Those who like their heavy metal with a side of gore and other bodily fluids should mark their calendars for Wednesday, July 11, when GWAR, the grotesquely costumed kings of shock rock, will be on-hand to treat their fans to the wet and rowdy brand of live performance that first gained them a following in the mid-’80s.

One never really knows what exactly will go down at a GWAR show. It’s almost certain that fake blood and urine will fly and that a number of celebrities will be lampooned and/or mutilated on stage. And GWAR’s politics are very much equal opportunity. Past targets have included Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, O.J. Simpson, Donald Trump, Pope Francis, and Mike Tyson. Think dark humor — very dark humor — meets a sort of droll erudition. These are, after all, the men behind the Grammy-nominated long video, Phallus in Wonderland, and the Christmas song, “Christmas Stripper Summer Weekend.”

GWAR’s beginnings are complicated. The brainchild of Death Piggy vocalist and bassist David Brockie, the group started as a joke. The idea was for Death Piggy to open for a barbaric band from Antartica who sacrificed animals on stage. That band, initially named “Gwaarrgghhlllgh,” soon became more popular than Death Piggy, and Brockie scrapped that outfit in favor of the slightly more pronouncable GWAR.

The group’s outfits and songs and themes grew more complicated and nuanced with each passing year, and its fanbase swelled as well. Musicians came and went, but Brockie was a constant until his death of a heroin overdose in 2013. Since then, the other dudes of GWAR have worked hard to uphold Brockie’s irreverent legacy. Their most recent release is Blood of the Gods. DevilDriver will open the show.