DATE: Friday, May 2, 1997                   TAG: 9705020615

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Music Review 

SOURCE: BY JEFF MAISEY,CORRESPONDENT

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   43 lines

GWAR SHOWERS ITS ENDURING FANS WITH HEAVY SHOWMANSHIP

Maybe it was the sheets of plastic covering the monitors and speakers that gave it away. Or the bag wrapped around the dreadlocks of a security man.

Lights out.

Let the (fake) blood flow.

Welcome to GWAR.

Most people do not attend a GWAR show - in Wednesday's case, the ``Carnival of Chaos'' tour that commenced at Norfolk's Riverview Theater - for the music. That's secondary. The hard-hitting, high-velocity, heavy-metal sound is fair at best. What's important is THE SHOW.

The barbarian costumes are larger than life. Singer Oderus Urungus wore small black horns atop his melted-flesh visage. Bassist Beefcake the Mighty was decked out in an exaggerated Roman helmet and shoulder pads adorned with spiked human skulls. Real warriors.

The visual effects - bright stage lights and fog - are outrageous. The cardboard props, painted to look like a dungeon, are comical.

Basically, the show had the band's five character musicians engaged by an array of enemies. On ``The Private Pain of Techno Destructo,'' a fake pope was decapitated. Blood - OK, colored water - spurted 30 feet into the audience. During the ``Penguin Attack,'' more blood gushed onto the fearless fans. Outrageous for sure, but all in good fun.

Formed by students at Virginia Commonwealth University, GWAR pulled out other crowd-pleasers. Slynenstrahymen, the gal in the spiked bra, twirled batons of flame, then breathed fire that nearly hit the ceiling. On the final song, ``Sick of You,'' an enormous T-Rex was felled.

The new effects on this tour are fake snow and fake penguins, and both were in abundance Wednesday. Maybe, on the GWAR calendar, 1997 is the year of the penguin. Anyway, the band put on the circus everyone came to see.

Since when did Mick Jagger go industrial? The flamboyant posing of its lead vocalist aside, Chem Lab created a potent mixture of hard-driving industrial rock that won over a few new fans.

Layers of makeup and Gothic imagery couldn't disguise the fact that Vampire Love Dolls had no bite whatsoever.

What was scary was the bad songs. The crowd seemed bored to death.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu