LIVE REVIEW: W.A.S.P. @ O2 Academy, Glasgow
Nothing sets the mood at a rock ‘n’ roll show like a stagehand announcing that anyone crowdsurfing tonight will be ejected from the venue. The mood is threatened further when, by show’s end, it is just half past nine and the Glaswegian crowd are sent home in broad summer daylight. W.A.S.P., here celebrating the 40th anniversary of their debut record (technically 41st now), roll in and out of the city with some haste and no support act, certain in their abilities to deliver a tight show that can withstand these square conditions.
For the most part, it does. One woman can loudly be heard protesting ‘surely not!’ when the houselights come on, but so can praise for Blackie Lawless’ voice, with one attendee noting he sounded fantastic. Read any comments surrounding live reviews of W.A.S.P. shows from the last few years and backing tracks dominate the discourse. Lawless is honest about the band’s use of them, and they are apparent if you keep an ear out; some choruses sound a little too perfect. Lawless doesn’t put a foot wrong either, his snarl as pronounced now as on the band’s 1984 debut. Is he having some assistance? Probably, but the only thing he is guilty of is honesty. Lots of bands, most far younger than Lawless’ 68 years, are having some help on stage. His only crime is inviting us behind the curtain.
Besides, in the room, it all sounds great. I Wanna Be Somebody as an opener is an instant shot of adrenaline for a crowd ready to party, even if Lawless admits to some nerves about its placement so early in the show. Full album runthroughs take the responsibility of constructing a setlist off the band, and for the opening ten songs at least, everyone knows what’s coming next. L.O.V.E. Machine and On Your Knees are stands out, both for their anthemic qualities and how of their time they sound. They have a transportive effect on the audience, made up of many who were old enough to buy the record on its release, taking everyone back to their hedonistic youth in the 1980s. A few of this evening’s songs – B.A.D., School Daze, Tormentor – haven’t featured in W.A.S.P. shows since 1985. While some bands take albums on the road for their 10th anniversary, the occasion feels all the more momentous when some tracks haven’t been played since before many of us were born.
W.A.S.P. have been performing this exact show for a while now, so it is a fine-tuned machine. There’s little space for improvisation or any sort of surprise, but what cuts through is guitarist Doug Blair’s stellar work stage-left. He is a proper old-school shredder, dishing out tasteful, genre-worshipping solos every five minutes. If there’s any cynicism towards backing tracks, Blair’s virtuoso performance is a real tonic, an organic display by a performer at the top of his game.
The stage is decked out like a carnival – or indeed an electric circus – with screens showing old music videos. They switch to clips from World War II during The Headless Children, and they’re depressingly similar to many scenes coming from Gaza, the song highlighting a bleak inevitability about the world’s cruelty. But for the most part this is an upbeat affair, a celebration of a long career front-loaded with songs that have already become their legacy. Yet, for a band in their twilight years, their resumé shows a living, breathing act: they’ve visited Glasgow four times in the last decade alone, putting more reps in than most of their contemporaries, many of whom they’ve outlived. It’s over before the sun even thinks about setting, but it’s hard to feel anything other than happy in a room in which everyone knows this can’t last forever, so we’re all going to make the most of it tonight.
Rating: 7/10
Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Glasgow from Duncan McCall here:
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