Whatever your views on the early 80’s Metal and Rock scenes and whatever your take on ‘theatrical rock’ of that period there’s little doubt that back in the day W.A.S.P. were a force to be reckoned with, selling decent amounts of records and annoying all the right people along the way.
Personnel-wise today of course they are a very different beast with just Blackie Lawless remaining from any of the line-ups you might consider to be ‘definitive’ or ‘classic’ though it does seem a little disingenuous to even mention that really when guys like Mike Duda have been playing bass for 22 years now – far longer than any other band member except Blackie. Heck, Doug Blair on guitar has been on board for the last 11 years plus his two earlier stints; it’s only new boy Aquiles Priester on drums who is making his UK debut.
W.A.S.P. also still manage to put out decent records too – with their latest offering – ‘Golgotha’ from 2015 their 15th studio outing and pretty true to that original formula. We’ve heard that though on the 2015 tour…
Tonight on a very wet evening in Manchester it’s all about a much older record – as The Crimson Idol 25th Anniversary Tour 2017 which kicked off in Europe in September and ends in Russia on the last day of November, hits the O2 – which is one of a slew of UK dates mid-tour, many of which like tonight have actually sold out. It’s interesting of course to note that the record wasn’t given a US release until May 1993 – long after we’d been rocking to it in the UK!
There’s certainly a resurgence of interest in Rock these days and people just can’t get enough of classic bands like W.A.S.P. Of course we’ve revisited The Crimson Idol before and not just on the ‘The Crimson Idol Tour’ back in 2007 which celebrated the 15 years – we also had a third of the 30th Anniversary show devoted to the opus. You can take it that Blackie might just be a big fan. The difference tonight is that this is the first time the record has been played in full as originally envisaged.
The set tonight of course takes in the whole record. Opening with the moody, building ‘The Titanic Overture’ and closing the first part of the night with the epic drama of ‘The Great Misconceptions of Me’ which clocks in at over 9 minutes. Its clear fro the off that Blackie is in fine voice, hitting all the right notes on ‘The Invisible Boy’ one of my favourites for the album. It’s also clear from the off that he’s not in a talkative mood, saying not a word in the ‘Crimson Idol’ part of the set. Part of that of course might be the movie playing in the background, which is a great accompaniment to the music – as it explains the concept of the album and adds visuals to the music. It all actually makes for a rather cool experience and the visuals and the music work better than I had expected.
Standouts from the album of course are pretty much the same for everyone with flailing rocker ‘Chainsaw Charlie (Murders in the New Morgue)’ played with abandon, and threatening to take the roof off! All through it though Blackie never wavers – either looking out stern-faced on the crowd or he’s stood with his back to us between songs. Few care though – it’s all about the music and he’s supported by a great band who are often front of stage singing along with the crowd. It’s some of the best sing-along crowd participation I’ve ever witnessed and I’d swear that everyone here knows all the words to ‘Doctor Rockter’, ‘The Invisible Boy’ and ‘The Idol’.
