Gonzo Xmas 2022 2021 Review

  • Atmosphere & Reception: Audiences described the event as cathartic and joyously subversive; reviewers noted its careful blending of safety measures with the event’s trademark chaos.
  • Legacy: Set the template for hybrid, low-fi performance that Gonzo would expand on in 2022.

    • In the crowded landscape of holiday music, where Mariah Carey thaws out on November 1st and Bing Crosby haunts every grocery store aisle, one strange, beautiful, and terrifying outlier has emerged to save us from the saccharine sweet apocalypse: Gonzo Xmas.

    For the uninitiated, "Gonzo" refers not just to the style of Hunter S. Thompson, but to a specific, rabid subgenre of rock, psychobilly, punk, and outright noise rock. When you combine "Gonzo" with "Christmas," you get a roaring, whiskey-soaked, feedback-laden sleigh ride through hell and high holidays. gonzo xmas 2022 2021

    Specifically, the releases and events surrounding Gonzo Xmas 2022 and Gonzo Xmas 2021 represent a high-water mark for alternative holiday culture. Whether you are a collector of the digital compilations or a survivor of the live shows, these two years defined what it means to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year with a chainsaw and a bottle of cheap bourbon. Atmosphere & Reception: Audiences described the event as

    By The erratic elf on your shoulder

    The air in the room was thick—thicker than cheap eggshell paint, thicker than the lies we tell our families about how "great" working from home has been. It was Christmas morning, 2022. I was staring at a plate of cookies that looked suspiciously like they’d been baked during the Truman administration, and the ghost of 2021 was sitting on the edge of the sofa, smoking a cigarette and judging my tree. In the crowded landscape of holiday music, where

    "You call that tinsel?" the ghost rasped. "In my day, we used razor wire and we liked it."

    He wasn't wrong. The transition from the twilight zone of 2021 into the chaotic neon fever dream of 2022 wasn't a transition at all; it was a violent collision. We didn't slide into this holiday season; we skidded in sideways, tires screeching, spilling cheap bourbon and existential dread all over the carpet.