Venue: New Age Club / Roncade (Treviso) / Italy
Concert date: December 11, 2007
Attendance: 500
Ticket price: €29.00
The thing is, there’s a staggering number of bands in rock ‘n’ roll I wouldn’t go see live even if they played on my own balcony; some of them I’d flee from that very balcony straight into the nearest friendly hole with a Laško in it. On the flip side, there are bands I’d go see even if I were missing some vital part of my rounded figure, and those California shitkickers WASP, with old fart Blackie and his “fuck-me” pirate boots, sit near the top of that list. So on Wednesday we piled into my German-engineered means of transport (German quality, yeaaaah) and puttered off toward my new second home, the New Age club in Treviso, because a gig fit for the gods was waiting for us – “The Crimson Idol”, one of the best albums in metal history, played in full!
Skipping the side action and the volleys of laughter on the road, the five of us (two guys and three ladies) showed up in front of the club around 9 PM, picked up our tickets, and surrendered to the joys of waiting until 11 PM, when the lights went out in a decently packed club, the fans whirred, and the brilliant DJ and his Enter Sandman finally shut up. Blackout, intro, and then a wave of excitement – WASP are on stage! In a blink there were three of us, the Slovenian “giants” towering over the little Italians in the front row, belting along with Blackie: “I look at my face in the Mirror…..!” Yes, WASP took the proper road and, unlike Queensryche, who in my presence burned through the first part of Mind Crime only halfway, with no intros and no interludes, they played the crown jewel of their career in full, interludes and all. WHOOOOSH!!!! No banter with the crowd, no breaks, not a second of rest or filler, this was “The Crimson Idol” just like on the record, and apparently live, with no “playbacks” (except for the keyboards and the spoken parts of side characters à la manager Alex Rodman). And the crowd knew every word, from the first capital letter to the last full stop. You don’t see a scene like that every day! Looks of total ecstasy on the faces all around (mostly Slovenes and Croats!), shirts unbuttoned and drenched. The band was fired up to the max – Blackie with his classic coolness and precision like a Great Dictator, and next to him Mike Duda on bass and the out-of-his-mind Doug Blair on guitar, jumping around, laughing, and posing like crazy. We could give the latter his own paragraph – that guy is not normal! With phenomenal guitars (LPs with scalloped fretboards and pointy necks, double-necks with acoustic simulators, Washburns lit up inside the body between the pickups…), he fired off solos that made my tongue hang down to the floor, all while still managing to grin up his sleeve. Titanic Overture, The Invisible Boy, and Arena of Pleasure just flew past us and it was time for the first total meltdown – the eternal motorbike and Chainsaw Charlie! Folks everywhere, the thunder of “Murders, Murders In The New Morgue” probably echoed far around the hall. And no rest! Gypsy Meets The Boy and straight into Doctor Rockter, another lost pearl from the golden age of heavy metal.
Even with the fans on 11, the heat was unbearable, and sweat was pouring off Mr. Lawless in streams again. But there was no time to think about it, as the gentlemen served us I Am One at a insane tempo, and then finally eased off. Two ballads followed, The Idol and Hold On To My Heart. During the latter I almost lost it, since it’s my favorite ballad of all time, and hearing it live a mere meter away from Blackie with my girl in my arms was a truly special feeling. But the ballads were only the calm before the storm – the album and the first part of the show end with the grandiose The Great Misconceptions Of Me, whose atmosphere can’t be described, you simply have to experience it. After that good hour of madness, which is the usual “leistung” of a WASP show, the guys withdrew for a few minutes, and we hadn’t even collected our thoughts when it thundered through: “I don’t need no doctor, all I need is my LOVE machine!” and another meltdown of the crowd. Is that all? Nope, nope…! “I’m a Wildchild. Come And Love Me!” The classic from “The Last Command” got a crazy response as always, I nearly tore myself apart in the front row, but the effort paid off – the Great Dictator noticed me, grinned at me, and just like that flicked me a pick – yes!
The end of the show was approaching, we “slammed” through a top-notch performance of Take Me Up from the new album “Dominator”, and the finale of the night, Blind in Texas, was on the horizon. Blackie first showed off with an inhumanly long and high scream, then proved that despite the minimalism on stage he still belongs in the club of the greatest “frontmen” whom the crowd blindly follows, because in the middle of the song’s wildest moment he lifted his head, looked up, and with a short “Shhhhhh” silenced and spellbound the whole hall in a split second. Unbelievable! Once he’d satisfied himself of the people’s “submissiveness”, the song could continue and finally close out an exceptional show. What to say in the end? We witnessed a top-notch gig that more than justified the price of the ticket and the gas, and the plundered merch stand (the band’s official “merchandise”) backs that up, since even though it was well stocked it was showing its ribs after the show. Steven Duren aka Blackie Lawless – here’s to many more years!
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