Oderus Urungus, Lord of Earth - Photo by Jon Behm

Viva La Bands, as it was called, is a traveling bill put together by Viva La Bam’s destructive jester, Bam Margera. Four bands slated to play that evening, but skate-video punks CKY cancelled last minute due to illness. As it was, three bands would be adequate for the sensory overload of decibels and headbanger whiplash that would ensue. Without any real warning beforehand of CKY’s cancellation, I felt genuine sympathy for their dedicated area fans that came out to see them.

Ah, but I was here to see GWAR! I don’t care if you like metal. If you like a great, over the top, audacious stage show, you will always get your money’s worth. But, for the record, there are two different experiences you can have: Do you want the full experience? Do you want to get covered in fake blood and other mock bodily fluids?  Wear a white shirt, a pair of pants and shoes you don’t mind if you can never wear again, maybe write something on the shirt like – “GWAR rocks your face off, Motherf*cker!” in permanent marker and take a spot on the floor. Either that, or judge the trajectory wisely, stay back and just take it all in.  

The topics of the songs of GWAR are horribly incorrect politically, crass, violent, immature, and ultimately, if you don’t take it seriously at ALL –hilarious. The essential spirit of shock rock is all there in one messy package and tied with a bow that looks a lot like human intestines. Even though emphasis is put on the stage show itself, their thrash is enjoyable enough for the fair-weather metal fan. Then again, it is difficult to concentrate on the music when there are five guys dressed as giant, intergalactic-space-monsters-from-Hell on stage looking menacing and still managing to play their instruments proficiently while wearing the costumes.  

And then there was the crowning glory and achievement of every show: The impressive guest list of victims. As George Bush would be beheaded and his neck stump would hose down the crowd with blood, another character, who on one side was Jesus and the other side was Hitler, would utilize the firehose-like pressure of its enormous phallus to douse the crowd with a lengthy money-shot. That one mildly disturbed even me, but that’s the glory of GWAR. An even more grotesque version of Viva La Bam regular Don Vito would first defecate a high-powered stream on the crowd before eventually being disemboweled by one of the “slaves” that take on most of the impaling and slaying duties. All these things aside, as grotesque as they were, really couldn’t compare to the supremacy of the huge, bad-ass dinosaur that would take up half the stage and spew forth even more crimson and reign ridiculously over the show. 

The aftermath left its revelers soaked to the bone in a myriad of colors that don’t appear regularly in nature or otherwise, fans emerged from the floor faux-ensanguined and exhausted from the spectacle. It left me with a definite resolve, that upon my next meeting with them, I will also disappear into this crowd, and emerge stained and unrecognizable from the frenzied, outlandish theatrics.

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See Jon Behm's full set of photos from this show here.