(Live Review) WASP + ARMORED SAINT - St. Charles, IL (11/9/24)

The Beard & Little Johnny

Greetings friends, fans, and followers. Welcome to the Beard and Little Johnny’s seventieth live show review for 2024. Tonight, will be bands #229-230 as we head off to the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles Illinois for 1980’s shock metal band WASP with support by perennial metal journeymen Armored Saint.

This will be the Beard's first ever viewing of WASP, a band that rose to prominence in the early 1980s out of the ashes of Circus Circus. (The band, not the Vegas casino.) Their debut album WASP in 1984 was a bit of right place/right time for frontman Blackie Lawless and his band.

With their over-the-top stage show, (throwing raw meat at the audience, torture racks with semi-nude models, and buzzsaw codpieces), along with several hits on the metal charts, WASP garnered opening slots on both the KISS and Iron Maiden tours. (No Johnny, you may NOT buy a buzzsaw codpiece.)

Last Command, their second album, also charted high partially helped by WASP being a frequent target of the PMRC in the mid 1980s. Inside the Electric Circus, their third album, had mixed reviews, (including from Blackie himself who called it a tired album by a tired band.) That said, another tour, this time supporting Slayer, kept the band popular to fans. (Ed: Slayer played support to WASP believe it or not ... at least in Toronto. Half the crowd left Massey Hall after the Slayer set.)

Headless Children (1989), would mark the end of the 80’s and the end of high charting WASP albums as guitarist Chris Holmes (who had recently married Lita Ford), left WASP causing a rift with Lawless who then produced essentially two solo albums (although The Crimson Idol was released under the WASP moniker.)

In the last thirty-five years, WASP with various band members has released sixteen albums and are celebrating forty years with Blackie Lawless as the sole original member. Blackie has admitted to utilizing backing tracks and vocal AI in his current performances, but I will limit my critique as at least he possessed the stones to say it publicly and not hide that fact as others are doing.

WASP/ARMORED SAINT live

ARMORED SAINT

Before WASP though we got an opening set from fellow forty years warhorses Armored Saint.

With eleven studio releases since 1982, John Bush, Gonzo Sandoval, his brother Phil (Sandoval), and Jeff Duncan are one of metal's most enduring acts. Always seemingly stuck in the supporting role, Armored Saint have toured with practically every major name in metal over the last four decades.

The Beard more than adequately covered Armored Saint's history in our Mighty Decibel article of 4/25/24 when they opened for Queensryche. Therefore, I will not waste any more words doing so again. (Stop applauding Johnny)

Tonight, once again in the opening band role, Armored Saint did what they always do and gave a tight little eight song set with a mixture of songs from six different albums between 1982 & 2020.

"Tribal Dance", "March of the Saint" and "Book of Blood" all were particularly good both vocally and in the guitar solos. The more modern "Win Hands Down" was also good. Seeing Armored Saint live a second time, it made me wonder what negative chemistry and bad luck have always kept them second tier. They are actually quite a talented act. If I had one complaint though it would be the lack of personality in John Bush’s stage attire. You are the lead singer of a band called Armored Saint, why are you dressed like you just came from painting your house?

All that said, the set was good, and I enjoyed almost every song on it. 88/100

WASP

Next, up headliners WASP.

Before the set started, Arcada Theater staff came out and announced that any crowd surfers would be ejected. Little Johnny yelled “Eject this!,” but I convinced him that seeing the show would be worth staying in his seat. Under normal circumstances I would say WASP presented a very cool stage set up, but since the Beard's previous concert was King Diamond, this was one of those cases where slotting hurt. That said, WASP did have a good stage look and Blackie Lawless’ motorcycle handlebar stage mike was impressive.

Coming out to "I Wanna Be Somebody" got a huge crowd pop right from go and the lighting was top notch for an Arcada show. "Love Machine" followed and the venue energy was high with a lot of crowd participation. I do have to say concerning Blackies fringe white boots, Nancy Sinatra wants those back after the set.

WASP played the entire first album straight through, (which was why a lot of fans were here.) Most of the other songs I was not too familiar with, but a couple points to mention; one, it was a nice touch to have video from the old silent era horror movie “Haxan” playing behind their performance of "The Torture Never Stops". Two, even if Blackie Lawless was using backing tracks, he hid it well and the presentation was really good.

After they finished playing the WASP album straight through, the band took a short set break of about 15 minutes. The second set began with a bit of a medley including “Inside the Electric Circus,” “I Don’t Need No Doctor,” and “Scream Until You like it.” In one odd choice, WASP chose to cover The Who’s “The Real Me.”

Now, this one was done pretty well, (although certainly no one is going to forget Roger Daltry,) but I asked Little Johnny if he thought that song choice was also a Freudian type of number. Was Blackie subtly asking the audience if they saw through the smoke/fog and mirrors/lights to the fact that WASP was less a real band now and more just A.I. with an aging lead singer? Johnny took a sip of his favorite Arcada beverage (the Whitechapel Martini) and said, “It must be scary to live in your head Beard.”

WASP’s big finish was “Wild Child” and “Blind in Texas” which were both crowd favorites and big hits back in the day. This nicely bookended the show with two huge cuts to start and two more to end the set. No “Animal F*ck like a Beast” on the setlist so apparently Blackie’s religious conversion of about fifteen years ago is still holding up.

Walking out, I thought, hey, I never saw them in their heyday, and now I have. I enjoyed the songs I knew. I felt their stage show was good. The sound and lights were good. They created visually and audibly and in the end they offered a product, and I paid to see it and enjoyed myself. I think in performance art that is ultimately the goal so WASP gave me what I wanted and therefore I will crack a cold one for Blackie and his band with a 90/100 and one more band off the endless bucket list.

And that is one more review off the 2024 list. Stay tuned each week to your home for metal music The Mighty Decibel. Read our live concert reviews each Wednesday and be sure to check out editor and chief Chris Tighes other great metal content. Thebeard0728 on TikTok is your one stop shopping location for almost five hundred videos of all the bands Little Johnny and I have reviewed and of course friend or follow Mark McQueen on Facebook for all the non-metal reviews. Currently we have fifty-three of those in 2024. The Beard and Little Johnny, always reviewing, always rocking. So, until next time remember, “Live Life” “Stay Heavy” and “Horns Up.”