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Artist: W.A.S.P., McQueen & House Of Games Venue: Carling Academy, Newcastle Date:
29 October 2006
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What can I say, it's been a long time coming but WASP have returned to Newcastle after some 20 years. This time without all the original press hysteria that surrounded their first visit, which was indeed their first visit to the UK. But first the support slots, yes there are two bands given the opportunity of opening up proceedings for the mighty Lawless and Co. Firstly Finnish quintet House of Games, who got things started with their own brand of melodic haunting metal. In vocalist Erik Meremaa the band have a outstanding frontman, who stands tall centre stage and just lets the melodies unfold with his atmospheric vocals. They gave us a very impressive set that consisted mainly of tracks taken from the bands 'Rise And Shine' album. From the opener ‘My Child’ I instantly liked this band. The sheer quality of musicianship within in the band was astounding and with Meremaa at the helm the band are sure to go far. The set continued with another haunting melody, this time in the form of ‘Schizophrenia’. A real touch of class, as was the rest of the set which included ‘Hunter’, ‘24’ and my favourite of the set, the slightly heavier but still retaining that melodic tone, the excellent ‘Evil In Needle’, which rounded off a very impressive set. So impressed was I that I actually went straight to the merchandise stall and purchased a copy of their CD, something that I don’t normally do that often! Next up were Brighton’s own female angst fuelled McQueen, who are no Girls Aloud, they are just Loud Girls! This quartet simply rocked from the word go. Their dirty punk metal style would put Courtney Love to shame. With vocalist Leah Duors leading the pack, joined by Cat De Casonave simply ripping it up on guitar, against the powerhouse rhythm section of Sophie Taylor on bass, and then finally thrashing it up good style on drums was Hayley Cramer. These were four metal maidens with attitude as they delivered a set of thrills and spills, which highlighted the bands new album 'Break The Silence'. Opening up the set with ‘Not For Sale’, the girls set about taking no prisoners, with Leah Duors in fine voice as she snarled and growled at the audience with a tempestuous defiance. The set continues in a similar vein with the hard edged ‘Running Out of Things To Say’ and ‘Dirt’. The band soon warmed to the gracious applause from the male dominated audience and soon had them were they wanted them. They set a blistering pace as the set continued with ‘The Line Went Dead’ and the title track of the new album ‘Break The Silence’. The band continued to impress as they went into ‘Blinded’, a track that Dours stated was available to download for free off the bands website. The Ramones influenced ‘Don’t Know How To Break It To You’ was next and what a storming track this is, with the mighty Ms Cramer really hammering it out on the drums. With the set almost at a close it was time to pull out all the stops with ‘Life Support ICU’, before bringing everything to a climax with the angst filled ‘Bitch’, which rounded off a great set and one the got everyone in the mood for WASP. And now for the one of my favourite bands of all time the mighty WASP. The line-up may have changed considerably since they first burst on to the scene, but the core of the band front-man supreme Blackie Lawless still heads the band. He's joined tonight by the whirling dervish Mike Duda on bass, Mike Dupke on drums and returning to the fold Doug Blair on guitars. It's hard to believe that this show was originally booked into the Carling Academy 2 a much smaller room, it would have been like caging a lion in a hamster cage! As the lights went down on the now near capacity Academy 1, what was about to unfold was one of the best WASP shows I’ve ever seen and I’ve been to a good few. As the intro 'The End' by the Doors faded away the band set about a real rock n' roll show. Opening up with ‘On Your Knees’, it was plain to see the recent health scare Blackie had wasn’t going to stop him giving his all tonight as he mounted the now familiar mike stand. Also equal to the task was Duda, who looked his usual possessed self, donned in some kind of war paint. Then it was back to the Unholy Terror album for ‘Hate To Love’, the first of many tracks that just sounded magnificent and shows what a great songwriter Lawless is. It was time for some classic WASP as Blackie announced ... "ALL I WANT IS MY" ... to which the crowd screamed out in unison ... ‘L.o.v.e Machine’!!! This was a set that included not only classic WASP, but also some stuff that hadn’t been heard for some 20 years, plus some material never heard live at all. But it was back to the classics for the showstopper ‘Wild Child’ before the first of the surprises in tonight’s set. ‘The Widow Maker’ from the 'Last Command' album, a track that I for one hadn’t heard live and it just rocked big style. But
it was the tracks taken off the highly underrated 'Crimson Idol' album
that really set the hairs on the back of my neck on edge. The
excellent ‘Arena Of Pleasure’ and ‘The Idol’ with Doug Blair
just ripping up the guitar solo especially. These two were
separated by my favourite WASP track off 'Headless Children', another
underrated album, the awesome title track ‘Headless Children’. Firstly it was back to 'Crimson Idol' for ‘Chain Saw Charlie' ('Murders in the Rue Morgue' to give it its full title). Finally what show would have been complete without ‘Blind In Texas’ with Blackie announcing ... “that it had been far too long since they played Newcastle”. So let's hope it's not long till they return. All told this rounded off not just one of the best WASP shows I’ve ever seen, but one of the shows of the year so far. |
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