The Berserker Blóthar (GWAR)
SPB: GWAR has an elaborate live show, to put it mildly. Is there a particular venue that stands out to you as a challenge for your live show that ultimately turned out to make it more unique in a good way?
The Berserker Blóthar: Tacoland in San Antonio, Texas. We were just getting started and played at a tiny little Mexican restaurant sometime in the late ‘80s. It was run by an eccentric wildman named Ram who was the epitome of party-hard machismo. When they saw the equipment we were loading in, the props and all, the people there were so into it. Just mystified. So Ram called all of his friends and by showtime, the place was at capacity without a punk rocker in sight, It was all migrant farm workers, ranch hands and their lady friends, ready to get drunk and have some fun. When we started playing the place exploded. It was like someone said that anything was permissible, and do whatever the fuck you want, no limits. I have noted this response to GWAR over the years. We play and people experience it as instantly liberating and they sort of join in the anarchy of it all. This was particularly true when we first started and were playing small clubs where people didn't know what to expect. Anyway, Ram and all these people in the bar started losing their minds. It was like a saloon brawl in a western. There were big-assed women dancing, titties popping out all over the place, people pouring tequila down each other's throats, fist fights, people getting punched and spinning around, and Ram, right up front, dancing and pointing at this young woman's wiggling butt and then to his gigantic belt buckle. There was a gigantic Mongo type Mexican dude that was Ram's relative who kept asking to play "Inna Gada Davida" on the drums, and we were just up there on the tiny little two-inch high stage, doing a GWAR show.
Michael Bishop, Ph.D.
