Thought Piece: Grieving On Tour

Consequence of Sound provides this rather compelling look at a couple of band who dealt with loss while on tour.

This past fall, GWAR embarked on a tour six months after the death of their singer, Oderus Urungus. Night after night, the band members donned grotesque costumes, spewed fake entrails across the crowd, and acted out a story in which they searched the galaxy far and wide for their friend of 30 years, trying to grasp the reality that they could not see him again.

Six months later, Sufjan Stevens embarked on a tour behind Carrie & Lowell, his intensely personal new album concerning the death of his estranged mother. For these shows, Stevens has played home videos of himself and his mother, sharing these deeply private memories with thousands of strangers as a way to say goodbye. While many artists deal with death and grief onstage, few do so in as profound a way.

Read on here.