To use the term "over-the-top" to describe the heavy rock band GWAR does not begin to do the monstrous quintet justice.
Part turn-it-up-to-11 rock outfit, part horrifying sideshow -- and the balance outrageous comedy act -- GWAR has been beguiling and puzzling audiences for 25 years now.
Or maybe it's actually closer to 43 million years, if lead singer Oderus Urungus is to be believed.
Urungus (known in some dimensions as David Brockie) has been with the band since the get-go. He first came on as a guitarist, then moved to bass, and finally to his deserved spot as frontman/singer/stand-up comic.
When not out enslaving mankind or joyriding through space looking for trouble, the band members spend a good amount of time in Richmond, Va.
You're thinking "cult following," no doubt, and you'd be somewhat right. But it's grown into a pretty big cult, including a solid following that enthusiastically shows for the surreal outfit's regular shows at Saltair, where the band plays on Saturday.
"We have a pretty good enslavement in your parts," growled Urungus from a tour stop in Louisville, Ky. "We play at that strange place out on the Salt Flats. It is kind of a cool apocalyptic joint that suits us very well."
So popular has the band and its bizarrely charismatic frontman become, Urungus has now landed his own gig on the Fox News Network's wee-hours show "Red Eye."
Yes, that Fox News.
"My newest gig is in the belly of the beast, as it were," he said. "They have given me omnipotent power. I am an interplanetary correspondent. ... And that beat includes planet Earth, and pretty much everything else, ever."
So far, they haven't gone so far as to let Urungus file his own story -- rather, they ask him a set of questions and let him riff.
"They are still pretty much freaked-out with talking to someone from outer space," he added. "But I am sure, as I slowly kill every one on the show, I will be given more responsibilities.
"I have decided to spare (host) Greg Gutfield, though. He is simply too cute. And we do work together well. I am tall and thin and vicious, and he is sort of roly-poly -- a Pillsbury Doughboy of conservatism, if you will."
Back to the Blade
The band has released 17 albums, if their compilations are included in the mix. The latest, "Lust in Space," marks a return to the group's longtime label Metal Blade.
Said Urungus: "We had a little dalliance with another label for a little while, DRT Records. But it wasn't like we meant to even do that. I thought I was signing a shoe endorsement, and suddenly, we went from having an office building in Manhattan to working with an entire organization being run out of somebody's closet.
"So we went groveling on our hands and knees -- " Urungus pulls up short. "No, wait. There was no groveling involved. We went straight back and explained that we'd just wanted some shoes, and said can we please ... well, we didn't say please, we just said, 'You will re-sign GWAR!' And they did of course, because they don't want to die.
"It is as it should be again. Now we can release all the GWAR products under the label, and move forward with increasingly more complicated box sets."
25 years
"Lust in Space" was released in August and is proving to be the band's best seller since leaving Metal Blade in 2001. It's a concept album of sorts.
Millions of years ago, they were imprisoned beneath the Antarctic ice sheet. They escaped 25 years ago, thanks to hair bands everywhere causing a hole in the ozone layer, and residual melting, with their overuse of Aquanet Super Hold.
With "Lust in Space," the band was celebrating what members thought was their final escape from Earth.
"But when we got back to outer space, to go to our old bars, they had all been turned into strip malls by Cardinal Sin!" roared Urungus. Cardinal Sin is one of GWAR's archenemies. His job, said Urungus, is to fight naughtiness.
"So we had to come back to Earth to get the things we desire! But now Cardinal Sin is on his way to planet Earth, and GWAR is the only thing stopping him from taking over the last bastion of coolness in the universe. If Cardinal Sin has his way, we will be reduced to a Christian karaoke group. So we came back, and quit our destruction of the human race, to ally with them for the nonce and fight this menace.
"But of course, once Sin is vanquished, we'll get back to slaughtering the humans, and celebrating our 25th anniversary."
Is all going smoothly now for the band of monsters? Well, there is that ever-present threat from Cardinal Sin and his mechanical army.
And also, there is the occasional PR misstep. For instance, an in-store appearance earlier on the day of the interview had somehow slipped through the local promotion cracks. Urungus was not at all pleased with the lack of groveling humanity at the event.
But by the end of the interview, he was already taking the lame appearance pretty much in stride. "There are bound to be a few missteps along the way," said Urungus. "It can't all be peaches and cream and enemas, you know."
PREVIEW
- WHO: GWAR
- WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday
- WHERE: Saltair, 12408 W. Saltair Drive, Magna
- TICKETS: $22/advance, $24/day of, available from Smith's Tix, (800) 888-TIXX
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