Review By J.D. van Meines
Hey Chris, I just got back from W.A.S.P. in Amsterdam yesterday and it was
pretty wild. I'd say about 400-500 people showed up at the Melkweg
(=Milkyway). They had some stupid support act (Dutch) that I won't get into.
W.A.S.P. started at 11.20 PM after the 'This is the end' intro tape. Chris
Holmes run onto stage first and I was really glad to see him back. He hadn't
changed as all. Everyone in the band was wearing shiny black latex (you
know, the stuff you buy in sex shops) and it looked pretty cool. Chris had a
huge cross painted on his chest. Blackie however was looking kinda gross.
The only thing he was wearing was a pair of black stockings, you know the
one with jarretels on them, and a cup. That was all. His ass was complety
bare and so was most of his groin. It really looked disgusting. Anyway they
started with On your knees, followed by I don't need no doctor, Hellion,
Chainsaw Charlie, Wild Child, Animal, Blind in Texas, I wanna be somebody,
The Real me, a new song (I think) and Kill Fuck Die (I could be a little
wrong on the running order, but I think I'm pretty much on the mark). The
lineup was Blackie, Chris, Mike Stowe and Stet Howland. They played heavier
than I've ever heard them play before. Shame was you couldn't hear Chris's
solos very well and also the second microphone (mike's) was mixed in very
softly so you couldn't hear his lines. At one point Chris had broken two
strings on his guitar but he didn't seem to notice and just played the song
out. He was as wild as he always was, really great. Blackie had a microphone
stand in the form of a motorcycle steering wheel and attached to that was
one of those electrical things you sharpen knives with (don't know the
English word for it). They also had four television sets stacked on top of
each other on each side of the stage. During the show these played WASP
videos, horror/splatter movies and during Animal some hardcore porn movie
clips. During one of the new songs the rack was brought out on stage and now
it gets really disgusting. On the rack was a nun! At this point Blackie had
attached a really big knive to his crotch and while he was singing he was
holding it against the knive sharpener so fire sparks were flying
everywhere. Near the end of the song Blackie went to the nun, ripped her
panties off and started to rape her with the knive. After he was done there
was all this blood dripping from her crotch. Then he put his hand in her and
ripped out a baby with the umbilical still attached. He then stuck the
bloody baby on the knife. I thought it was kinda sick and I don't think
they'll get away with this in the States. After that they played Kill, Fuck,
Die and did the pillow thing. That looked really cool. The show ended at
12.20 AM, that's just 60 minutes of music,which I thought was too short for
the money I payed. Overall, it was great to have WASP back playing very
heavy and flamboyant, the religion/abortion thing was taking things a little
too far IMO and Blackie better put some pants on!
CYA,
JAN