Any band that wears giant insect costumes onstage is just begging for attention. Fortunately for The Locust, there’s enough substance to the group to keep the fans’ interest after the gimmick fades.

Best known for insane disguises, nonsensical lyrics and frighteningly loud instrumentals, The Locust has gained a following since its inception in 1995. Add in an often-bizarre taste in concert merchandise, and you have a concert-going experience that is decidedly different.

“We’re basically the musical equivalent of the movie ‘Donnie Darko,'” says bass player Justin Pearson. “We don’t want people to know what to expect when they come to one of our shows. We like to keep them guessing.”

Like the images in the cult film, the band gets ideas from some very strange places.

“We get the ideas for our costumes from the deep dark realms of our most insecure problems and the depths of our subconscious minds,” says guitarist and vocalist Bobby Bray.

“Basically, we go out dressed like terrorist sexual bug things that play instruments,” he says.

Bray says the band’s taste in merchandise is just as unusual — the band has sold a lot of strange things.

“Right now we don’t have anything too unusual, but we sold aprons that said ‘Let’s get busy in the kitchen’ for awhile,” Bray says. “Another popular item we had were the compact mirrors some people used to cut lines of their favorite marching powder on.”

Perhaps the band’s music is just as diverse its merchandise. Critics have tried to classify the group into a variety of categories, yet the members of the band themselves have trouble with any set definition.

Pearson says he doesn’t like how music must always have a genre attached.

“We’ve been called hardcore punk, no-wave and post-punk. We combine elements of all of them,” Pearson says. “I like it when we just go out and kick ass every night. If we like it and the audience likes it, who gives a rat’s ass what the critics think?”

As for those critics, Pearson has words for them, too.

“Music is like art,” Pearson says. “It can mean something completely different to each person who listens to it. One person may think it’s [terrible], while another one thinks it rocks.”

As for playing a gig in a city like Iowa City (which is a far cry from the SoCal venues where the band started), both Pearson and Bray agree there are much worse places. Like Utah.

“Last time we played there, we got into a fight with the band that opened for us,” Bray says. “And those bastards started it by pissing off some of the locals.”