GWAR Wars at Long Beach Show

Guts and gore. Decapitations and disembowelings. Intergalactic warriors in masks and armor. The live birth of a monster. Blood flying into the audience.

That was just part of the menu Friday in the small club room at Fender’s in Long Beach, where GWAR’s X-rated “Star Wars” fantasy unfolded to the din of its heavy-handed brand of thrash metal. With a show that contains such a plethora of graphic props and effects, it’s no wonder that the group is currently stirring things up on the underground circuit.

GWAR’s brutal delights make Alice Cooper’s vaudeville horror show look wholesome and the Plasmatics’ shock theater seem tame. The quartet has taken rock ‘n’ roll theatrics to new extremes, and the anti-rock types will predictably condemn the show as disgusting and offensive (come to think of it, a lot of pro -rock types might go along with them). But, for the sweaty fans who jammed the front of the Fender’s stage, GWAR was probably no more harmful than the latest sci-fi comic book--and much more hilarious.