07
Mar
2005
Comic book characters have finally come to life. GWAR, or God What an Awful Racket, combined elements of heavy metal, comic books, and horror movies to provide a brutally entertaining experience at Davenport’s QC Live on Saturday, February 26.
GWAR satisfied the sold-out crowd with new songs off its 2004 release War Party and other songs that covered the band’s 15-year career of violence, debauchery, and gore.
The band members emerged from the darkness to the screams of the packed auditorium and slammed into their own blend of thrash metal. Wearing elaborate costumes made from latex and papier-mâché, the true kings of shock rock transformed themselves from middle-aged men from Virginia into demonic alien warriors. The seven members ran amok on the stage, fighting with huge weapons and chopping off limbs to send fake blood spurting into the crowd.
Bodily fluids and heavy chords were the constant throughout this show. Fans were constantly being bombarded with these fluids from giant war monsters, aliens, and a few celebrities that decided to make some unscheduled appearances on the stage. Among the personalities that were gored onstage: Osama bin Laden, Paris Hilton, George W. Bush, Laci Peterson (and her unborn baby), and Arnold Schwarzenegger. As lead singer Oderus Orungus said when trying to decide what to do with an alien worm, “Let’s just kill him like we do to everyone else.”
GWAR’s members claim to be aliens born millions of years ago. They fell out of favor with their alien masters and were imprisoned on Earth. After destroying the dinosaurs and spawning the human race by having intercourse with prehistoric apes, GWAR was imprisoned in Antarctica after an extraordinarily wild gig in Atlantis. Apparently, in 1988 GWAR were rescued by their manager, Sleazy P. Martini, and released again to shock the Earth with heavy metal in order to make him rich. With stage names ranging from Beefcake the Mighty to the Sexicutioner, GWAR travels across the globe torturing audiences with its metal and mayhem.
Another possibility is that GWAR was formed by actual humans in 1988 as an experiment in marketing with various musicians, artists, and dancers in Richmond, Virginia. This strategy has apparently been very successful, as the band plays for sold-out crowds and has a career spanning 13 albums or EPs and a variety of home videos.
The music consists of heavy guitars and booming drums to provide fans with a brand of metal that is a bit ordinary. However, the theatrics carry the show, making a Marilyn Manson concert seem like Sesame Street on Ice. GWAR elate the audience as they bobbed their heads to the music. Steam rose from the bodies as fans exited the building. Those unfortunate enough to have worn white T-shirts emerged covered in red after this onslaught performance of over an hour and a half. Full of domestic beer and mayhem, they left QC Live before midnight with their heads swimming from the intergalactic alien warriors that had come to enliven their existences right here in Iowa.
The band members emerged from the darkness to the screams of the packed auditorium and slammed into their own blend of thrash metal. Wearing elaborate costumes made from latex and papier-mâché, the true kings of shock rock transformed themselves from middle-aged men from Virginia into demonic alien warriors. The seven members ran amok on the stage, fighting with huge weapons and chopping off limbs to send fake blood spurting into the crowd.
Bodily fluids and heavy chords were the constant throughout this show. Fans were constantly being bombarded with these fluids from giant war monsters, aliens, and a few celebrities that decided to make some unscheduled appearances on the stage. Among the personalities that were gored onstage: Osama bin Laden, Paris Hilton, George W. Bush, Laci Peterson (and her unborn baby), and Arnold Schwarzenegger. As lead singer Oderus Orungus said when trying to decide what to do with an alien worm, “Let’s just kill him like we do to everyone else.”
GWAR’s members claim to be aliens born millions of years ago. They fell out of favor with their alien masters and were imprisoned on Earth. After destroying the dinosaurs and spawning the human race by having intercourse with prehistoric apes, GWAR was imprisoned in Antarctica after an extraordinarily wild gig in Atlantis. Apparently, in 1988 GWAR were rescued by their manager, Sleazy P. Martini, and released again to shock the Earth with heavy metal in order to make him rich. With stage names ranging from Beefcake the Mighty to the Sexicutioner, GWAR travels across the globe torturing audiences with its metal and mayhem.
Another possibility is that GWAR was formed by actual humans in 1988 as an experiment in marketing with various musicians, artists, and dancers in Richmond, Virginia. This strategy has apparently been very successful, as the band plays for sold-out crowds and has a career spanning 13 albums or EPs and a variety of home videos.
The music consists of heavy guitars and booming drums to provide fans with a brand of metal that is a bit ordinary. However, the theatrics carry the show, making a Marilyn Manson concert seem like Sesame Street on Ice. GWAR elate the audience as they bobbed their heads to the music. Steam rose from the bodies as fans exited the building. Those unfortunate enough to have worn white T-shirts emerged covered in red after this onslaught performance of over an hour and a half. Full of domestic beer and mayhem, they left QC Live before midnight with their heads swimming from the intergalactic alien warriors that had come to enliven their existences right here in Iowa.
