Warped Tour offers Gwar’s warped show
Vans Warped Tour might not feature the skateboarding and extreme sports any more, but the music festival is adding some theatrics.
“We’re doing everything,” said Gwar guitarist Brent Purgason, who plays the character of Pustulus Maximus in the metal band. “We’re killing presidents, we’re killing other bands, we’re decapitating people on stage. There’s gonna be plenty of blood.”
Virginia-based Gwar are joining the lineup of more than 70 acts at this year’s Warped, a celebration of punk, rock and hip-hop. Other bands include Bowling for Soup, The Ataris and Save Ferris. The tour will swing through Orlando’s Tinker Field on Friday. (Gates open at 12:30 p.m. Tickets start at $39. Details: vanswarpedtour.com.)
Formed in 1984, Gwar are known for their over-the-top stage show antics. The band members wear oversize foam latex costumes with a violent motif. They pull audience members on stage for mock executions and spray the crowd with fluids.
One of Gwar’s regular acts includes “murdering” a presidential impersonator, a performance their shows have incorporated for every president since Ronald Reagan. Purgason was amused by the recent furor over comedian Kathy Griffin, who was lambasted for posting a photo to her social media accounts of her holding a likeness of President Donald Trump’s severed head. “My biggest complaint about the whole thing was that she apologized,” he said. “Gwar never apologizes.”
The former guitarist for Cannabis Corpse does, however, admit the situation may be different for Gwar as a band whose career is built on the back of openly offensive live shows. “Obviously, you’re not going to take any of our corporate sponsors,” said Purgason. “And I’ve already been fired from all of my day jobs.”
Similar to the sci-fi narrative of George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic, the fictional story the characters in Gwar play out tells a tale of interplanetary war and destruction. As such, their music is consistently critical of all sides of mainstream culture. “We get to straight up tell humanity how stupid they are to their face,” said Purgason. “They love it and they come back for more. No one else gives you that brutal honesty.”
As for how Gwar fit in with the socially conscious Warped Tour, which features booths for nonprofit causes and activist organizations: “If you’ve looked at any of the members of our band, you’ll see they’re not really active,” he said. “That’s why they’re fat. I think what Warped Tour does is really good, and we’re really bad. It’s gonna even out. It’ll more or less be neutral.”
Gwar’s current lineup includes Michael Bishop (aka Blothar) on vocals. The former bassist took over the lead spot after frontman Dave Brockie, who played Oderus Urungus, died of a heroin overdose in 2014. “Gwar can never be destroyed,” said Purgason. “Our ages our everlasting.”
He calls the death of their former leader “just another speed bump on the road. Just like a toddler on a minibike, you plow right through that and keep on going.”