gwar blog

so i saw gwar last night and it was a unique experience to say the least. if you're unfamiliar with gwar, they're a band that dresses up like space monsters of some sort. they play wicked heavy metal and put on a blood soaked show. in between songs they introduce new characters in crazy costumes and pretty much kill them all off. as characters are killed, parts of their bodies or guts shoot blood onto the crowd. towards the end of the night, practically all attendees and the whole floor are covered in fake blood.




when we first walked in, i wasn't too sure what to expect. i'd heard a lot about their live shows. i figured i had to see them live at least once. other than what i've heard from other people about their live shows, i don't know a whole lot about gwar. i can't sing a lyric, name an album, or tell you any of the alien names of any of the members of the band.

when the show first started, i thought, wow, someone could have a seizure up in here. they had this crazy light sequence going on with fast paced heavy metal blasting and streams of blood being fired into the crowd from hoses carefully crafted inside the guts of their latest outer space enemy/victim.

my brain settled into the groove a couple songs into the set. i was starting to get a kick out of the whole show. the plot was ridiculous, but they never ran out of reasons to kill some new character so that character can bleed onto the crowd.

i stood toward the side and to the back. i admit i was letting the inner old man in me get the best of me. i didn't want any part of the 'moshing while blood rained onto me' experience. once i got there and looked around me, i saw people there moshing, and gyrating, and screaming lyrics as if these songs i couldn't understand a word to were sing-a-longs in their world. i felt like chances were that there was at least one serial killer in the crowd that night. and the moshing was viscous. i've been to a fair share of shows and i've been inside a fair share of mosh pits... but this was different. there was a lot of anger. i saw what was bumping into each other a lot turn into a lot of fists flying and people throwing other people around like rag dolls. all of this was taking place on a floor that increasingly became more slippery due to the fake blood raining onto the crowd.

even though i hung out on the sidelines, i had a helluva time at the show. i found myself getting into it... especially when they brought out snookie (not the real snookie, but y'know, another disposable character for gwar to kill) and killed her. i got a kick out of that. it was such cartoonish horror going on in front of us. i'll give it up to gwar, they put on a fucking show!

i found myself thinking about the actual members of the band, the dudes under these crazy ass costumes. i couldn't imagine all the planning and plotting that goes into their show. there's probably a small army of people behind the scenes busting their asses to make it all happen. somewhere in the gwar camp was probably a dude who's sole responsibility was to make sure they always had enough fake blood (i can't imagine how much is enough. i can't even begin to describe how much fake blood pours onto the crowd. think about a shit load of blood and then multiply it by a shitload). i couldn't help but think that this might possibly be the hardest working group of motherfuckers in the game. it sure looked like a lot of hard work.

and i can't imagine what the security staff thought of gwar. you had your typical dude stationed in front of the stage to catch people who are crowd surfing. that dude was wearing a poncho. he's right in front of the stage the whole time with his back to the bloodfest that's going on for an hour and a half, fake blood pouring down all over him... and he has to stand there and make sure the kids don't hurt themselves crowd surfing.

there was another security dude who spent a good amount of time in the middle of the mosh pit breaking shit up. every now and again i'd catch a glimpse of him yelling at someone, telling people to separate, threatening to kick people out. all the while it's raining blood in the club. it's just an insane scene. probably as good a day as any to rock a sick day.

gwar fans, i don't know what's wrong with you. you scare me. but it's all good and i'd probably check gwar out again.... if there is a next time, hopefully i'll do the right thing, a thing a lot of people seem to do at gwar shows, dress all in white.

interesting side notes:

great fucking show to go to this close to halloween.

there was one point into the set where 3 songs went by and no new characters were introduced and killed, so i was all like, "this is bullshit!"

they were selling bottled water called, "gwater." i don't know if that's gwar making money or someone else just being opportunistic off their name. either way, it was $4 so i didn't buy any.