GWAR

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Photo courtesy of Freeman Promotions

GWAR

It’s remarkable enough that GWAR still exists. Over the past thirty-five years, the band has built a cult following built primarily around the band’s gore-splattered live shows, in which the band, adorned with foam-rubber prosthetics and makeup, simulate executions, spray fans with an assortment of fake bodily fluids, and tear through hard rock songs that mix sophomoric humor with sharp satire. Naturally, GWAR has attracted as much controversy as acclaim, and in the mid-nineties, the band offered memorable, in-character appearances on daytime talk shows to discuss censorship and media violence. And yet, GWAR persists. Even after the death of the band’s founding frontman Dave Brockie (a.k.a. Oderus Urungus) in 2014, GWAR has continued its tradition of tenacious touring. Last year’s The Blood of Gods features the band in classic form, using mythological imagery, comic book exaggeration, and plenty of sex and violence to propel songs that veer from classic thrash to hard-edged boogie rock. Miss May I and American Sharks open. —Bryan C. Reed