| Reviewed by Mike Ramirez |
Gwar, Chemlab,
Nation of Fear It was a freakshow-fest on May 2nd, as we witnessed the chaotic mayhem of Gwar. Every style of person from goths to preps to jocks to parents to white trash to homeboys to manson-kiddies to industrialites were present at the club. The mediocre sized club was packed down in the mosh pit as some people could not even breathe due to the oversized skinheads smashing everyone together. Openers were Florida's own Nation Of Fear" and Fifth Column's Chemlab. Nation of Fear was nothing all exciting, since I don't have that local band spunk in me. The band consisted of a drummer, a singer, a guitarist, a keyboard player who did nothing but beat on his keyboard, and a guy on a power blaster and knobs (basically, he shot sparks into the crowd by running a saw onto a metal pipe). The overall sound quality was not that bad, but they did not recieve any points for originality. Just another metal-industrial band falling into the ranks. Chemlab took the stage next. After the Chemlab show, I have fully lost every amount of respect I ever had for Jared, and even the band itself. I have never seen such a diplay of cock-rock star attitude even in an Alice Cooper show I went to. Jared loved making insipid comments such as "Hey, if your girlfriend fucks me, I'll give her a discount on my t-shirts." Me and my associates did not find this funny, instead we found it arrogant as hell. His stage appearance was similar to a one Simon Lee Bon from Duran Duran. Jared appeared in a tight zebra-patterned coat with leather pants on and a baby-doll tee. The rest of the band looked straight out of Black Sabbath's reunion tour. The sound was also horrible as I could not hear one lyric that Jared said, and one keynote that Dylan hit. They needed to tune down the guitar a little bit, as he was stealing the whole show. Chemlab did have a positive element though, as their drummer kicked ass. I am not sure of the name, but he was going off as he kept well to the beat. Some of the songs played were "Codeine, Glue and You," "Exile," "Blunt Force Trauma," and "Suicide Jag." The crowd was pretty into it, even the dipshit alterna-teen kid in front of me headbanging screaming out, "play Chemical Halo!!!!!!" I really hope I run into this kid someday, with my car that is. Gwar finally took the stage at 10:45. After speaking with their tour manager, I was told that about 65% of their set was missing due to the small stage. But that did not affect Gwar's performance at all as they splattered fake blood and semen and god knows what else into the audience. I am not really a fan of Gwar, so I am not sure what songs were played, but they were excellent showmen. During some songs, they put on skits for the audience to watch. They had everything from a life-size bloody Penguin battle, a man getting his head knocked off and have blood gush out into the crowd, a fire-breathing lady, an enourmous strap on phallus (filled with a substance), and a super-size crack pipe. The crowd, all soaked and drenched, went crazy. This has been one of the craziest pits I have ever been in. During the encore, they came out unmasked and played 3 songs. Oderus (the lead singer) made funny comments such as, "yeah, I'm a fag, but I don't like take it up the ass or any of that shit," and "Wouldn't some fuckin crack-cocaine be awesome right now?" If Gwar comes to your city, make sure you attend the show, but wear your worst outfit. Me and my friends were soaked from head to toe in blood and sweat, it is not a pretty sight. "We survived the slave pit!" (Kim's Note :
I called Mike up on the phone the next day after this
show and he was still *covered* in Sperm, Blood, Sweat
and Smiles! (all artificial of course excluding the sweat
and smiles, and maybe some blood....and.........
hehehehe....I won't go any further with this one...HA!) |