Nobody is safe from Gwar. For decades, the costumed thrash metal collective has imbued their live shows with comically over-the-top acts of mock violence against right-wing political figures like Ronald Reagan and former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, as well as centrist Democrats like Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. It's no surprise that Gwar, who incidentally hail not far from DC, hate Donald Trump. But it's taken American conservatives a surprisingly long time to catch on to the band's faux-blood-spewing antics. They've caught on now, and you're never going to believe this, but they're clutching their pearls about it. Gwar have also issued a response to the outrage.
Over the weekend during their set at Chicago's Riot Fest, Gwar "beheaded" a figure of Elon Musk, and somebody came onstage in a very rotund Trump costume that started "bleeding out." The New York Post posted about the performance, further spawning complaints that the schtick was "normalizing violence." Americans normalizing violence? Say it ain't so!
Riot Fest, for the record, has Gwar's back: "The dumbest people on the internet are still mad today," the fest wrote today. "Got to love it. As long as they keep posting that awesome video and mentioning our name for the free publicity it’s a win for me."
"The idea that Gwar is normalizing violence is patently absurd," the band's lead vocalist Michael "Blöthar the Berserker" Bishop said in a statement to Billboard, describing the spectacle as "a parody of violence." "“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."
See clips and photos of the show below.
The dumbest people on the internet are still mad today. Got to love it. As long as they keep posting that awesome video and mentioning our name for the free publicity it’s a win for me.
— Riot Fest (@RiotFest) September 24, 2025
Like I know this is a rage bait engagement farming twitter account, but “GWAR crossed a major line” is one of the funniest fucking things I’ve ever heard. https://t.co/lGIamyKnSi
— Riot Fest (@RiotFest) September 21, 2025
