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Derek Brown’s Latest, a GWAR PUB Pop-Up

Love GWAR?

Now DC can experience GWAR, the Richmond-based band which calls DC its home away from home, when the the heavy metal musicians’ brand takes over a rotating pop-up in Shaw (1839 7th Street NW) to create GWAR PUB.

Thanks to Drink Company and its President Derek Brown, who claims GWAR as one of his favorite musical acts, the pop-up bar experience PUB will

become GWAR Pub Sundays through Thursdays, 5pm to 12:30am and Fridays and Saturdays, 5pm to 1:30am, through October 31.

“I think of GWAR as a much funnier KISS, on steroids, during a WWE stage show peppered with intergalactic horror themes and a little Damien Hirst,” says Brown. “Their stage show is almost indescribable. We’ve been able to bring that to DC in the first-ever GWAR pop-up and it’s a one-of-a-kind experience.”

GWAR PUB will feature a 34-year retrospective of the band’s signature stage props and costumes, including a 20-foot World Maggot that has swallowed Jerry Springer (and was featured in 90s cult classic Empire Records) and an intergalactic battle scene between late band leader Oderus Urungus (Dave Brockie) and Mr. Perfect. Other highlights include band members’ classic costumes, a hall of blood with an Instagrammable blood suit and a mobile of GWAR’s interplanetary journey. The PUB will also feature a limited-edition Oderus Eternal Tiki mug and a merch store where T-shirts and GWAR-related memorabilia will be for sale.

A Grammy-nominated metal band formed in 1984 by a group of VCU art students in Richmond, GWAR has gone on to become a famous cult band. Best known for satirical messages and outrageous stage antics — including deriding every president since Reagan (even Obama and the current president have not been spared) and spurting gallons of synthetic blood onto the audience (though they’d claim it’s real).

Photos Credit: Karlin Villondo Photography