I wake up in the corner of a basement rehearsal studio in the outskirts of Baltimore. The first stop of the day is a local winery/deli to, as per someone’s request, buy a sandwich and deliver it to them in Los Angeles. Unfortunately for that person, our generator has been broken for days, which means we don’t have a working refrigerator. On the plus side, we can get decent breakfasts for ourselves.
We’ve received an offer to tour “The Slave Pit,” which is the work space/studio for the band Gwar, where they work on designing and building new costumes, set pieces, and other materials. Chris makes an awkward phone call, and within minutes we’re on our way.
We find the studio, and are greeted by a nice fellow named Matt, who’s one of Gwar’s crew members. Upon walking inside, every room is filled with assorted old set pieces, props, and other memorabilia. Looking around, it’s funny to watch Chris, Shannon, and Will beat each other up with comically large robot arms and hammers. I’m incredibly excited; here I am getting a view at something that not everyone gets to see.
We finish up and head to the venue. Chris has to do an interview with the local NBC Affiliate over Skype (which we ruin), and have time to get dinner at a local barbeque restaurant, where we treat a bunch of locals to their meals. I unwisely base my dinner around hush puppies (which are delicious, but make me feel terrible).
The venue is a fairly large art space called Gallery 5. There’s a large stage with a movie screen, plus a zine library and art exhibits upstairs. The LLC sound checks and I wash my hair in the bathroom sink as best I can.
The show goes well, though I keep worrying that the audience isn’t really into it (however, I’m built to worry). As per Gwar’s request, the show includes a tribute, with audience members pouring Bloody Marys on Chris, while wearing only a thong and nothing else. Backstage moments before the bit, Chris is furious, mumbling “I don’t want to do this, this is going to be awful” over and over again. But it gets good laughs. After the whole thing finishes there is post-show improv jam, and while changing Chris, Will and Shannon invite me to join them, which blows me away. I don’t do much, just a few walk-ons, but the fact that they mentioned it at all was incredibly flattering.
After the show, we have another place to stay, in an apartment above a garage in the suburbs. There is inevitably a party in the house. I hang out at for a while before walking back to the garage-apartment and tucking myself under a table to go to sleep.
Up next: The band earns its keep.
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