Remembering GWAR's Oderus Urungus

Something sad happened this week in music. David Brockie died last weekend in his home at the age of 50. Most of you won't know his name and maybe only some of you knew him by his stage name, Oderus Urungus.

Still not familiar? How about a picture;

Trust me, you would remember him if you saw him.

Dave was the leader and usually the lead singer of a certain 'satirical thrash metal' band called GWAR. They've played/toured for nearly 30 years doing their novelty act. But here's the thing, there comes a time when a novelty act stops becoming a novelty act. GWAR passed through that stage and kept being GWAR.

The number of bands GWAR has outlasted is simply incredible.  Remember Fine Young Cannibals? Milli Vanilli? LL Cool J? GWAR outlasted all of them. They were together throughout the rise and fall of Grunge, the return of bubblegum pop, the Spice Girls, those boy bands and Nickelback.

They never achieved the respect or publicity of other bands that have become multi-millionaires such as Green Day, REM, U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers but that was okay with them for GWAR was always GWAR to their GWARhard fans; they found a niche and excelled at it; Demonic Action Figures playing loud instruments in rhythm with lots of screaming.



Here's the first video I remember seeing of them.  It's funny how amazingly tame this is compared to the sound of today. It still makes me smile, reminding me of a simpler, happier time when I used to listen to semi-underground bands that didn't take themselves all that seriously like Circle Jerks, Dead Milkmen, Dead Kennedys, Violent Femmes. Brockie made music that made you laugh (or at least people like me laugh) at the music industry and those musicians who forgot what they were doing for a living and became caricatures of themselves. GWAR started off as caricatures and that was their genius.

Now to the memories; I had the opportunity to see them in Calgary, 2010. Now for the record, I had moved on in life since that first video way back in 1990. I had kids and a 'responsible job' and a mortgage. GWAR had long been just a trivia answer to a question nobody ever asked me. I didn't even know they were still playing until I was asked if i would chaperone a 17 year old youth in care who was an amazing guitar player who wanted to see them. I laughed and said 'Sure!'. After all, you only live once and if you have the chance to see a band like GWAR, what semi-insane person would say no?

The concert was held at the University of Calgary campus. We walked into a small auditorium and found a time capsule of the punk movement, 30 years worth of punk fashion merged into one room. The opening act was awesome, tons of energy emanating from the lead singer's foot-high Mohawk. That is to be expected. They played an excellent Ramones cover, also to be expected.

However, some things have changed since my day; There was no longer a mosh pit, more of a mosh circle. Imagine 50+ young men running around in a circle about 20 yards across, bumping into each other. It was something like roller derby crossed with stock car racing. I honestly thought at one point the lead singer would shout out 'Change Direction!' but he never did. He kept pushing out mass amounts of energy that was being swallowed up by the few hundred of us in attendance and watching the hurricane of testosterone in front of the stage.

Another new (for me) punk thing they did was have, for lack of better words, a game similar to Bull Dog, a game that i played in football. Simply put, the singer divided the crowd in half. At a signal given from the singer, the two sides rushed at and through each other. Imagine 2 walls of adolescent puberty hitting each other and this is the important part...treating it all in good fun.

Once the fallen had picked themselves up, they smashed into each other again. After about four times, the singer then kicked it into overdrive on another Ramones song and the crowd returned to their mosh circle. It was amazing. Then it was time to breathe, compare bruises and get ready for...

GWAR!

First, few words can truly describe a GWAR show so let's start off with some musical foreplay as they pay tribute to one of the original shock rockers, Alice Cooper with this cover;

Now get rid of all the school girls, the classroom, the lighting and the overall pretty decent sound quality. To imagine GWAR live, think darkness, half-naked Conan the Barbarian dudes and a lot of incomprehensible yelling. Think fog machines and zombie-like creatures wandering around on stage, like a live version of some type of semi-popular 1st person Quest video game. Imagine live versions of those drawings D&D players drew of their alter-ego/characters come to life. Now imagine that the second group starts chopping zombie heads off with giant swords and axes, defying all known laws of physics. The zombies open necks spew 'blood' all over the audience, something all GWARhards knew was going to happen. There is much cheering. And that's just in the first 5 minutes.

Then the songs kick in and there's an occasional break in yelling to music to allow for more yelling without music. And oh yeah, the few phrases that you can understand have something to do with politics. This became truly evident when they wheeled out a Sarah Palin impersonator and proceeded to tear her in half, spraying blood all over the audience to mass cheering as Palin played with her intestines.  Apparently GWAR was very active politically to an audience one would not suspect even knew who Sarah Palin was (is?).
Who knew, right?

This video of said disembowelment and is not for the faint of heart or someone lacking legs.

The lesson that I think we should all take out of Dave Brockie's passing is that at one time there was a young man who wanted to do nothing more than play loud music dressed up in a killer costume taken out of some bad science fiction fantasy movie. And that young man grew up and he kept doing it. He turned 30 and he kept doing it. Then 40.  He made it to 50 doing what I can only imagine he loved to do and if anybody has the right to kick off with a Frank Sinatra song sung by Gary Oldman impersonating Sid Vicious with the bonus of him killing Courtney Love (2.53 for those with little patience), Dave Brockie is one of the privileged few.

The Man;

Thanks for living your dream.