GWAR desecrated the Corona Theatre (pics & review)

After the untimely death of former GWAR frontman Dave Brockie (Oderus Urungus) last year, the future of everyone’s favourite splatter-metal band was in doubt. Thankfully, the GWAR intergalactic army regrouped, and enlisted the services of Vulvatron (Kim Dylla), marking the first time a woman (or she-demon) has led the band. Vulvatron now splits main vocals duties with former bassist Mike Bishop, reincarnated as a new character named Blothar.

This new tour serves as a fitting tribute to Brockie, as the overarching theme of the night is the search for Oderus Urungus through space and time, which propels the members of GWAR to bumble their way through the ages in search of their former leader, decapitating each other and spraying the crowd with gallons of fake blood from any number of grotesque orifices along the way.

The production for this tour is truly a sight to behold, and the normally cavernous Corona Theatre looked filled to the brim with the massive on-stage sets, which were themselves dwarfed by the incredibly elaborate demon costumes sported by the band, which swells to a whopping 8 members at certain points throughout the show. The gore highlight for this night came right out of the gate, as the band sauntered on to the dark stage for their first song, only to encounter a gangly figure in a “Security” t-shirt trying to block their way. Needless to say, he was summarily decapitated by the band, who then used his sliced off melon to spray goopey fake blood across the entire crowd.

Equal parts Dungeons & Dragons and WWF, GWAR is an all encompassing live spectacle, although the music often takes a distant back seat to the over-the-top theatrics. Even the band seems aware (and fine) with this – their over-stuffed merch table featured dozens of ridiculous items, ranging from GWAR-branded “tobacco” vaporizers and hot sauce, yet not one piece of recorded music. That didn’t seem to damper the spirits of the food-colouring soaked fans in homemade white GWAR shirts (all the better to show off more blood), who repeatedly ran head on to get soaked by Vulvatron’s blood-spewing breasts. R.I.P Oderus Urungus, but long live GWAR!

Check out photos of the show below courtesy of Jason Hughes (http://jasonhughesphoto.com/), including openers Corrosion of Conformity and American Sharks. Click to enlarge the photos in the galleries.

GWAR

American Sharks