Wasp Gig Review - Nottingham Rock City

It’s a cold November night at Rock City, and the audience await the imminent arrival of WASP after being entertained by last minute stand in support “Jet Black”, who it has to be said, put in a great performance. After the support set, the atmosphere picks up, and the infamous Blackie Lawless strides onto the stage, sending the crowd into rapturous adore! Nigh on tearing the place apart with L.O.V.E Machine, everyone in sight is howling along in brilliant fashion for most of the song, even some of the scary older rockers that enjoyed head banging maybe an ickle bit too much, resulting in nearly head butting cider EVERYWHERE, join in too!

Then bolting into Crazy after ‘L.O.V.E Machine’, this properly stood out as a personal highlight of the evening as everyone started jumping up and down with excitement! Including me who joined in doing all of the actions while jumping! I wish you had been there! With the sticky floors and electric atmosphere! Welcome to the Electric Circus where Blackie is the Ringmaster. Various air drummers and air guitarists with their hands flailing, heads rocking, kept the rock spirit alive for the sing along to Wild Child, a set list must have. Blackie smiles at the audience, urging them on, and the audience respond in anthemic fashion.

As a collective sway spread across the entire hall for the epic Babylon’s Burning, the audience yet again joined in whole heartedly, providing a fifth member of the band. “The idol” had a quietening effect with the intro, a reminder of the unfortunate debauchery of the 80’s that effectively broke a lot of the music from that era, with the sticking words ‘Paradise Is Easy’. In that moment the audience has a shared moment of understanding with Blackie before the lead of ‘Set Me Free!’ with a massively talented guitar solo.

Jumping into the pretty much” too good for words” epic, “ I Want To Be Somebody” Blackie involves us with his “audience participation”, the audience divided into two, to his left, and to his right. Blackie screams out “I”, points to his right, and that section of the crowd respond loudly. He looks impressed, but flashes a daring smile at the crowd to his left, “I”, and the audience “over there” simply erupts with “want to be somebody too”. For a second Blackie is taken aback, looks at the audience to the right and says “You know what those guys over there are saying about you? You know what they’re saying? They’re saying you suck”. Blackie still has it, he’s still the showman, still has the audience taking part, he still remains the enigmatic frontman.

Blackie has renounced some of his earlier work, arguing that he was mad at god when in actual fact he should have been mad at people for the way that they interpreted it, but some of his newer material is just as good if not better. Some have even suggested that he is actually getting better as a song writer, and Heaven “Hung In Black” is a prime example. With the screens in the background showing some of the sobering scenes from various tragic conflicts, Blackie’s voice rings out, heaven has run out of wings and there’s no more room. It quite simply has a stunning effect on the crowd.

With such an effect though, Blackie recognises that it’s important to leave the crowd in a more upbeat mood and it shows how much thought he puts into the planning of the set list. And so WASP end with “Blind In Texas”, crowd joining in, bouncing around, singing along. Putting the obvious aside regarding their evident talent, WASP are still loved by their loyal following and the more retrospective newer metal/rock fan too. All in all, a fantastic gig.

Many thanks to Jen for arranging things for us.

By Curtis.