I
10 - The Michigan Daily --WednesdayM69 28, 1997 M , ,u s.f. .. .R . s. .. _ . .. , .. . W . , v , ,._ . s . . . . . a _ . .
GWAR brings theatrical, gory
stage show to St. Andrew's
By Brian M. Kemp meant to excite and at the same time too seriously."
For the Daily disgust. While the band is pumping out The origin of GWAR can be traced
Just as you have become tired of jams, rubberized humans are sliced through two routes. One story tells of a
checking out bands at the Blind Pig open and "GWAR blood" begins time billions and billions of years ago
and you've been to spraying out of when the "Master of all Reality" creat-
the Nectarine one arteries covering ed Oderus and his cohorts because he
too many times P REVIEW j the audience had nothing better to do. After causing
this summer, below. In fact, absolute chaos in the cosmos, GWAR
GWAR has arrived GWAR everything on was imprisoned to the frozen waste-
on its "Carnival of Thursday, s p.m. stage is rubber and lands of Antarctica. After being woken
Chaos" tour in St. Andrew's Hail, Detroit huge, including by capitalist/entrepreneur, Sleazy P.
hopes of alleviat- $12.50 at Ticketmaster the lead singer's Martini, the monsters chose the obvious
ing your terminal two - foot -1o ng option of becoming a rock 'n' roll band.
boredom. GWAR is definitely not penis, which he uses to coat the crowd The other story, spun by Oderus him-
your typical heavy-metal band and its with a variety of "GWAR bodily flu- self, dates back only 10 years when
live performance is the proof of the ids." GWAR was, "A
pudding. During the show, the mem- This may bunch of art stu-
bers of the band dress and act as hor- sound extraordi- The band m embers dents who
rific monsters, bent on destroying n a r i I y played too much
America. grotesque, but dress and actas D&D, smoked
In a recent interview with The as Oderus com- too much pot,
Michigan Daily, GWAR's lead singer, mented, "When horrifc monstws played too much
'Oderus Urungus, hinted at what is to I'm dressed like punk rock, and
come Thursday evening. "It's chock- an eight-foot- bens' Qflde#tr vinf basically let
full of mutant penguins, giant tall rubber mon- their imagina-
Tyrannosaurus Rexes and plenty of ster from outer Ameri a, tions run amok"
toxic crack, as well as a giant meat space and I'm G W A R 's
grinder to reduce your girlfriend to fighting a giant i n fIl u e n c e s
pulp," he said. penguin with a seven-foot-long range from Black Sabbath to pro
The group's theatrical stage show is broadsword, I won't be taking myself wrestling and from Monty Python to
Kiss. This eclectic list gives them an
advantage over the competition of
"shock value" bands like Marilyn
Manson. "I think he is lame," Oderus
said, "He does a good job at convinc-
ing 14-year-old, wealthy, middle-
class, high school students that they
can dress up like an idiot one night a
week and be part of some kind of
'revolution."' Yet, on the other hand,
Oderus candidly noted, "I'm also
jealous and pissed that he makes way
more money than I do."
GWAR will command the stag t
St. Andrew's this Thursday night r
Chemlab and local hardcore band
Universal Stomp. The show promises
to be a long set, and besides, there is
no way to stop it. As Oderus put it,
"As long as there are blood-soaked
legions of foam-flecked, fanatical fans
to come to our cannibalistic death
orgies and urge us onwards in our
blood conquest, there will always be a
GWAR! Hail GWAR! And death
toilet Earth!"
Cheesy effects, lame crowd don't slow down Offspring
By Con Bartos
Daily Arts Writer
Since hitting the big time, The
Offspring has been known as an ener-
getic, fun-loving bunch of hyper-pop-
sters. The band members proved they
are just that, as well as "big rock
stars" now, with their near sold-out
performance at Detroit's State
Theater.
With a blast of lights and sound, the
Offspring shifted right into overdrive
and began with "Bad Habit," one of
the only tolerable songs from its
awful 1994 album, "Smash." This
furious tempo sent the noticeably all-
ages crowd into a sugar fit.
Frontman Dexter Holland and gui-
The Offspring put on a lively show at tarist Noodles were the apparent lead-
the State Theater on May 18th. ers onstage, with the drummer and
bassist turning out to be just exten-
sions of the wall. Holland, with his
bright blond , newly spiky hair, and a
shiny copper-colored jacket, jumped
around and shrieked while Noodles,
in a Hawaiian shirt, plaid pants and
fisherman's cap, proceeded to shred
on his guitar and act
the fool.
The group then R
went right into
"Beheaded" from
its 1989 self-titled
debut, which
sounded a lot better
live than on the
original album, with its shoddy pro-
duction. The Offspring didn't slow
down at all through songs like
"Nitro," the sickening "Come Out
And Play," "Mota" and "Killboy"
from their albums "The Offspring,"
"Smash" and "lxnay On The
Hombre."
What was noticeably absent from
the set were songs from 1992's
"Ignition." (Yes, The Offspring did
have two records out before "Smash,"
thank you.) They finally took care of
TI
that problem, though, with the catchy
"Kick Him When He's Down."
The light show was a bit ridiculous
and reeked of limburger. This wasn't
arena rock, yet it seemed that The
Offspring wanted it to be. Bubble
machines and
strobe lights
E V I E W piled on the
Cheez Whiz. The
he Offspring audience, how-
Sunday, May 18 ever, blocked all
state Theater, Detroit this out and just
started to pay
attention to the
music, which had been pretty good
thus far.
After a minute-long intermission,
The Offspring launched into the "Ya-
ya-ya-ya-ya" intro of "All I Want," the
first single off "lxnay On The
Hombre." This song, being one of
their faster ones, stirred the crowd up
yet again, although they'd been jump-
ing from the beginning. It seemed that
as time went on, Dexter and Noodles
loosened up even more, throwing beer
on the crowd and offering sarcastic
renditions of Ted Nugent's "Cat
Scratch Fever" and Black Sabbath's
"Ironman." Following in the footsteps
of Smashing Pumpkins frontman
Billy Corgan at Detroit's Lollapalia
'94, Holland chanted "Fuck Ted
Nugent," and started ripping on the
talentless Spice Girls.
The group went through numerous
other songs, as varied as "Gotta Get
Away," "Me + My Old Lady," "So
Alone" and "Ska." The set ended with
the radio and MTV staple "Self-
Esteem." The band members left the
stage in a sea of lights, and a cou le
of minutes later returned to the ste.
After Noodles commented that
Holland had a "nice ass" several
times, with screaming girls agreeing,
the Offspring played "Gone Away," its
current single. They ended the 19-
song, 75-minute set with 1992's fren-
zied "Session." Overall, it was a solid
fun show despite the cheesy light dis-
play, bubbles, dance aerobics and
multitudes of screaming 12-year-olds.
I a"n-ovr"an "ne
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