W.A.S.P. - Wolverhampton Review

Whilst I was sitting down to start writing, it struck me just how busy 2023 has been so far from a live music perspective. My calendar starts to look somewhat more sparse (read: normal) from April onward, but January, February, and March have been extremely busy - and this past weekend I was on my travels again. I have a further two concerts planned for next weekend, too, meaning that March really will have been a bumper month. Enough of that for now, though, as I need to turn my attention back to this past Saturday - when I headed up to Wolverhampton for the first time in over a year. The journey to the West Midlands city was rather a long one thanks to the train strikes which are on-going here in the UK. The coach I ended up taking from Plymouth to Birmingham took around six hours - with the walk to the railway station and the train onward to Wolverhampton probably adding around another hour or so. This was certainly frustrating, so I was happy to step off the train in Wolverhampton - whereby I immediately headed to the local Wetherspoons for a bite to eat and then checked into the Premier Inn. The reason for the unusually mammoth journey to Wolverhampton was the fact that the American metal legends W.A.S.P. were in town - and ready to play to a sold out KK's Steel Mill as part of their 40th anniversary celebrations. I have been a W.A.S.P. fan for a long time at this point, but I became a somewhat lapsed fan over the past few years. The reason for this was pure spite, really, as I travelled to Bristol to see the band on their last UK tour in 2017 - only for the show to be cancelled about an hour before the doors were due to open. No explanation or apology for the cancellation were ever offered by the band - and they pressed on with the tour as if nothing had happened. This really annoyed me, so I barely listened to W.A.S.P.'s music at all for a few years. Sadly, shows being randomly cancelled with little-to-no notice is always a risk that is taken when buying a W.A.S.P. ticket. The band are known for doing it occasionally, and the disrespect shown to the Bristol fans annoyed me. As such, I was somewhat 'over' W.A.S.P. after that, but I slowly started to listen to them again over the past couple of years - and decided to risk getting a ticket to their 40th anniversary UK tour. The original run of shows ended up being cancelled due to the pandemic, though, with the eventual replacements being postponed last year when touring internationally was still tricky. As such, the fans have had to wait quite a while for this tour - but it promised to be worth the wait, with an expanded stage show and a special anniversary setlist planned by the band. After the first cancelation, where I again had a ticket for Bristol, I opted for Wolverhampton second time around. Gigs in the West Midlands city are always well-attended, and KK's Steel Mill is a great newer venue. Like many of the UK shows on this tour, too, the Wolverhampton show was sold out - which would have left rather a lot of unhappy punters had W.A.S.P. decided to cancel again.

Thankfully, though, that was not the case. I did breathe something of a sigh of relief when I actually entered the venue, which had been moved around significantly internally since I had last visited in 2021, and took my place down near the front. Before W.A.S.P.'s set, though, the large crowd were treated to 35 or so minutes of music from Bournemouth's South of Salem - a band whom I had heard of but had never listened to. I was looking forward to giving them a go, but I was not really prepared for how much I was going to enjoy them. Much is made of the current NWOCR movement, and there are certainly a lot of good new British rock bands around, but for me very few of the current crop are as good as the wave of British rock bands that were operating 10 to 15 years ago - very few of whom still exist. I find it strange that people seem willing to give new bands in the 2020s a chance, but hardly anyone cared about all of the bands that I was championing in my teens. The reason I bring this up is that South of Salem really reminded me a lot of some of those bands that I used to follow back then. With a slightly sleazy edge akin to early Heaven's Basement and a metallic twang similar to the poppier end of Glamour of the Kill's work, South of Salem impressed me from the off. With a great, somewhat gothic, look to match their razor sharp riffing and soaring choruses, the band set apart converting a few in the crowd with their up-tempo and melodic songwriting. Their live sound mix was not exactly perfect, but it was apparent that there was a lot to love about the band despite this. Thankfully, the vocals of frontman Joey Draper were high in the mix - even if the guitars were on the muddy side. Despite the band's songs including a number of strong riffs and some fluid solos, what really shone for me were the vocal hooks. This is why I namechecked bands like Heaven's Basement and Glamour of the Kill - as the melodies that Draper used really reminded me of why I loved those bands so much. For me, too many of the current crop of British rock bands rely on samey, blues-based 1970s grooves - but South of Salem borrowed more from the heavier end of 1980s hair metal, with a big dose of more modern gothic rock thrown in. Every song which the band played had a memorable hook in it somewhere - from the set-opening anthem Let Us Prey to the closing Cold Day in Hell. A big standout cut for me was No Plague Like Home, with its gang vocal-led chorus, whilst the ballad Demons Are Forever showed that the band had more in their arsenal than may be expected. I was captivated throughout, and was disappointed when their set ended - but it is safe to say that South of Salem are a band I will be following with interest going forward.

All things considered, there are actually quite a few reasons to not see W.A.S.P. live these days. Apart from the aforementioned risk of cancellation, the band often play pretty short shows - and have a want for over-promising and under-delivering when it comes to what their shows will include. That being said, there was excitement in the air during the changeover - even if the band made the crowd wait for over 45 minutes before taking the stage. The wait was pretty boring, but when the lights went down the place went wild - and the band, led by founding member Blackie Lawless (vocals/guitar), took to the stage and launched into a four-song medley including snippets of tracks from early in their career. I enjoyed the show a lot, but I do think that the setlist was extremely predictable. I expected as much, given that W.A.S.P.'s setlists have generally been such, but given what was promised it was hard not to be disappointed. Whilst a couple of deep cuts were included, there was room for more on that front - especially as the band only played for around 80 minutes. Again, I expected this. All of the W.A.S.P. shows that I have been to have been on the short side - but this one may have been the shortest yet. Despite all of this, though, I still had a good time. The band still know how to put on a high-energy show, and Lawless remains an engaging presence - despite the fact that he clearly relies on pre-recorded vocals during some of the songs (another reason one might give for not seeing the band live). Whilst I do not think that he was 100% miming, there was certainly a lot of 'help' going on during a few of the songs - whilst others seemed more natural. A couple of moments during the early medley definitely seemed 'enhanced', although the high-energy On Your Knees felt natural to kick off the night. Despite this, though, everyone (including me) was having a good time. The Flame, which came next (and felt like a genuine deep cut), felt quite significantly enhanced - but it was still fun to belt out the song's snappy chorus. The mid-paced grooves of The Torture Never Stops and the underrated Inside the Electric Circus then rounded out the opening medley - and by this point the crowd was ready for a party.

What essentially followed was a greatest hits set, with the the shout-along L.O.V.E. Machine provoking a sing-a-long - before Wild Child rang through the venue thanks to its soaring pop metal melodies and Lawless' charisma. Three songs from The Crimson Idol followed, with the suite opening with the power ballad The Idol. The song spotlighted Lawless at first, as he crooned the intro, but it generally acted as a vehicle for Doug Blair (guitar/vocals). His closing guitar solo was extremely lengthy, but it was packed full of melody - and the song became the set's most impressive from a musical perspective. The longer The Great Misconceptions of Me followed, but the next big highlight was Chainsaw Charlie (Murders in the New Morgue). The song is pretty much ever-present in W.A.S.P.'s setlists, but always goes down well live - with the crowd once again getting behind the big chorus. The band then returned to the sleazier end of their sound for the rousing Blind in Texas - but as the song came to a close, so did the main set. At less than an hour, many were looking quite confused around me - but after what seemed like quite a while the lights went down again, and some information about W.A.S.P.'s battles with the PMRC flashed up on the screens. This heralded the band re-taking the stage, and launching into Animal (Fuck Like a Beast) - a song which they had not played for quite a few years before this tour. I have always thought that the song was quite silly really, but it was fun to see it live finally - and I know that many have been upset with Lawless for not playing it recently. It certainly received a strong reaction, which continued on throughout an excellent version of The Who's The Real Me - which featured lots of melodic bass playing from Mike Duda. It was then left to I Wanna Be Somebody to bring the night to a close, which again featured plenty of singing from the crowd - and, in a nice touch, every former member of the band was name-checked on the screens as the song was wrapping up. Despite the short set, the band still received a strong reception as they left the stage - and in truth it still very much felt like the job had been well done. The setlist was:

On Your Knees/The Flame/The Torture Never Stops/Inside the Electric Circus

L.O.V.E. Machine

Wild Child

The Idol

The Great Misconceptions of Me

Chainsaw Charlie (Murders in the New Morgue)

Blind in Texas

-

Animal (Fuck Like a Beast)

The Real Me [The Who cover]

I Wanna Be Somebody

Despite all of the criticisms that could be levelled at W.A.S.P. in recent years, I still had a fun time with the band on Saturday in Wolverhampton. They are a band that it is hard not to get swept along with, and Lawless is still a great showman despite his age - as was evident when he mounted his huge skeletal microphone stand at the end of the show. I am sure that the sold out crowd had a similarly great time, but it is hard not to wish that the band had pulled out of a couple of extra deep cuts to make the 40th anniversary tour something different than largely relying on the same setlist standards. I had not seen the band since 2015, though, so it was great to see them again - and it is also nice to have a recent W.A.S.P. live experience to remember that does not involve a cancellation. I also purchased a copy of South of Salem's debut album The Sinner Takes It All, which the band duly signed, which I am very much looking forward to digesting.