GWAR: Celebrating 40 Years of Chaos

 

I found GWAR when I was about five years old. They were interviewed on a Hard and Heavy VHS that spotlighted both legends and newcomers to the industry.  I saw clips of their live show, and that was it.  GWAR was like my KISS, only better.  I used to cut up cardboard and pretend I was Balsac, the Jaws of Death(Mike Derks). I was a nut for them, though I was way too young to be watching this; I didn’t care; I only wanted more. When I turned 13, my two aunts gave me a CD case full of the GWAR discography to date. I listened to all the albums at least 5 million times.

GWAR in the 1980s: I will always be a Bohab, no matter how much people picked on me for listening to GWAR. It became my nickname for bullies. Little did they know, it made me love the band more. I was always the weird kid, and GWAR was my way of proving it. I could always turn to GWAR if I got beaten up or made fun of.

 

This year marks 40 years of Gwar.  Originally formed in 1984, it was supposed to be a joke; they were making a movie. 40 years later, they saw some wild stuff as a band. However, that still presses on because what else do they know? They thrive on this; it’s their life. What started as a joke still thrills fans. When you see GWAR, you will see a circus act; You will be covered in different liquids or maybe get fed to a worm or a dinosaur. You are going to see every person you hated that year die.

GWAR 1994

Top Row: Liz Fairbairn (former manager), Mike Dunn (X-Cops drums), Hunter Jackson (Techno), Mike Derks (Balsac), Bobby Gorman (ZipperPig, Slave), Pete Lee (Flattus), Don Drakulich (Sleazy), Dave Musel (samples and keyboards), Scott Krahl (skulhedface)

Bottom Row: Dave Brockie (Oderus), Matt Maquire, Danyell Stampe (Slymenstra), Brad Roberts (Jizmak), Mike Bonner (director of a bunch of great Live VHS’s), Dog, Casey Orr (Beefcake), Chuck Varga (Sexecutioner)

Their story needs to be told.  I have watched “This is GWAR” about 100 times because it sends me into the past where everything was great, at least I thought so; now that I’m an adult, I have the mind of a teenager due to Aspergers. I learned to live with it; I have become a functioning human. Without GWAR, I would have never had an outlet for the anger inside or just hyper and wanted to watch them killing people in power and such. It’s just a good time.

The members have to live with being shot at one night. With the loss of Flattus Maximus (Corey Smoot) in 2011 and 2014, the world lost Oderus Urungus (Dave Brockie). I was torn apart when I heard the news. He was like my Kurt Cobain; it was a loss that still affected everyone, including me.  Oderus went out in style with a Viking funeral. The band went dead for a while after this. The hiatus ended when the original Beefcake the Mighty (Mike Bishop) took over vocals as Blothar, and the band thrived again.

They are touring as much as they used to and have a bigger following. However, they never stop working. The slave pit is called that for a reason. Everyone works to help out, so there’s madness in costume changes and all else. They are the hardest-working band in the industry, and I hope that never changes. Ultimately, I just want to thank them for filling my silly side or when I was angry. We grew up feral; our parents didn’t care too much as long as we weren’t watching Playboy. I entered a whole new realm of monsters.

So again, thank you all, past and present.

HAIL ODERUS!

Don’t miss our interview with Michael Derks AKA BälSäc The Jaws Of Death here!