Rock and Shock 2012

  For the past five years I've gone to the Rock and Shock horror convention/metal show in Worcester, MA.  Usually taking place at the end of October (this year got moved up a couple weeks for some reason) and full of horror celebrities, it's one of the few times every year I feel compelled to leave my cave or the Wampa cave-away-from-cave I call work. 

  Every year it's a tradition to have some kind of camera issue.  From forgetting the camera at home, not charging it, or buying a piece of crap disposable that I never use again (I still have pictures of me with Lance Henrickson and Gary Busey somewhere).  This year was no different.  Not knowing where the charger was, I spent the day before the convention going to the bank, getting gas, cleaning my car, and generally just getting my body ready to be functional before 10PM.  I left it to my wife to charge the camera, and that was a mistake.  I woke up a few hours before I planned on leaving, and the camera wouldn't even turn on.  Turns out the extension cord she had the charger plugged into wasn't even attached to the socket.  If you want something done right...  Luckily my father-in-law had his charged; the quality isn't nearly as good as the one I bought my wife, but without much choice I borrowed it and was on my way. 

  After picking up a friend and hitting the highway, another great example of Murphy's Law happened.  Worcester is roughly an hour away from my town, and using a GPS I figured I had nothing to worry about.  About an hour and a half later I was driving backroads in some town I'd never heard of and the GPS was saying I had an hour and fifteen minute drive ahead of me.  While the scenic route was nice, it seriously cut into my time wandering the convention floor and meeting the celebrities.  I arrived just before 3PM, when Sid Haig was doing a panel.

 While Sid is most recognizable today as Captain Spaulding from Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects, he's been acting since the 1960s and had quite an interesting and informative story to tell.  From the horror classic Spider Baby, groping an underage Pam Grier in The Big Doll House, to disliking the dialouge for his character in Galaxy of Terror so much he refused to speak at all, Sid is truly a living legend and it was a joy to hear him share his experience.

  After stopping by to meet another friend who rented a hotel room next to the convention center, it was on to another panel with the cast of the FearNet TV series Holliston.  To be honest I'd never heard of this show before, but one look at the cast had me interested; it stars and is written by Adam Green (director of Hatchet, Frozen, convention regular and general cool guy), and features Dee Snider (lead singer of Twisted Sister and Captain Howdy from Strangeland) and Dave Brockie aka Oderus Orungus (frontman of GWAR). 

  Essentially the show is a horror/sitcom hybrid that takes place in Adam's hometown of Holliston, MA.  Judging by the panel (I got the first season DVD in the mail yesterday) which included a twenty minute table reading of an unaired episode the show is chock full of references to horror movies and Massachusetts small town living.  It recently got picked up for a second season and Adam alluded to there being a movie in the works, even teasing that there is a big name director interested that he couldn't reveal because of contractual reasons, though he swore noone would believe who it was.  Even though much of the talk about the show was lost on me and I was a bit disappointed that Dee Snider had to cancel (I guess he's on some Donald Trump show or something...), Adam is always entertaining and Oderus is always Oderus.

  After the Holliston cast I had to get something to eat, so went to the Uno's next door which is connected to the hotel my friend was staying in.  Surprisingly this is where the highlight of the night occured.  After finishing my burger and drinking a couple Guinesses, I was talking to a couple friends at the bar when I thought I noticed someone across from me.  I was sitting in the darkest corner of the bar like usual and doing the same on the opposite side was none other than Dave Brockie, lead singer of GWAR.  We kind of made eye contact and I debated over the next half hour or so wether to say something or go over and get a picture with him, but the more I thought about it the more it didn't seem right.  He has a great thing going for him where most people know him as Oderus, but he can take the mask and costume off and sit at a bar and most people don't know who he is.  I didn't want to blow the guy's spot up and draw attention to him when he was trying to eat, drink, and relax during a hectic day; he'd just finished that panel at 6:30, was going to do a meet and greet at 8, then had a show to play at 11.  Eventually Tony Todd (the Candyman) came in from the hotel entrance and sat next to him anyway, so I don't know how incognito he was at that point.  Still, having the memory of sitting at a bar drinking and sharing a moment with the Candyman, Beefcake the Mighty, and Orderus Orungus is worth more to me than getting a picture.

  At this point I headed to the convention center, but not before picking this dead bird up and unlocking an achievement:

  Unfortunately, by the time I got to the floor the celebrity room (where you can take pictures with the stars and get things signed) was closed, but I knew I'd see most of them around the hotel or at the GWAR show, so it wasn't that big of a deal.  Two people I didn't see all night that I did want to, though, were Brian O'Halloran (Dante from Clerks) and Laurence R. Harvey (star of The Human Centepede 2).  Oh, well, I'm sure they'll be back.

  I always make a point to stop by the retro gaming booth first.  As much as I love horror movies, I'm a gamer first and foremost and I can't help myself.  This guy's here every year as well:

  I tell him every year I'll stop by his store that's five minutes away from the Paladium, but it's always closed when I'm at the show and I have a great retro game store five minutes down the street from me versus an hour drive.  The store is called That's Entertainment on Park Ave. in Worcester if anyone's interested, and the website is www.thatse.com .  I ended up buying Double Dragon III and Ghengas Khan for NES.  I had no idea what the latter is and neither did he, so that's why I bought it.  I also picked up a double disc of Gojira with both the Japanese and English versions because why not?

  Next I hit up the Troma booth where I'm equally (in)famous for my year after year visits with varying degrees of sobriety.  I picked up Poultrygiest, the best movie I've seen about zombie chickens.  I also bought Combat Shock, a movie that looked interesting.  After watching it the other day, it really wasn't.  Definitely a Troma movie, but not that memorable.

  So my time around the floor was a bit rushed and lackluster, but meeting up with my friend once again before the GWAR show was more fufilling.  Most of the celebrities are GWAR fans as well, so they all go to the show.  Meeting in the lobby was none other than Sid Haig, Tony Todd, and Danny Trejo (Machete).  I gave Sid a quick handshake and hello and acknowledged the others, and while I'm sure that would have been a great picture as well I was sure they'd had enough of that for one day.  This year more than any other made me realize I'd make an awful paparazzo; I just have too much respect for these people's right to take a break and the last thing I want to do is piss them off because I'm sure I'll see most of them again next year.

  Going into the actual show I saw Derek Mears (Jason from the Friday the 13th remake) standing in line with everyone else.  Most guests get let right through, so I don't know what that was about.  It was kind of funny seeing him tower over everyone, though.

GWAR was awesome as usual, ending with a great punk encore of "Carry On My Wayward Son":

I tried to get a good shot of the crowd leaving the Paladium covered in blood, but here's what I got:

  So despite a few setbacks which has become the norm for me, I had a hell of time.  I'd suggest anyone who's interested in either horror movies or heavy metal (or hopefully both) to check into it or look for something similar around where you live.  Now it's back to my cave for the next year, or at least until PAX East in March.