Boundary pushing, over the top and often comedic “shock rock” band GWAR have seemed to, well, do what they’re best at. In display not much different from their standard of absurdist levels of violence and graphic content, the group recently took aim at ever-controversial US President Donald Trump, as well as his ex(?)-friend Elon Musk – almost literally. During their set at the Chicago-based Riot Fest this weekend, the group’s classic displays of chaos and violence included a faux-beheading of somebody in costume resembling the billionaire and later another costumed figure portraying the president bleeding out. As Stereogum reports, it’s garnered the band a bit of mixed reception online.
Many, especially the politically right and supporters of the figures, were unsurprisingly unhappy with the act, some claiming the act “normalizes violence.” GWAR vocalist Blöthar the Berserker (real name Michael Bishop), commented on the reception. “The idea that GWAR is normalizing violence is patently absurd,” he said, “We’re not millionaires that are afraid of what people are going to say when they see what we do… We’re a group of artists that makes art, and it’s really the idea that what we have done is normalizing violence… There’s nothing normal about the violence that goes on at a GWAR show. It’s a cartoon, it’s Looney Tunes… It’s trying to make violence into a spectacle and show humanity’s absolute absurdity. That’s what GWAR is, it’s absurdism. To say it’s normalizing violence is really reaching.”
Those familiar with the band have also drawn attention to this being far from the first time GWAR has done such a thing. Since its foundation in 1984, GWAR’s displays of gratuitous violence have always found room for controversial political figures, not only other republicans such as Ronald Reagan but even democrats such as Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, both of whom previously ran against Trump. No surprise, really, to see artists erring on the fringe and punk defying authority and those in power, even in ways that might come off as crass and tasteless. At least one person at Riot Fest seems to be basking in the attention, too, based on account activity on Musk’s own X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. If the incident will have any lasting impact on GWAR remains to be seen – the president is no stranger to getting in drawn out disputes with musicians who aren’t fond of him, but most of the controversy in this case was localized to social media. Whichever way it goes, it’s not hard to imagine GWAR will still continue to operate in the same insane and vulgar way they’ve been pleasing their fans for 40 years now.
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