aving not previously indulged in a great amount of W.A.S.P.’s material, I arrived at JB’s in Dudley a little uncertain of what to expect. Due to an unfortunate cancelation of Leeds’ hard rock quintet “The Glitterati”, the evening’s meal of metal was cut straight to the main course. Cramming myself in to the packed-out venue, I find myself adrift in a sea of anticipation and W.A.S.P. shirts. After a false alarm sparked by hundreds of rabid fans cheering violently for the projection set-up, the band explodes onto the stage with an opener that has the entire audience on their knees. Standing at 6ft 4”, frontman Blackie Lawless’ stage presence is undeniable, towering over the crowd with circular buzz saws protruding from his forearms, chanting the lyrics to “On Your Knees” proves an effective way of holding the audience’s attention.
After moving seamlessly from their opening song into L.O.V.E Machine, W.A.S.P. treats us all to a helping from their latest release “Babylon”. This new number rings throughout the venue with an intro hauntingly reminiscent of their anthemic “Wild Child“, making the fans go crazy.
Barely allowing recovery time from this monster album opener, the band barrel into Babylon’s title track: “Babylon’s Burning”. Almost as mesmerising as Doug Blair’s masterful guitar skills is his guitar itself, captivating the audience as the fret board runs red with light spilled from embedded LEDs, trickling down the guitar’s neck towards the spinning circular saw fixed to its body: I sense a recurring theme, in the band’s stage show.
The venue explodes into a deafening roar as the intro to previously mentioned popular track “Wild Child” drifts from the amps and across the outstretched hands of the audience. Fists pump the air as the song’s chorus is belted out proudly by Lawless and the loyal metal choir before him; a definite high-point of the evening.
W.A.S.P. continued through the night, unleashing track after track of their particular breed of 80s glam metal, pleasuring us with “Hellion” and “Chainsaw Charlie”, the latter proving to be a real crowd-pleaser. All of a sudden, W.A.S.P.’s heavy metal speed train that has carried us throughout the evening so far makes an unexpected (but quite welcome) stop at Crimson Idol title track “The Idol”. Lawless regales the swarm of fans with the heart-wrenching tale of fictional rock star Jonathan Steel. With the audience’s collective heart still bleeding from the after-effects of Lawless’ song-mastery, Doug Blair reopens the wounds and pours a bag of salt into them as he takes centre stage to solo soulfully amidst the solemn mist creeping across the stage. The emotions are real, the mist is not.
Picking us up and brushing us off after this stern emotional beating, the band carries us on into “Take Me Up” and fan favourite “I Wanna Be Somebody” before leaving the stage empty and silent. Unwilling to let the band go without a fight, the audience initially begin to chant “Blackie! Blackie! Blackie!” before more appropriately switching to “W.A.S.P.! W.A.S.P.! W.A.S.P.!”, respecting the band’s unquestionable team effort.
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