She was pretty much speechless after seeing it and half the time gabe me the look like “What in the hell is this?”

13

Audio-only link

14

Sounds like standard heavy metal tempo changes to me.

15

Ditto.

16

Did you ever play the B&B game for Genesis? The whole goal of the game was to get to the GWAR concert. If you figured out how to do it you could even get on the stage with them and dance.

By the way, that was one of the hardest games I ever played.

17

It’s been a decade since I saw them live, but GWAR has to be the most over the top act in rock. Imagine if a speed metal band decided to perform an opera based on their favorite “mutant robotic aliens shoot everyone up” type of video game. They cause worldwide latex shortages when they make their costumes; farmers run out of J-lube when they make slime, and all of it is larger than life.

The premise is that they are a band of evil aliens from another galaxy, bent on conquering Earth and enslaving all of humanity. This means that, along with the musicians (four or five guys wearing eight foot tall latex space alien outfits), the cast includes their sleazy human promoter (a guy in a cheap suit and a Wayne Newton wig the size of Arkansas), several slaves (sexual and otherwise, wearing costumes and spurting blood and other fluids from… oh, everywhere) and, when I last saw them, it included a human sacrifice. At one point, the band stopped playing, their promoter came onstage and announced that the band would not play until a human was sacrificed (as stated in the terms of their contract of course), then he asked for a volunteer from the audience. After a pregnant pause, this schlub with a giant fake head atop their shoulders walked onstage. They used a giant rubber executioner’s axe to chop the head off the head and played a song about it while he fell about the stage with blood squirting out of his jugulars and onto the stage and into the audience.

What you get out of the show really depends on where you stand in the crowd. You can stand close to the stage to see most of the action and get slimed, or you can stand way in back, and miss out on the slime and (probably) much of the show. I saw them once in an old warehouse, and I found that the best seat in the house was to climb up into the rafters until the bouncers called me down (remember, the slime goes out, not up.)

18

Regarding the All Music article, that was where I discovered that their name stands for God What an Awful Racket.

19

Wow, GWAR is still around? Did not know that.

My band opened from them (Actually we opened for the opening band…can’t remember the name of the band… All I remember is the album they were touring for was called “4x4x4”…or maybe that was one of the songs)

Anyway, it was a cool show. It was a long time ago(1990? 1992?) and I don’t remember much except one of the girls backstage was extremely hot. I mean drop dead goregous. That and there was absolutely no room backstage for our gear. We didn’t meet many people backstage because it was a really small club and there was no room to hang out. When we got to the gig I had no idea who Gwar was or what the show was about. My drummer knew and just said “It’s really different man, you’ll dig em.” He was right. Great show.

Slee

20

This is almost impossible to answer in words. If you ever get the chance, see them live.

In '88 or '89 I went with a friend to their show at the Odd Rock Cafe on Kinnickinnik Ave in Milwaukee. (Brewtowners, is that place still open?)

Anyway, the opening act was Krangkorr. Decent, but forgettable garage band. (I remember they did a decent cover of Turning Japanese.)

Then Gwar hit the stage. Wow. I had never seen anything like them. They all dress up in these funky-ass costumes that make them appear 7 or 8 feet tall. You know the Raider fans that dress up to sit in The Black Hole? Gwar makes those guys look like they’re dressed for church.

I was so blown away by the stageshow before me, I don’t even remember the music that night. (And I was sober) One of the highlights was Oderus having his head chopped off and the ensuing bath of fake blood spurting all over the audience. I seem to remember also a lot of fluids of questionable origin being dumped on the crowd throughout the show.

It was almost as if we were watching some sort of really demented live theater with a metal soundtrack. Highly recommended even if you’re not a big fan of the music. Man that was a fun night.