This Is GWAR

I'm a sucker for histories of bands, even bands I don't like. I once sat through a near hour-long episode that examined every album released by Fleetwood Mac, and they're in my bottom ten bands ever. I think it's because the music industry is such a weird beast, and the idea of a small group of people coming together and trying to share an artistic vision while also making it a business endeavor is fertile ground for interesting melodrama. Think of NWA, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Black Sabbath ... their artistic output and cultural footprint is as big as the turbulent storms within these collectives. Both their music and their personal squabbles are the stuff of legend. And then there's GWAR, a band that has a very small, and borderline frighteningly passionate fanbase. Their collective ten or so albums combined haven't even sold a million copies. But odds are, you've seen them somewhere. Talk shows in the 90's, or in movies like Empire Records or SFW. They look like the dumbest thing imaginable, the intersection of kaiju movies, horror movies (both slashers and goofy B-grade monster movies), sci-fi, fantasy artwork like Frank Frazetta, comic books, D&D, heavy metal, punk, and weirdly, the art scene. Yes, the original line-up of GWAR was birthed from art school nerds who liked things their teachers hated. GWAR started off as more of a live art performance collective, and, as This Is GWAR reveals, morphed into what it has become known for. That's the kind of stuff I eat up in a music documentary, and This Is GWAR is great for that, and that's in large part because the band is so heavily dependent on its image. The costumes, characters, and stage show take the campy aesthetic of bands like KISS, blend it with equal parts Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Iron Maiden, and Frank Zappa, and it creates this unique image no other band has (or, arguably, would want). Peeking behind the curtain on all this is the appeal of This Is GWAR. If this was KISS, it would be terrible, because Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons are the same in and out of the make-up, but the men and women of GWAR are something else. Seeing how this massive group of people came together and created this monstrosity of a band is fascinating, and seeing how the egos and commitment to the bit started to drive wedges in the band is also fascinating. I think what also makes this doc work is that GWAR wasn't The Eagles or Pink Floyd or Metallica. They didn't have the normal career you see on episodes of Behind The Music. They've always been, and always will be, a niche within a niche within a niche. They may have a had a point where their pop culture footprint was bigger than it is now, but they never had a true commercial peak; they just soldier on, small but steady, so the story here is different. It isn't about peaks and valleys of sales and tours. It's about the grind of constant touring for a band that barely breaks even, and commitment to a lifestyle that requires a stage persona so far removed from anybody's real life, and the price paid for committing to the business of GWAR. I don't think there's necessarily a flaw to the documentary -- it's pretty basic, with archival footage and talking-head shots helping to frame the narrative -- but I do think that getting that peek behind the curtain does, for people who may be just watching this out of curiosity (like me), you don't get the full anarchic sense of GWAR. Of course, this is a documentary, so I guess it isn't meant to show GWAR in all their glory, but what you do see of the stage shows ... it just doesn't feel like the spirit is captured. Maybe it can't be by design, I don't know. But there's a feeling of safeness in this documentary, and safe is the LAST adjective I'd associate with GWAR. At the end of the day, though, this was a fun watch. It has some surprising emotional moments, some inter-band turbulence, and gives people who don't know much about GWAR beyond the silly names and concerts where everybody gets hosed down in fluids some backstory. I don't think you have to be a fan to watch it, but I think you do have to have an appreciation for the silly and the stupid ... and that, between all that, if you peer through the cracks, you might see actual talented artists who work very hard at wearing latex space Viking outfits and spraying crowds with fake urine.