Decapitations. Hellhounds. A giant, phallic broadsword. Adoring fans covered in blood and other bodily fluids. It must’ve been a Gwar show.
Those were just some of the sights Sunday night when the Richmond, Va. shock rockers headlined a four-band bill at Showbox SoDo.
If all of that sounds outlandish, you’re definitely not familiar with Gwar. Oh, and I forgot to mention the live disembowelemt of a fake Sarah Palin who gushed blood all over the crowd and attempted to choke Gwar leader Oderus Urungus with her intestines. That also happened.
If you can’t tell Gwar is a band that loves to do big productions and prides itself on its prominence in the shock rock scene and although the SoDo show was toned down a bit compared to past Gwar tours, the band’s performance made it clear why it has been able to stay somewhat relavent relevant for more than 25 years.
Like a lot of metal fans my age, Gwar popped up on my radar thanks to a plug from Beavis and Butthead. However, I never bothered to seek out any of the band’s music or really take Gwar too seriously which meant Sunday’s show was my first real exposure to the world of Gwar and what a dark and twisted world it is. I would like to say I was won over by Gwar’s music, but unfortunately that just wasn’t the case. You could tell Gwar is a seasoned live band as the technical skills were excellent but I guess I can only take so much shock rock and listen to so many songs about death, monsters and aliens. Also the sound at Shobox SoDo Sunday night was the worst I’ve heard at the woodshed of a venue. SoDo is notorious for poor sound but Gwar really got screwed in the sound department which didn’t help my impression of the band much.
As for the stage performance, I would describe it as being akin to what you would imagine a Flaming Lips concert performed in Hell might be like. Both bands have charismatic singers and participatory shows but instead of celebrating joy and shooting confetti and balloons everywhere for the crowd to enjoy like the Lips do, Gwar celebrates the domination of the human race and shoots fake blood and jism everywhere for the crowd to enjoy.
That brings me to the crowd, which was the most important part of the show. The band has a very loyal fanbase (many people wore all white so they could be drenched in Gwar’s fake blood which is supposedly a mixture of food coloring and water) which helped nearly pack the SoDo. I would estimate a crowd size of close to 1,000 which is impressive for a Sunday night show. But it wasn’t just old timers on hand to witness Gwar’s spectacle of filth for the umpteenth time. Surprisingly the crowd skewed young with a sizable teen presence, which shows lots of promise for not just the future of Gwar but also the future of heavy metal. So here’s to another 25 years of fake blood, sperm, broadswords and most importantly, metal.
