White Anglo Saxon Protestant, We Are Sick People, We Are Sexual Perverts, those are the acronym translations I remember as a kid back in 1984 when W.A.S.P.'s debut album hit the shelves in the glory days of North American metal.  But let’s have some fun here, W.A.S.P. coulda meant anything… Want A Shit Popsicle?  Anybody?  No?  What A Slutty Prostitute… Wither Away Silently Please… Wendel’s A Snot Picker… You get the point.  What DID W.A.S.P. really stand for? I don’t recall anyone actually coming right out and saying it.  Same with Black Sabbath’s N.I.B. or Ozzy’s S.A.T.O. from the Diary of a Madman album.  What the hell did they stand for?  Anybody care to fill me in?

 Personally I think W.A.S.P. stood for White Anglo Saxon Protestant.  I never actually made up my mind on that one til I saw W.A.S.P. live for the first time on Thursday night, at the Phoenix in Toronto when one of the hand picked touring acts, Liquid Violence, hit the stage looking like the traveling Nazi show from Pink Floyd’s kick ass movie, The Wall.  To be honest I don’t really care what W.A.S.P. stands for.  I believe in letting others believe what they want.  People can say whatever the fuck they feel like as long as it doesn’t actually hurt someone.  At one point I turned to the bored looking Rasta man at the juice bar and asked him what he thought of the Nazis.  He just shrugged with a bit of a sneer and gave a dismissing wave of his hand.  Perfect.

So when I requested the W.A.S.P. pass, I was pretty well turned down immediately and basically told that Blackie Lawless, W.A.S.P.'s founding front man/rhythm guitarist, is REALLY strict about cameras at the shows.  This kinda puzzled me.  Up until I heard about this particular show, I didn’t even think they were still together recording and touring anymore.  I thought Blackie would welcome any attention he could possibly get at this point of the game.

I Googled W.A.S.P..  Wikepedia’s definition popped up first:  White Anglo Saxon Protestant.  A few entries down, WASPARMY.COM.  W.A.S.P. ARMY?????  Hold on here.  I knew about the KISS Army, hell I was practically an honorary general in that crew having shot them six times in the past 15 years.  Then through the thick smoke in my brain, I remember Blackie claiming he actually was the first to spit blood on a New York stage before Gene ever thought about it.  Apparently, Blackie had been playing in the New York scene before KISS reared it’s painted face and influenced Gene not only with the blood but also with the, now infamous hand gesture, the devil horns.

After perusing the WASPARMY site, I noticed there were a lot of overseas dates and way more posts from Europeans than North Americans hence I concluded that W.A.S.P. isn’t too worried about it’s local success cuz they’re kickin ass elsewhere baby.  Why bother banging your head against the North American market in futility?  North America is just not embracing metal the way they used to.  So you can see why W.A.S.P. said fuckit and slipped into Canada to do a single show in Toronto and then buh bye.

The guys from W.A.S.P. strut out onto the stage and confidently eased into the first song of the Crimson Idol album, a ballad called, The Titanic Overture.  This tune is basically a mellow ballad.  Who the fuck opens a metal show with a ballad??  Someone who doesn’t give a fuck about the rules, that’s who.  This didn’t affect the crowd’s enthusiasm for Blackie and the boys one bit.  The first set was the entire Crimson Idol album played front to back showcasing Blackie’s conceptual songwriting skills as well as a black n white video visualizing the music.

The Crimson Idol tells the story of Jonathon Steele, who grows up in a lower middle class home with an older brother, Michael, who is the apple of his parent’s eye, while Jonathon is like the invisible kid.  At the age of 16 Jonathon takes off to the city to pursue a career in music ending up in a fictional place called the “Arena of Pleasure”.  He struggles for a couple of years until he meets Chainsaw Charlie who happens to be the president of one of the biggest record companies in show business.  Jonathon later meets a gypsy who tells him his fortune and warns him to be careful what he’s wished for because it may come true.  He later goes on to become one of the biggest things in music but even after reaching the top of the pile, discovers he, as Bono would say, “still hasn’t found what he’s looking for”.  Ultimately, Johnathon decides he’s gonna go out with a bang so he takes the 6 strings from his guitar, winds them together and hangs himself during a show, right in front of the audience. This proves to be the ultimate rock suicide being a musician who kills himself with the very instrument that put him in the position he’s desired for so long.

Pretty heavy concept considering the often two dimensional world of metal.  This whole part of the show, not a single photo was to be taken.  Not even a cell phone camera was allowed or instant ejection from the show would take place.  When set one wound down, this was my cue to jump into the photo pit for the two songs Blackie allowed us to photograph.  How fitting that the two songs I geared up to shoot were a couple of my favourite W.A.S.P. classics:  1984’s L.O.V.E. Machine (there we go with the acronyms again) and 1985’s Wild Child.  Both of which I know word for word and couldn’t decide whether to shoot the band or rock the fuck out in the REAL front row.  So I did both.  The other photographers musta thought I was fucked pumping my fist in the air, taking a couple shots, singing a few lines, few more shots…

All in all I was totally blown away by his Lawlessness, meanwhile wondering when he switched from bass to six string.  Just as impressive as Blackie’s flawless vocals was the high end precision and speed of lead guitarist Doug Blair.  I stood glued to a few of his solos in awe.  Even though I admit, I’d pretty well forgotten about W.A.S.P., I wished I hadn’t cuz it looks like I missed a lotta good music over the years.  Rock on mista Lawless!