W.A.S.P. Remind Glasgow What Shock Rock Royalty Looks Like
Forget a gentle trip down memory lane as W.A.S.P.’s promise for their 40th-anniversary tour was blunt: their legendary 1984 debut album, played loud, played in full, and played for keeps.
The standing area of the O2 Academy in Glasgow was packed with a loyal army of die-hards, a sea of black denim primed for the sermon. It was clear from the off that this was not going to be a night for subtlety.
The stage itself was a spectacle to behold, being a demented circus playground framed in steel scaffolding draped with the band’s iconic, ghoulish artwork.
All eyes were naturally drawn to the centre, where Blackie Lawless’s infamous mic stand stood. Part motorbike handle, part chrome skeleton, the thing is a piece of pure menace that commands its own respect and serves as a signal that you’re about to witness a proper rock show.
When the lights dropped, the band didn’t just walk on stage; they exploded. Instead of their traditional opener ‘On Your Knees’, they launched straight into the defiant anthem ‘I Wanna Be Somebody’. It was a curveball that immediately grabbed the room by the throat.
Lawless, holding court from his skeletal pulpit, later admitted a promoter had twisted his arm to stick to the album’s running order and, against his own judgement, it was the right call. The show felt like a story unfolding, from raw ambition to pure hedonism.
The band tore through the album with vicious precision. ‘L.O.V.E. Machine’ was the sleazy, hip-thrusting beast it always was, while Doug Blair’s guitar screamed through solos and Mike Duda’s bass provided a gut-punching rumble. Behind them, Aquiles Priester attacked his drum kit with a thunderous assault, especially on the relentless ‘Hellion’.
This is a band that operates as a tight, brutal unit, with even the ballad ‘Sleeping (In The Fire)’ having a dangerous edge before the classic W.A.S.P. raunch returned for ‘On Your Knees’.
With the final track of the album still ringing in our ears, they returned to deliver the knockout blows.
A furious volley of hits in two medleys—’Inside the Electric Circus’ and ‘The Headless Children’ among them—sent the crowd into a frenzy. By the time they hit the iconic one-two of ‘Wild Child’ and the ultimate anthem ‘Blind In Texas’, the entire venue was roaring with approval.
W.A.S.P. came to Glasgow to do a job, and they did it with the swagger that four decades in the business earns you. They delivered the classics, shook the foundations, and left a sweat-soaked, grinning crowd spilling out onto Eglinton Street. This wasn’t nostalgia; it was a potent reminder of the power of pure, undiluted heavy metal.
Review and Photographs by Gavin Ross
