Music
LIVE: Gwar and The Casualties at the Opera House
by Keith Carman
October 26, 2010
Heavy metal shock-rockers Gwar sharing the stage with street punks The Casualties? You've got to be kidding. Such a show sounds as though it should blend together about as well as a heaping glass of ketchup and milk. s this particular sold-out evening proved instantly however, such is clearly not the case. Watching punks and metalheads unite while getting ya-ya's out to expedient aggressive music, the scene was more akin to peanut butter and chocolate than the aforementioned grossness.
Heavy metal shock-rockers Gwar sharing the stage with street punks The Casualties? You’ve got to be kidding. Such a show sounds as though it should blend together about as well as a heaping glass of ketchup and milk.
As this particular sold-out evening proved instantly however, such is clearly not the case. Watching punks and metalheads unite while getting ya-ya’s out to expedient aggressive music, the scene was more akin to peanut butter and chocolate than the aforementioned grossness.
Tearing through a wide variety of tracks from their seven-album career, New York quartet The Casualties praised Toronto for its ravenous enthusiasm, incited a visually-stunning Wall Of Death (parting the crowd and having opposing sides run at one another full-force) and noted the tour’s impressively rare crossover status. A few shout outs to classic creatures Venom and Discharge before blasting through The Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop” and The Casualties were off as quickly as they had spurred the crowd to action.
Still, even their impressive display of compact virility was no match for mighty interstellar goons Gwar. Restricted by the modest Opera House stage (at least when touting a seemingly-endless stream of nine-foot tall rubber monsters), where previous Gwar shows have boasted massive sets, the band kept background fodder to a minimum, offering only a few images and stylized drum riser in front of a massive namesake banner.
These aspects were of no consequence when confronted by gargantuan monsters shredding as though there were no tomorrow, though. Not only instruments at that. In keeping with their timely presentations, this incarnation of the freak fest incorporated classic Gwar enemies such as Sawborg Destructo and defiled pet Pookie sharing abuse time with a Lady Gaga effigy who, draped in toilet fashion, was duly plunged and flayed for the masses. In a moment of hilarious distaste, front-thing Oderus Urungus even mentioned how he was unsurprised to see one, “longtime Gwar fan in the press lately: Colonel Williams. He’s been sending me underwear in the mail for years.”
Musically, the band wisely touched only on their stronger material from albums such as 1988 debut Hell-O, classics Scumdogs Of The Universe, America Must Be Destroyed and a few more recent efforts such as War Party’s “Bring Back The Bomb,” Lust In Space’s “Let Us Slay,” “Zombies, March” from latest release Bloody Pit Of Horror and obvious fan favourites “Crack In The Egg,” “Maggots,” “Salaminizer,” “Pure As The Arctic Snow” and much more.
Finally, allowing his putrid phallus the Cuttlefish Of Cthulu to blast fans with a dousing spray of yellow goo, Urungus chuckled how, “pissing on Toronto at the end of a show has become our little ritual,” before leading the band into obvious, glorious closer “Sick Of You.” Bloody, bombastic and outright brilliant, Gwar may be working on their 30th anniversary but if this latest engagement was any indication of their stamina, we’re in for a long future of these “little rituals.”
Photo by Heather Carman Ostrander / AUX
