SWTOTD SWTOTD 24 - Grand Moff Tarkin 5/3/2005 11:07:00 AM | Zeroplate Back in early '99, before The Phantom Menace came out, I went to a show by Grand Moff Tarkin at the Echo Lounge and had one of the best times I've ever had at a local rock show. Grand Moff, for the uninitiated, play this kind of cheesy riff rock/metal dressed all in Stormtrooper gear, with Darth Vader for a lead singer. The songs are all Star Wars themed like "D-E-A-T-H-S-T-A-R" and my personal favorite "I'm not the droid you're lookin' for"! I could be wrong on that title, but does it really matter? This is high octane rock n roll being pumped out by Imperial forces. When they played at the Echo, they even had a full-on set made of painted Gatorade bottles (which looked pretty damn good, considering), and this show marked my first ever experience with a cosplay Slave Leia. In the back of my mind, that Grand Moff Tarkin show was one of those experiences that made we think that doing a Star Wars record was okay. The guys in GMT all have other jobs and are in other bands and just get together a couple times every few years to bust out the Star Wars love, and they take it just seriously enough that it's fun and engaging, but not so seriously that they have a website, several albums of Endor Rock, and lifestyles devoted to costuming. They just have fun with it, and the show that I saw was fun for everyone. So, thanks Grand Moff Tarkin for being one of the weird inspirations for EMPIRE. Now for the exciting news: We will be opening for Grand Moff Tarkin at a special pre-ROTS party at Criminal Records on May 18th! We've got about 10 minutes of audio/video madness set to kick off at about 7:30, right before GMT takes the, uh, comics section of Criminal, and leads us all out to the midnight screening. May 18th, here we come. Back to Top {0} Comments

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