Exposed to GWAR

My first exposure to GWAR was on the cover of the Winter '89 issue of Flipside. I didn't know what the hell this grotesque conglomeration of creatures was on the front, but it certainly got my attention. Not long after, I saw them again on the "Metal Detector" news segment on the Headbanger's Ball - it wasn't much, just a brief mention of the band and a few pictures of Oderus, Techno, and the Sexecutioner if I remember right.





What really hooked me though, was in July of 1989, when MTV's "Week In Rock" news program ran an interview with GWAR taped at the New Music Seminar. It was so funny, I have literally watched that clip hundreds of times. As a young art student and metalhead myself at the time, I felt immediately connected to what GWAR was trying to do. Not just the wacky menagerie of characters they had created, but how they were taking theatricality in music to a whole 'nother level. KISS and W.A.S.P. had been two of my favorite bands in high school, and I could see that what GWAR was doing was light years beyond what those bands had done.






A couple of weeks later, I caught another follow-up interview on MTV News, announcing that GWAR was going on a short tour. Amazingly, one of the shows was at Milwaukee's infamous Odd Rock Cafe, best know for G.G. Allin's shit-flinging incident.  A few weeks after that, my brother and I went with a few friends to what would be the first of dozens of GWAR shows I've attended. Despite the crude simplicity of their early shows, my mind was blown, and I've been a fan ever since.