Gwar B Que 2012 - a ten-step review

in 1984, something odd happened.  depending on who you ask, either some art students got together with aluminum foil and foam rubber to play dress up, or a group of alien scumdogs thawed out in antarctica and decided to come pillage the world.  either way, it's been a fun 28 years.

 i remember well riding past peaches on midlothian turnpike and being absolutely scandalized (and fascinated!) by seeing the announcement for the "hell-o" album and being absolutely shocked that they used that word in their album title...in the intervening years gwar has never once failed to startle and entertain me.  certainly the gwar b que 2012 was no exception...

for those not familiar, the gwar b que has been going on for a while and from what i hear was basically an excuse for richmonders to get together and drink and eat a lot of meat.  last year the band attempted to do their own version with a bunch of bands at hadad's lake, but henrico police decided not to allow permits at the last minute.  so the event was moved to the national and turned into a long concert.  2012 was the first year the event got to go as planned, complete with skating, swimming, tattoos, the "spew-lympics..  .so to get on with it, in the way of a review, my top ten thoughts about the event (in no particular order)

1.  lost tribe look funny in the daylight.  i kept expecting someone to burst into flame or something.

2.  i don't get the casualties at all.  they look like a second rate rancid, sound like a million high school punk bands, and don't seem to write especially interesting music.  their show was fun to watch if only because a lot of people seem to really like them and they had a nice pit going.  good for them.  (shrug)

3.  thanks to the vegan vendors for coming out.  seems like most people had no interest in them, but i was glad to have something to eat!

4.  ghoul are hilarious.  and their songs are great.  highly recommended.

5.  i witnessed  one band who shall remain nameless being totally snobby with some attendees whose look did not quite match up.  many of us gravitated towards this sort of musical community because we didn't feel like we fit in in other places.  i'm not going to turn this into a pity party, but the beauty of the shared independent musical and artistic community to me should include a commitment not to engage in the sort of superficial judging many if us are all too familiar with.  in other words, yeah you have a look, but be nice to the nerdy kids too.

6.  speaking of looks, i saw some truly fascinating ones.  i love that richmond is not afraid to let it all hang out, for real.

7.  sexecutioner and sleazy p martini are totally the best gwar characters that are not gor-gor, and "sexecutioner" and "slaughterama" both rule.  glad i got to see them.

8. there needs to be an accepted weight limit for crowd surfing.  and you know, go once and then chill.  we're trying to check out the show up front, and it's hard to do when we're getting booted in the head every 30 seconds so the same 10 people can go up.

9.  i'm impressed at richmond's restraint in not rioting, given that the probably quite expensive beer was sold in pabst blue ribbon cups that were hardly larger than a dixie cup.  yet another reason to be glad i'm straightedge!

10.  can i go sappy for a minute?  i've been watching thomas barnett on stage for 20 years now and he still nails it every time.  in fact, the first show (that i can remember anyway) that i ever saw as far as being an independent show was inquisition.  so it was cool to hear thomas say from the stage that his first show was gwar and that he felt inspired by them.  and he summed up the day quite well in one statement:  "this is a uniquely richmond event."  indeed it was...thanks gwar for a great party and see you next year!