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LIVE
IN CONCERT! |
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GWAR |
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With
Special Guest |
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GODHEAD |
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Review and Photos By
Bushman
The Palace Hollywood, CA 5/23/99 |
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The Palace in Hollyweird, CA hosted the
most conceptually shocking artists in existence today (and for
the past few thousand years). GWAR my friends . . . GWAR! GWAR
Bloody GWAR. GWAR the kings of GORE! You think Marilyn Manson
is shocking? Oh kiddies, has brother Bushman got a treat for
you. GWAR digs things outta their bellybuttons that are more
intimidating than Marilyn’s worst makeup induced tantrum.
But we’ll get to that in a bit.
The Palace sits across from the (in)famous
Capital records building in downtown Hollywood, Los Angeles.
The Palace is very theater-like and reminds me of the venue where
Pearl Jam shot that "Evenflow" video. Multiple bars,
a balcony and smoking area with bar make the Palace a really
decent venue to hang out at, as well as witness a show. The Palace
organizational force leaves a bad taste in my mouth, since security
and will call seem to have a general distaste for the press.
I attempted to get my photo pass and was only handed a ticket.
"I should have a photo pass also," I said. "You
don’t need one," said will call girl. "You sure?
They (security) gonna let me up front without one?" "Yeah
- you don’t need one," said will call girl. I didn’t
believe her either, but onward. "Godhead" was just
starting, so I scrambled up to take advantage of the space up
front for press. Guess what? They wanted to see my photo pass.
Try and argue with security sometime and you’ll understand
that I would’ve gotten more understanding from a bar stool.
Thank you once again for caring, Palace. Cool venue but shitty
staff.
Anyway, I got as close to the side edge
as possible and starting clicking some pics. Some girl popped
up from in front of the stage and inquired who I was with. I
identified myself and found out this was Godhead’s publicist,
Rhonda, who was super-cool and got me up front to snap some pictures.
It’s so nice to have someone who understands the reasons
and necessities of press. Godhead’s stage set was kinda
spooky with various mannequins mangled in multiple artistic directions.
That and the color black. Everybody and everything was basically
black. Except the singer - he was pale white as a ghost in a
black outfit. |
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Musically, Godhead are a sort of bleak, electronically
pushed, wall of guitar breaking, kind of Goth-rock. I know that
"Goth" tag is worn to threads in the wake of. . .ah.
. .recent media scape-goat finger pointing, but hey, look at
the singer. He’s as Goth as they get. The music is very
moody on disc, but live has a more bitter edge spark. All members
did their scary face posturing in true rock tar fashion and performed.
. .expectedly. |
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The singer added to the vocal dementia by
vocalizing through a gas mask for one number, and made him look
even creepier. I thought they sounded really good, But I think
the crowd was really just killing time until GWAR. Godhead would
probably define itself better in a different environment in front
of a different crowd. (GWAR attracts a strange breed, y’know?). |
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The slower plodding of some of the Godhead
numbers didn’t warm up the crowd much, but I found them
representing their release with precision and attitude. They
did do a version of "Eleanor Rigby" (by the Beatles
for you really dull readers) which went over well. The singer
has a beautifully dark voice and can project it very well in
the live setting. There were pockets of moments that rocked,
but overall, wrong night - wrong crowd was the dominating vibe.
Their CD is recommendable though, if you're into the NIN, Orgy
type harder electronic mood rock. Their live show is a step up
in energy from the more electronically dominated recording. I
was impressed, even if the bulk of the crowd wasn’t. |
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I went to the smoking bar for a drink and
ah. . .smoke. It was there I was to face the first true GWAR
inspired sight of the evening. I didn’t get her name, but
I did get her picture (but it didn’t turn out - big regrets).
She had this flame red wig done in a short bob, long red leather
boots, half unzipped tight assed red leather shorts, a little
tape over the nipples and covered in "blood." Crazy
girl. Loved her. They have a TV monitor in the bar that shows
a live feed of the stage. We noticed a large "stone"
wall with a giant GWAR logo centered on the front being constructed
on the stage. I went up to the balcony to get a good perspective
of the opening sequence. Everything happened so fast, I was caught
up in an orgy of blood and semen before I knew it. I’ll
do my best to recount the events that led to madness.
The show opened with an archaeologist guy
followed by a large breasted "assistant" (keep in mind
that all "players" in a GWAR show have full-body costumes
- except for various "gimp" slaves that mostly serve
as stage hands). The assistant inquired as to the strange symbol
centered on the wall. The professor explained something about
that being the tablet of GWAR that held back their evil or something.
The assistant proclaimed something to the effect that all this
intelligent talk was making her hot (she then exposed her fake
bosoms and began rubbing them erotically). This got the professor
hot too so he whipped out this like 3 foot penis and began stroking,
to which it immediately began spewing "semen" out all
over the crowd.
This happened during about the first 30
seconds of the show. As the professor squirted all over the assistant,
she began chanting "GWAR. . .GWAR. . .GWAR," and the
crowd followed along. Then SMASH - the band came crashing through
the wall and busted out into a song. One of the band members
rushed to the assistant girl and grabbed her by the throat, pulled
down and de-skinned her entire chest, exposing just muscle and
veins and her nipples began spewing blood all over the crowd.
The professor proceeded to have his head ripped off leaving only
the top part of his jaw, eyeballs and brain which shot out a
continual stream of blood. Oderus Urungus would even stick his
face above the stream and let all the blood flow into his mouth
and then spit it out on the crowd. Too cool. |
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You could see the hoses that ran into the
costumes that supplied the never-ending rivers of gore. I mean,
none of this looked real, but it was disgustingly fun. Now, this
was just the first song. We were introduced to Scrotum Moon (whose
face looked like a crescent moon with two balls/scrotum growing
out his chin) who wanted to become an official GWAR Scumdog.
Lead singer Oderus Urungus explained that in order to hang with
them...he’d have to indulge in one of the Scumdog’s
favorite pastimes - SMOKING CRACK! YEAH! The crowd roared with
approval, and the band moved into the next song, complete with
a "crack-pipe" (more like a mutilated leaf blower)
that bellowed out huge clouds of white "crack" smoke
that all the band took turns hitting on then, clouded up the
crowd. |
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Somewhere within the first couple of songs,
it was explained that the tablet that GWAR smashed in the beginning
needed to be reassembled or the whole world would be destroyed.
And as all familiar with GWAR would know, that is a task GWAR
themselves have sworn themselves to accomplish. So, with the
aid of the "portal-potty" (a demented pointed toothed
toilet), GWAR was able to either summon or transport various
demons and entities throughout the show that GWAR would do battle
with and regain the tablet piece by piece. |
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So anyway, back to Scrotum Moon. After getting
all messed up on the crack, GWAR decided they needed to boot
him up with heroin to get him off the crack (with the help of
an eight foot hypodermic needle). After the next song and battle
with this giant brain/squid/eyeball thing to get another piece
of the tablet, Scrotum Moon was really fucked up, so GWAR decided
the only thing they could do to help him was to get him drunk. |
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"Bring out the YAGER-MONSTER!" screamed
Oderus Urungus. This large bird-like skeleton thing came out
that spewed black liquid all over everyone. Basically, this is
how the night progressed. Some ranting about drugs and this end-of-the-world
tablet mixed in with GWAR’s brand of musical metal lunacy.
Oh yeah, that’s right, GWAR actually play music while performing
all this blood-shed. A kind of cheesy thrash metal that would
put Beavis and Butthead in the hospital with hernias from laughter.
There was a parade of beasties and characters that made their
way onto the stage to be beheaded, deskinned and generally destroyed
before running several laps around the front of the stage spewing
some kind of vile liquid upon the audience. Guests included a
purple and bloated Elvis Presly, whose insides where ripped out
and chewed upon. |
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There was also a Marilyn Manson looking dude
that got skinned, and a few general freaky monsters gave blood
soaked performances. The highlight was when our current president,
Bill Clinton, gave a special address. "My fellow Americans.
. .I am here today to talk to you about (buttfuckin’). .
.no, no I mean I’m here to talk to you about (blowjobs).
. .no that’s not it, I want to speak frankly with you about
(anal sex). . . no wait, etc, etc." Then this very pregnant
Monica Lewinsky strolled out on stage with her enlarged. . .um.
. .we’ll use a word GWAR would approve of. . .with her large
twat hanging exposed below her pregnant bulge. After a little
verbal foreplay from the president, "Mr. Clinton" started
to fist-fuck her viciously before reaching in a ripping out this
baby Bill Clinton fetus (still attached to umbilical cord) with
a large penis that was spewing all over. Unreal. That was definitely
shocking (I loved it). |
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The final coolness came toward the end
of the set as girl after girl ran past me to get "backstage."
I wasn’t sure what was up, until as GWAR played their last
song, their GWAR gimp helpers would bring the girls out, one
by one upon their shoulders. The other GWAR crew would spray
the girl full of blood from these round "razor" staff
things, and then they’d dump the girl into this "meat-grinder"
to the cheers of the crowd. Upon retelling of these tales, it
all sounds a lot more gory and disgusting than it really was.
A GWAR show is so over-the-top and extreme, it becomes very cartoonish.
A completely deranged and admittedly sick cartoon, but a cartoon
none-the-less. Nothing has a very real look to it, most props
and costumes are over-exaggerated in their size and proportions.
The blood and semen flow out of pressurized hoses work better
at getting the crowd covered in gore than portraying any kind
of theatrical reality to the scenes they try and depict.
The content is still questionable for the
younger viewers, but in the ultra-violent world we are immersed
in, this is all pretty humorous in comparison. The crowd is not
even really that scary. They look it though (witness the 30 foot
deep crowd of blood soaked fans surfing in this blood orgy)!
The hard-core GWAR fans knew to wear their plain white T-shirts
to better display all the "blood." They practically
bask in the gore as of it’s all done as a big joke. Not
one freaky person in the crowd that I observed, gave any impression
of taking this stuff seriously. . .it was all just a bloody carnival
ride. And a fun one at that. Granted, being covered in fake blood
and semen may not be everyone’s idea of a good time, but
to be present and witness this ride is surely worth the $16.50
ticket price. |
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