To describe the mythical entity that is GWAR, it would take someone equally as evil and clinically insane as their absurd back catalogue. HORSE the band vocalist Nathan Winneke did just that in an exclusive interview with The Spectrum.
"I don't know what I'm allowed to say about them," Winneke said. "They're insane monsters from the dawn of time that eat scrotums like they were babies faces."
On Wednesday night, GWAR desecrated the Town Ballroom, leaving soured souls and white tees spackled with Nazi urine, Don Vito's fecal flow, Satan's demonic drench and Pope Benedict's papal pulp.
GWAR is and will forever be about theatrics. While delivering explosive renditions of their classics such as "Saddam a Go Go," "Bring Back the Bomb," "War is All We Know," and "Tormentor," fans weren't left in awe of their musical prowess, but were left physically broken and mentally ravaged after witnessing an unexplainably vulgar, violent and completely breath taking performance.
Commanding their ship of tortured souls, Oderus Urugnus, Flattus Maximus, Balsac the Jaws of Death, Beefcake the Mighty, Jizmak Da Gusha and cruel cronies Sexecutioner and Sleazy P. Martini ripped through countless corpses to the crowd's delight.
GWAR donned gigantic costumes ranging from Balsac's Jaws of Life-like face, to Oderus spiky torso, deliciously decrepit skinless mug and prickly quad-testeed phallus. Not only were their costumes explicit in every manner, but the pure girth and bulk of their demonic digs was enough to intimidate the loosest of loyalists.
Their victims ranged from George Bush, who was beheaded, to Don Vito, whose entrails were slashed open and shot sickly fluid from his hindquarters, from Pope Benedict XVI who was de-limbed and de-chested, to the grand finale, a police officer who was staked through the rear entry and right out the front door, all the while being raised up like a freshly spit-pig and carried off stage.
As the monstrous musical mavens exited the stage and the devil-horns went from elevated to back home in their holsters, the worn crowd exited the battle-dome with filth from head to toe and smiles upon their faces.
Before GWAR defiled the Ballroom, HORSE the Band galloped from the darkness into the stage light. Slaying the crowd with their insanity and metallic, Nintendo-friendly antics, H the B opened with the more-than-fitting "Murder."
Between their ultra-heavy renditions of "Birdo," "New York City," and "Vultures," Winneke dealt with crowd requests and ramblings in only ways he could.
"You want Freebird," Winneke asked. "You f*ckin 47 year old. You brought your kids here and you just want to hear a sweet cover from your youth. Cut, cut, cut yourself open you ugly f*ck. I hate to be hateful but hatred is grand."
After finishing strong with the extremely popular "Cutsman," Winneke walked off stage.
Indulging interests, Winneke told The Spectrum what we could expect his warm-blooded, beastly band in the future.
"Older versions of us. More amazing music. Children. Cancer."
Before he fled off into the not-so-sweet thereafter, Winneke was offered the chance to make the kind of mind-numbing statement that he's become infamous for. He declined, and then did just that.
"I'm not just gonna say something for the sake of saying it. I have to have some motivation. Like I'm not just gonna come out and say that I support pedophilia."
After prohibiting press use of the statement, and then changing his mind, he had this gem to offer: "You're a worthless f*cking journalist if you don't quote everything I say."
Soothing the waters before his true departure, Winneke offered one last quote.
"I love everybody. That's it."
The night's true openers came courtesy of Toronto, Canada, in the form of metal-mathcorers The End. Though few knew their names at shows dawn, a sea of seasoned metalheads and their offspring graciously applauded a victorious performance and collectively wished that their set hadn't reached its end.
The End exploded the night's festivities with "Dangerous," off of their newest release, Elementary. Singer Aaron Wolff belted harsh vocals, offered distorted rhetoric over a megaphone, and pounded the beat with his very own floor tom that had been situated in the center of the stage.
Pits erupted almost instantly and continued throughout "Animals" and the rest of their fiercely entertaining set. It's amazing that three albums in, The End remained virtually unknown in the States. Here's to us doing out part ino changing that.
Blood, sweat, fear, metal. GWAR, HORSE the band and The End unleashed a show that'll not go forgotten.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
