GWAR shot music video in Baton Rouge

• By JOHN WIRT
• Music and film writer
• Published: Oct 9, 2009

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Aliens invaded a vacant lot on Baton Rouge’s 20th Street last week. Nearby residents, showing a wary mix of shock and curiosity, stared at the noisy, gnarly creatures from their cottage and shotgun-house porches.

But seriously, earthlings, the visitors on 20th Street, who could pass for life forms from another planet, were members of GWAR, a heavily costumed, wildly theatrical heavy-metal-thrash-rock band from Richmond, Va.

The morning after a sold-out, mock mayhem-filled show for cheering fans at the House of Blues in New Orleans — part of GWAR’s 25th anniversary tour — the band came to Baton Rouge to shoot scenes for a music video for “Lords and Masters,” a song from the new CD, Lust In Space. 

Chris Trainor, the video’s Baton Rouge-based director, previously shot a GWAR video for “Eighth Lock,” a track on the band’s 2006 album, Beyond Hell, at New Orleans Halloween attraction House of Shock.

“House of Shock was the perfect look for these guys because we had a million-dollar set every corner we turned,” Trainor said.

GWAR and Trainor considered filming “Lords and Masters” at a Halloween attraction in Baton Rouge, but, not wanting to repeat themselves, opted for something completely different: GWAR in the out-of-context world of hip-hop. 

With the help of local rapper Mark Young, aka M Dot, Trainor located hip-hop models and cars and the 20th Street location. The video also features GWAR lounging poolside as bikini-clad human females serve grapes and champagne to the infamous Scumdogs of the Universe.

“Obviously, anything they do is out of context,” Trainor said. “But I couldn’t think of anything more absurd than cars on hydraulics with spinning wheels and girls pouring champagne over them.”

But under Louisiana’s brutal afternoon sun last week and a deadline to wrap in time for a midnight drive to Jacksonville, the 20th Street shoot was more work than play, especially because of the bands’ latex-and-polyurethane masks, armor and appendages. Road manager Eddie Oertell, aka Dr. Evil, didn’t just dispense drinking water to Oderus Urungus, GWAR singer and frequent Fox News guest, he poured it over Urungus’ head.

When Oertell, the longest-surviving road manager in GWAR history, wasn’t keeping Urungus from overheating, he pressed cell phone to ear, preparing the way for a troupe of 16 that includes musicians, artists, sound and lighting technicians, a tour bus and a semi hauling props, costumes and equipment. And then there’s dining. No vegans or vegetarians in this crew of carnivores.

“I work with crazy bands all the time,” Oertell said. “I did Slipknot for five years. They wear masks and jumpsuits. Also Mudvayne. But it’s a great thing when you have a chemistry with a band and they listen to you and everything flows right.”

“Eddie basically is a well-paid babysitter who can put up with a bunch of weird artists,” GWAR artist and designer Bob Gorman said before he, too, joined the video shoot action. 

Like members of any theatrical company, Gorman and his fellow designer-fabricator, Matt Maguire, also perform on stage. Their supporting roles in GWAR productions include Sawborg Destructo and Bonesnapper the Cave Troll.