Bonnaroo 2024 Artist Spotlight: GWAR

Like we’ve been doing for many years now, we’re making it our mission to help you get acquainted with many of our favorite acts from Bonnaroo‘s 2024 lineup. After roaring back to life in 2022, after two years off due to Covid and weather, and feeling fully like its old self again with a great fest last summer, this year marks Bonnaroo’s 21st installment (and 23rd anniversary), boasting not only another great and varied lineup, but also a continuation of some of the big changes and improvements rolled out over the last couple of years, with more flexibility in ticketing and camping, a reimagined “Outeroo” campground area, new activations, and further new ways to Roo. Back once again in its usual June 13-16 timeframe, we’re counting down the days until another great weekend on the farm.

As we dig through the entire schedule, we’ll highlight a spread of performers spanning across genres and stages, big and small, new and old, to bring you some of the most interesting, lesser-known, and most highly-recommended among this year’s crop of artists. And as our time at ‘Roo approaches, we’ll also be bringing you some special features and full list-style daily lineup guides, to help you plan your weekend ahead of the fest. While these previews won’t span every artist, and might omit some more obvious must-see acts, we hope they’ll serve as a way to help you navigate Bonnaroo’s gargantuan lineup, and to make the most of your busy weekend at the fest!

Grab your tickets right here if you haven’t already, and read on for our Bonnaroo Artist Spotlight!

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Infamous for their violent, grotesque, shocking, and deeply funny live shows, where they don costumes and perform in character as an ancient, alien band of hedonistic intergalactic warriors, battling and dismembering a mix of monsters and political and pop culture figures, and dousing the crowd in all manor of simulated fluids, Richmond, Virginia by way of outer space heavy metal and hardcore outfit GWAR formed 40 years ago, in 1984. Initially the fusion of preexisting punk band and an art collective who were working on an alien film with mythos that the band would co-opt, they started as something of a novelty as Gwaaarrrgghhlllgh, but eventually became so popular locally that they shorted the name and became the founding members’ full-time focus. Oscillating between hardcore punk and thrash metal (and later branching out to experiment with a myriad of of genres), and penning satirical songs about deliberately brutal, extreme, and controversial subjects, the band were met with mainstream attention by 1990 sophomore LP Scumdogs of the Universe, and throughout the ’90s, they became surprisingly famous, appearing in films, scripted TV and talk shows, as talking heads in docu-series, in commercials and video games, and of course as a popular live fixture on major tours and fests, renewed for their wild, theatrical, one-of-a-kind live show. Throughout their 15 album and 40 year existence, GWAR have seen a number of members come and go, both in the group and behind the scenes (they operate an artistic and musical collective called Slave Pit Inc., which also features collaborators in art, film, and costuming), but co-founder and frontman Dave Brockie, a.k.a. Oderus Urungus, remained their most visible and important until his death a decade ago, in 2014 (with former bassist Michael Bishop returning to lead the band in the years since), leaving several longtime members, but no founders left in the lineup. Though not as mainstream as in their heyday, GWAR have retained a loyal, cult following, and in more recent years have branched out to curating their own local fest (GWAR B Q) and a buzzy Richmond bar and restaurant called GWARbar, among other ventures like books, comics, board games, alcohol, toys, and even barbecue sauce. They haven’t been as active in the studio, releasing on two albums in the last decade (most recently 2022’s The New Dark Ages), but they don’t really need to. GWAR are one of metal and punk’s most unique and enduring bands, and their live show is one you absolutely have to experience at least once in your life. Bonnaroo absolutely nailed putting them on a late night slot.

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