W.A.S.P. @ The Wiltern, Los Angeles
The most outrageous band in the world play a home town show
When I was a teenager, I adored two bands above most others - W.A.S.P., and Judas Priest.
So when W.A.S.P. announced a tour playing exclusively from their first four albums - the best ones - and the support act was a couple of ex Judas Priest members doing mostly Judas Priest songs - I simply had to go.
The icing on the cake? No tour dates in Australia or New Zealand, so Los Angeles it was. W.A.S.P.'s home town.
KK's Priest
KK's Priest opened with a trio of classic Judas Priest tunes, and ex-Judas Priest lead guitarist KK Downing sure can still shred, even at the ripe old age of 74. They were very tight, the singer nailed Rob Halford's range beautifully, and the rest of the band were just as sharp as you might expect. Event the new tunes were pretty good.
They played my favourite song - Turbo Lover - and the rest of the set was great too.
W.A.S.P.
After 20 minutes or so, it was W.A.S.P. time!
They opened with Easy Livin, a Uriah Heep cover. It's not my favourite, but in a way that was a blessing because it took them most of the song to get the levels dialled in properly.
Then they kicked into Fistful of Diamonds, a deep cut I had been hoping for. And it was perfect from then on.
The set had all the songs I was hoping for, Thunderhead, Headless Children, a handful of classics, I Wanna Be Somebody, L.O.V.E. Machine, and he even slipped in Golgotha - an overtly Christian song not from the first four albums at all.
Blackie told a story about "Mr. Cool", which apparently was the first iteration of a song he wrote, the second iteration becoming "Cries In the Night". It seems someone stole the song from him? It wasn't entirely clear.
W.A.S.P. in 2026 is a more refined than 1986. No blood, no fire, no saw blades, cod pieces nor naked women. Blackie Lawless is 70 now, so he doesn't get around the stage very much. He spends a lot of time with his back to the crowd, looking at the drummer. But none of that matters. The iconic rasping vocals over the simple but flawlessly executed hard rock songs has an enduring quality it is hard to beat.
One song, Headless Children I think, had a backdrop montage of Adolf Hitler clips, and just when you were thinking "this is a bit much", they enacted an onstage execution. So all is well that ends well. Other than that the set and light show was quite basic, the intro music was poorly mixed, and the montages looked like they were done by a roadie. W.A.S.P. in 2026 is done on a bit of a budget.
I didn't give a damn about the set though. I was there for the memories. Air drumming, loud singing, goat horns thrust into the air, it was majestic. Worth every penny. Fourteen year old me had the time of his life.
I recorded the show on my phone, it a bit sketchy but feel free to download the recording if you want.
Photos from the gig
