Aside from maybe having your remains shot out of a cannon, Hunter S. Thompson style, there’s no more badass way to shed this mortal coil than a Viking funeral. And that’s exactly what GWAR frontman and friend of The A.V. Club Dave Brockie, a.k.a. Oderus Urungus, received on Friday.
A private memorial for Brockie, who died of a reported heroin overdose in March, was held in April, so it was his alter ego Oderus who was put to rest Friday at the annual Gwar-B-Q in Richmond, Virginia. Brockie’s stage costume was placed on a barge, launched onto Hadad’s Lake, and set alight with a flaming arrow before thousands of Brockie’s friends, fans, and fellow musicians.
We’ll be running an eyewitness account of the Gwar-B-Q and its attendant funeral festivities tomorrow, so stay tuned.