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WASP

Live in Lincolnshire, IL, March 2010

Review by Greg Olma

What do you get when you take away the blood, raw meat, and “The Rack” from a W.A.S.P. show?  A concert filled with great metal music played by a super tight band, that’s what.  I have seen W.A.S.P. a few times over the years but this time was by far the best concert by Blackie Lawless and company I have ever seen.  Like I said, the band was tight and the focus was very much on the songs and not “the show”.  That’s not to say that they didn’t bring something along for visuals, it’s just that the blood and guts shows of yore is not what they are doing now.  Today’s W.A.S.P. is more about the music and lyrics (although that was started back in the day when they released The Headless Children).  To augment the songs, they brought along a screen and played their old videos.  It was a good effect, watching the band performing in 2-D and 3-D at the same time.
W.A.S.P. opened the show with a double hit of “On Your Knees” and “The Real Me” and from the first chord, the crowd was won over.  I was really happy to see Lawless and the guys get a hero’s welcome.  So often people forget that while the 80’s W.A.S.P. was a theatrical band, they always held a huge arsenal of quality songs and at the drop of a hat, they could pull out one catchy tune after another.  I know “The Real Me” is a cover song by The Who, but Lawless has always taken songs that fit in the W.A.S.P. vein and made them his own.  Before they launchen into some new songs, Lawless had to let the crowd know that he is the perfect “L.O.V.E. Machine”.  I was happy this tour was making a stop in the Chicagoland area because the latest disc Babylon is such a strong release that I wanted to see some of the tunes performed live.  Blackie Lawless and company did not disappoint and they performed “Crazy” and “Babylon’s Burning” from the new album.  The effect with the screen I mentioned earlier worked really well with “Wild Child” because I think many of us in the crowd remember the video from “Headbangers’ Ball” and seeing that along with the band made a great visual.

Greg Olma
 
Greg Olma
 
Greg Olma

Since W.A.S.P. has so many great songs, it was inevitable that they would have to give us a medley,  They threw together “Hellion”, “I Don’t Need No Doctor” and “Scream Until You Like It” into a nice medley, giving us enough of the song without having to play the whole thing.  The next part of the show was my favorite, not necessarily because The Crimson Idol is my all time favorite W.A.S.P. album, but because the band played the material so well that it just stood out from the rest of the concert.  In particular, Doug Blair put on a great performance on guitar.  He has been a member since 2006 and he has played on the last 2 CDs.  It was just a pleasure to watch him solo during the “Crimson…” mini set.  W.A.S.P. performed “Arena Of Pleasure”, “Chainsaw Charlie(Murders In The New Morgue)”, and “The Idol” and those three tracks were worth the price of admission alone.  Before closing the set with “I Wanna Be Somebody”, the band pulled out “Take Me Up” from their penultimate CD Dominator. 


Greg Olma
 
Greg Olma
 
Greg Olma

The encore of “Blind In Texas” was kind of a given but the first song played during the encore “Heaven’s Hung In Black” was a great curveball.  It was especially moving with the video screen depicting the horrors of war.  I guess it must be hard to pick a set list because there are so many great tunes and I was surprised that W.A.S.P. didn’t perform any material that was recorded between 1994 and 2006 but the crowd walked away happy and that is the main point.  For an hour and a half, Lawless and the guys made us forget about work, home, politics, wars, money, etc and they just gave us a good old-fashioned fun metal show.


Greg Olma
 
Greg Olma
 
Greg Olma
Many more - and much LARGER - pics from this concert are available in our members' area. Log in on the main page or sign up today - memberships start at just six bucks.

Greg Olma
 
Greg Olma
 
Greg Olma
This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2010  Volume 2 at lulu.com/strangesound.
You'll find concert pics of this artist in the Music Street Journal members area.
 
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