Me with Dave Brockie (Oderus Urungus) of GWAR.

GWAR: Ministers of the Sinister
On April 18, 2002 Metal Blade recording artists, GWAR, brought their distinctive style of performance art to Syracuse's Lost Horizon as part of the "Blood Drive" tour in support of their newest release "Violence Has Arrived." It is the ninth album by the veteran thrash-metal rockers.
For those that are unfamiliar with the band a small amount of background is needed:
The band members wear outrageous monster costumes that would make KISS jealous and play tunes that have almost nothing to do with reality, at least not as we know it. Most of the songs are centered around the escapades of the key characters Oderus Urungus and his psychotic crew of space pirate misfits: Slymenstra Hymen, Beefcake the Mighty, Jizmac the Gusher, Balsac the Jaws of Death, Techno-Destructo, The Sexicutioner, Flattus Maximus, and their manager Sleazy P. Martini.
From their secret lair in Antarctica, GWAR does everything in their power to achive their goal to

Enslave and Demolish the Planet Earth!

Known collectively as "The Scumdogs of the Universe" to their fans/slaves, GWAR battle it out on stage with such baddies as Dr. Skulhedface, the dino-creature Gor-Gor, Granbo, and the Morality Squad. The mêlées provide larger-than-life, cartoon violence that makes you part of the action whether you want to be or not.
You see, the entire GWAR show is an audience participation kind of thing. As the characters on stage are hacked to bits, beheaded or "sodomized," the audience is sprayed down with their "blood" (or other, more repulsive fluids) by the gallon. Often, audience members are dragged onto the stage and stuffed down the throat of a giant mechanical maggot, only to re-appear a few moments later covered in a substance of an unknown origin.
As you can guess, this is not the show to go to if you are a clean freak. Your clothes will be ruined and your skin will be stained for several days after this show. (It took me a week to finally get all the red out of my skin last time I saw them.) Nonetheless, as the day approached for the show, I was excited.
I'll tell you why: because behind all the costumes, fake blood, hoopla, and crazy stories is a really good band. The songs are well written and well played. So well in fact that in 1993, GWAR received a Grammy nomination for their Phallus in Wonderland home video. (Not to mention that Oderus is one of the guys I give props to when people ask me whom I consider to be my vocal influences…YAY!)
As a longtime fan of GWAR, (and Beefcake's guest the last time they were in town), I could not wait to see them again, but I will admit that I was also a tiny bit nervous about interviewing them. It was my first interview and I wanted it to go well.
I was at my place minding my own business, getting ready to go to the show, and putting film into my camera when six guys dressed in black, wearing ski masks, and armed with machine guns kicked in the door.
I was tied up, blindfolded, and then tossed into what I assume was a van. After about an hour of driving, I was removed from the vehicle at an undisclosed location and hustled into a small, hot room that smelled of old, stale beer. My hands were untied, the blindfold was removed, and my camera was returned to me.
My eyes adjusted to the light and there I was…Face to face with the lead singer of the most notorious band in the entire galaxy: Dave Brockie of GWAR!

Oderus Speaks

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