Blood, guts, gore and thrash metal—that’s Gwar’s modus operandi. The 31-year-old Richmond-based band comes across as more performance art than simple hard rock concert. Its members dress up in frightful costumes, rip apart life-like effigies and spray endless supplies of fake blood into the crowd. While the whole ritual sounds demonic and base, much of the carnage is done tongue-in-cheek—so over-the-top it can’t be taken seriously, like a self-aware ‘80s horror movie embracing the genre’s most exuberant tropes.
Gwar, who plays the Rave this Thursday, tends to stop through Milwaukee right around Halloween every year. That timing couldn’t be anymore fitting. A Gwar show is the equivalent of walking through an elaborate haunted house. There’s always some grotesque shock coming around the next corner. Just don’t expect to leave unscathed or at least without a few fake blood stains.
The band has established a lengthy and somewhat confusing mythology. Supposedly, an extraterrestrial crop of warriors known as the Scumdogs of the Universe ransacked the galaxy and were eventually exiled to “the seething mudball known as Earth,” where they were to spend the rest of eternity frozen in Antarctica. However, the overabundance of hair spray used by ‘80s hair metal groups caused a hole to be created in the ozone layer, releasing the Scumdogs from their resting spot. They now travel the world, kidnapping and mutating humans to serve as their slaves.
Real-life tragedy struck the band last year as founding member and singer Dave Brockie, who played Oderus Urungus the devilish leader of Gwar who shot blood from his phallus, died of a heroin overdose. He was 50 years old. The search for a new singer, after a brief stint with the female Vulvatron, ended on Blothar, a new character played by Michael Bishop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMjf5SKZW28
While Gwar has a dedicated fanbase, one does not need to be an expert to enjoy the debauchery and craftsmanship of the band’s excellent live shows. Or as Oderus explained on Joan Rivers talk show, “Human beings we see as food, dogs to be destroyed on stage en masse. They do not dislike this; rather they throw themselves gleefully into the jaws of death.”
Gwar headlines the Rave on Thursday, October 8 at 7:30 p.m. with openers Born of Osiris and Battlecross.
Stream of the Week
The relentless avant garde musician Jon Mueller followed his grand Death Blues epic Ensemble with a new project INITIATION, which premiered at the Eaux Claires festival in July and continues his cerebral work with A Magnetic Center, a whirring and powerful effort that simply utilizes two musical instruments—a hand-made Arabic bass drum and looped wordless vocals.
More Options
Tuesday, October 6: Blitzen Trapper with The Domestics at Turner Hall Ballroom, 8 p.m. ($20 advance; $22 door) – (1032 N. 4th St., PabstTheater.org)
Thursday, October 8: Strange Wilds with Temple and The Pukes at Riverwest Public House, 8 p.m. – (815 E. Locust St., RiverwestPublicHouse.WordPress.com)
Friday, October 9: (Stop Worrying and) Love the Bomb with Brat Sounds and The Pukes at Cactus Club, 9:30 p.m. – (2496 S. Wentworth Ave., CactusClubMilwaukee.com)
Saturday, October 10: Awkward Terrible with Jake Simmons & The Little Ghosts, (ORB) and The Fever Haze at Cactus Club, 9:30 p.m. – (2496 S. Wentworth Ave., CactusClubMilwaukee.com)
Sunday, October 11: Two Cow Garage and Mutts at Linneman’s Riverwest Inn, 7 p.m. – (1001 E. Locust St., Linnemans.com)
