articles
Genitorturers
from volume 01 issue 07 // Shawn Kyle
Genitorturers
November 24, 2006
The State Theatre
Words: Shawn Kyle
Photos: Courtesy of Band
Just the name alone is enough to elicit a response.
GENITORTURERS.
Yes, say it out loud.
GENITORTURERS.
I first heard about the group via a friend who attended one of their early shows in the 90s with Marilyn Manson opening up for them. At the time we were both teenage innocents and my friend was shaken. They scared him, and turned him on in the process. And unlike Brian Warner, the Genitorturers remain renowned and somewhat legendary in the hard rock underground, with the cream of hard rock royalty such as Tommy Lee, Rob Zombie, Al Jorgensen, and the late Dimebag Darrell all professing their love for the group. Recent years have found the band performing large events and fringe festivals only occasionally coming up to the surface to be on VH1 or the cover of magazines, just long enough to scare and turn the mainstream populace on, and then they vanish to a tour on the other side of the world. The reason for this, one may assume, is that they are the real thing; purveyors of not only a individual style of music that is all at once achingly heavy, undeniably sexual, and dangerous, but also the lost art of rock and roll: THE SHOW.
“It’s impossible for anyone in the world to see a Genitorturers show and not be entertained.” bassist Evil Dave Vincent says to me. He is standing in San Francisco International Airport. I imagine all the polite Japanese tourists walking by where he and the rest of the band are waiting for their flight to Australia and looking at the group with sheer terror.
“What’s the occasion for your tour to Australia?” I ask.
“A quality issue. There is a general lack of quality content to the masses.” He says, wording every sentence as to sound like a threat.
“Evil D can you define what you mean by quality content?”
“Shawn, the fact that you have to even ask is a symptom of this problem. My vocation is entertaining these masses. The Genitorturers are here to entertain them, and make them be naughty in the process…”
I refrain from asking him exactly what he means by naughty.
“…You can go see any band and often times their CD sounds better, and they just stand there looking at their shoes. The reason you go see The Genitorturers is the same as someone who would go to see (early) Alice Cooper or KISS. It’s all about the performance. We will only be doing a few shows in the States, and then we have a new record and new DVD to release, a behind the scenes movie of the band. We have one show there in St. Pete on the 24th of November, and then we do a one-off show up in South Carolina with our friends Motley Crue. They have one date where they aren’t sharing a bill with Aerosmith and they called us up. We have been friends for years.” I hear a voice in the background. He covers up the phone. I hear a conversation, and in a second he passes the phone off to Gen herself.
To describe Gen as a rock star in the modern sense is to do a disservice. She is a direct equivalent to the sort of performer and artist that is almost nonexistent in the current musical waste land of Clear Channel and podcasting. Gen is many things at once; a dominatrix, a glamour pin-up girl, a vicious and livid vocalist, a ringleader of a gang of cabaret style actresses and zombies and also … she’s your boss. Yes that’s right. She is in charge. She is glamorous and beautiful, but set foot on her stage, and you are fair game for anything.
“Hey Mr. Beauville you just caught me. We don’t have long to talk, there’s a shuttle coming to take us to our plane to Auckland,” says Gen.
“Evil D filled me in on what he band had coming up, but Gen I wanted to know for those people who have never seen the show before, or seen you live, what they should brace themselves for when they are in attendance…”
She pauses.
“Brace themselves? Oh nothing too frightening really. Our shows really aren’t that crazy. But yes, I will sometimes hang someone from their legs in the air, and then there is the full cabaret show that we have, and the live video that’s worked into the show, and all the costumes, and all the actors, and sometimes there’s a little bit of naughtiness that might possibly happen. And if someone jumps on stage, who knows what I might do to them.”
I refrain from asking her what she would define as crazy.
www.genitorturers.com
November 24, 2006
The State Theatre
Words: Shawn Kyle
Photos: Courtesy of Band
Just the name alone is enough to elicit a response.
GENITORTURERS.
Yes, say it out loud.
GENITORTURERS.
I first heard about the group via a friend who attended one of their early shows in the 90s with Marilyn Manson opening up for them. At the time we were both teenage innocents and my friend was shaken. They scared him, and turned him on in the process. And unlike Brian Warner, the Genitorturers remain renowned and somewhat legendary in the hard rock underground, with the cream of hard rock royalty such as Tommy Lee, Rob Zombie, Al Jorgensen, and the late Dimebag Darrell all professing their love for the group. Recent years have found the band performing large events and fringe festivals only occasionally coming up to the surface to be on VH1 or the cover of magazines, just long enough to scare and turn the mainstream populace on, and then they vanish to a tour on the other side of the world. The reason for this, one may assume, is that they are the real thing; purveyors of not only a individual style of music that is all at once achingly heavy, undeniably sexual, and dangerous, but also the lost art of rock and roll: THE SHOW.
“It’s impossible for anyone in the world to see a Genitorturers show and not be entertained.” bassist Evil Dave Vincent says to me. He is standing in San Francisco International Airport. I imagine all the polite Japanese tourists walking by where he and the rest of the band are waiting for their flight to Australia and looking at the group with sheer terror.
“What’s the occasion for your tour to Australia?” I ask.
“A quality issue. There is a general lack of quality content to the masses.” He says, wording every sentence as to sound like a threat.
“Evil D can you define what you mean by quality content?”
“Shawn, the fact that you have to even ask is a symptom of this problem. My vocation is entertaining these masses. The Genitorturers are here to entertain them, and make them be naughty in the process…”
I refrain from asking him exactly what he means by naughty.
“…You can go see any band and often times their CD sounds better, and they just stand there looking at their shoes. The reason you go see The Genitorturers is the same as someone who would go to see (early) Alice Cooper or KISS. It’s all about the performance. We will only be doing a few shows in the States, and then we have a new record and new DVD to release, a behind the scenes movie of the band. We have one show there in St. Pete on the 24th of November, and then we do a one-off show up in South Carolina with our friends Motley Crue. They have one date where they aren’t sharing a bill with Aerosmith and they called us up. We have been friends for years.” I hear a voice in the background. He covers up the phone. I hear a conversation, and in a second he passes the phone off to Gen herself.
To describe Gen as a rock star in the modern sense is to do a disservice. She is a direct equivalent to the sort of performer and artist that is almost nonexistent in the current musical waste land of Clear Channel and podcasting. Gen is many things at once; a dominatrix, a glamour pin-up girl, a vicious and livid vocalist, a ringleader of a gang of cabaret style actresses and zombies and also … she’s your boss. Yes that’s right. She is in charge. She is glamorous and beautiful, but set foot on her stage, and you are fair game for anything.
“Hey Mr. Beauville you just caught me. We don’t have long to talk, there’s a shuttle coming to take us to our plane to Auckland,” says Gen.
“Evil D filled me in on what he band had coming up, but Gen I wanted to know for those people who have never seen the show before, or seen you live, what they should brace themselves for when they are in attendance…”
She pauses.
“Brace themselves? Oh nothing too frightening really. Our shows really aren’t that crazy. But yes, I will sometimes hang someone from their legs in the air, and then there is the full cabaret show that we have, and the live video that’s worked into the show, and all the costumes, and all the actors, and sometimes there’s a little bit of naughtiness that might possibly happen. And if someone jumps on stage, who knows what I might do to them.”
I refrain from asking her what she would define as crazy.
www.genitorturers.com
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