It seems that we’ve been getting a steady stream of classic acts poking their noses into Finland lately, with Geoff Tate doing two anniversary shows on the same night last month, and now WASP came through the Helsinki House of Culture (Kulttuuritalo) on April 14th, 2023. This show had been postponed several times throughout the pandemic, originating as a “hits from the first four albums live 2020 tour,” changing to a “40th anniversary of the winged assassins… back to the beginning tour,” but eventually became the 40 Years Live World Tour. This made for an awesome opportunity to check out a really well-known classic act!
I arrived, unsurprisingly, kind of late for the warm-up act, CRAZY LIXX, and managed to hear only two songs from their short set. From that brief experience, it seems that they played solid ’80s hard rock with catchy anthems and had a style befitting of the era, though the band was formed in the 2000s. They had nice energy and a strong stage presence, and you could really see their musical influences in their style. The bass player and guitarist singing backing vocals added some nice, bombastic depth to the sound. They were a well-chosen opener for the main band, even though the audience was still a little bit stiff at this point, except for a handful of people headbanging and dancing in the front.
After the opener, it was time for a short wine break, after which I returned to secure a pretty good spot in the middle, as the eager fans gathered around the stage. It was delightful to see that an older band brought together so many people from different generations. In the center of the stage was the most epic mic stand I have ever seen: a scary skeletal spine figure with a skull, pelvis, crossbones, and bone hands holding motorcycle handles on top; it took three crew members to build that monster! The mic stand is also apparently called “Elvis.” The background canvas was made of many old-timey circus attraction -style posters that each had texts that hinted to different W.A.S.P. albums and songs, accompanied by a big screen and two smaller screens, skulls with chains hanging from mouths, skulls impaled with spikes… skulls, skulls, and MORE SKULLS! Also, there was a dabbling of army nets here and there for decoration. The drum kit was also spectacular in size, in true rock ‘n’ roll fashion.
W.A.S.P. let their audience simmer for 15 minutes past the supposed start time before the intro began to play and the stage was flooded with smoke. Once there was a thick smokescreen, chopper sounds and an alarm rang out into a short medley of W.A.S.P. songs before the band, consisting of frontman Blackie Lawless, bass player Mike Duda, guitarist Doug Blair, and drummer Aquiles Priester hit the stage and kicked off the show with an all-time classic hit, ”L.O.V.E machine.” The crude-sounding hit had a vibrant delivery from the band and nicely set the tone for the rest of show, but I have to say that Blackie’s voice sounded so clear and good that I’m pretty sure that a lot of it came from a backing track.
The atmosphere in the venue was great and band did their job well and seemed to be pretty into the performance. Blackie stayed mostly behind the mic stand in the beginning of the concert, but started to walk more actively around the stage after a couple of songs. The bony mic stand was surprisingly flexible and Blackie used the handles to bend it backwards and hung from it during some songs. The reason for his somewhat more constrained movement on the stage was revealed later, when the band released a statement saying that Blackie has suffered from spinal disc herniation during the tour, which forced W.A.S.P. to cancel their gig in Oulu.
”Wild Child” was one of the early highlights with its identifiable and tempting intro and catchy chorus, oozing lust and desire. The heavy smoke combined with colorful lights created a mysterious and sinister atmosphere in the venue, but made it hard to see the band members’ faces clearly most of the time. The pale white lights during the ballad, ”The Idol,” were especially memorable and ambient and in tune with the song’s yearning feeling. Once again, it seemed that Blackie‘s soft and emotional singing sounded a little bit too good and artificial to have been actually been sung completely live. Guitarist Doug Blair played a nice, long, sentimental, and epic guitar solo during the song as well.
The screens showed band’s music videos during the songs, which seemed at some points to be a little bit weird, considering the band was playing live at the same time, but overall it added more rock show havoc into the mix. The set ended with the “Blind in Texas” classic finisher, which worked well as a merrier and more playful change in soundscape.
The encore started with a load of text appearing on the screen, dealing with the formation of the Parents Music Resource Center and creation of Parental Advisory warning label. It seems that the organization wanted to censor impropriate music from children and forced to record labels to react, which resulted in a battle for artistic freedom. The most harmful musicians were dubbed “the filthy 15” and W.A.S.P. was a metal band singled out from all the others and their second album was the first to bear the warning label for offensive lyrics. And the song that landed them on that “filthy 15” list was, of course, “Animal (Fuck Like a Beast).” The band had returned to the stage during the history lesson and after the song name appeared on the screen, the band began to play the song in question and the crowd went crazy! The audience wasn’t passive before by any means, but this kicked a new gear on! Their playing sounded really good and the band seemed to suck in the audience’s energy and kicked it up a notch as well. People around me sang so loud that you couldn’t hear Blackie‘s vocals at all at times.
After ”Animal,” Blackie gave a heartfelt thank you to the Finnish audience for being the first country in the world where they got a gold record. The excellent “The Real Me” (a cover of THE WHO) continued the party and the last song of the encore, ”I Wanna Be Somebody” made the crowd go fully berserk, moshing and singing along together. The screens in the back showed pictures of former W.A.S.P. members and thanked them for being a part of the band and making it what it is. The energy was through the roof and everyone was vibing in the metal zone. This encore was an epic step-up to an already really enjoyable show and really crowned the night.
The band’s playing was solid and skillful throughout the set, resulting in a gig that was a compact non-stop rock show with only a few short speeches from Blackie, and presented admirable fitness and energy from the band. We definitely recommend catching this tour!
Written by Simo Kuustera
Photos by Janne Puronen
Setlist
- 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) (encore)
- The Real Me (The Who cover) (encore)
- I Wanna Be Somebody (encore)
