W.A.S.P. & TAILGUNNER

If I am being honest (and why wouldn’t I be?), I headed to the LCR tonight expecting 80s metal “legends” W.A.S.P. to be either unintentionally hilarious or utterly dire. This is a band that I last saw in 1992 and stopped actively listening to long before that… From the intro tape of The Doors’ The End and a W.A.S.P. medley almost drowned out by air raid sirens and gunfire, I am surprised by just how good they are.

Tonight’s main set is 1984’s debut album played in its entirety. Of course, lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and main man Blackie Lawless is the only member of the line-up that recorded that album, on stage tonight but he is more than ably backed up by Mike Duda on bass, lead guitarist Doug Blair and powerhouse drummer Aquiles Priester. The stage set is a prime example of 80s metal excess. Duda and Blair’s mic stands are made to look like heavy duty chains. Priester’s kit is massive. Lawless’s stand is some kind of spine-skull-‘bike handle bars-pogo stick affair and he’s dressed in more or less the same leather/spandex/buzzsaw stage gear he’s been wearing since the early days. The backdrop is made up of banners resembling carnie/circus posters (and later video screens). The backing tracks – which Lawless is open about using - make the songs sound HUGE. The lightshow is suitably over the top. It is just like grunge never came along to sweep this excess away.

From opener I Wanna Be Somebody to encore closer Blind In Texas, this is a full on metal show. Yes, it is ridiculous – a band all born before 1975 performing School Daze!?! - excessive and pure escapism without any relation to the real world BUT it is pure entertainment and damnably good fun. And the band can PLAY, with Priester being particularly impressive. Oh, and it was a nice touch to see the late, great Steve Riley in the footage from the band’s heyday shown on the screens during the set. Johnny Rod was a less welcome sight…

With an enthusiastic crowd ranging in age from teens to those old enough to have been at the Lyceum in October ’84 – including a lad probably less than half the age of most of the songs singing along word perfectly – there is clearly an audience for old school, OTT shock-rocking metal. Whilst I will not be going back to revisit W.A.S.P.s recorded work, the live show is a properly FUN spectacle,

Openers TAILGUNNER are also old school metal. With an image that is all leather, studs, synchronised headbanging and flailing hair, they could’ve just stepped out of a time machine from NWOBHM HQ the Walthamstow Royal Standard in 1981. Whilst the sound is rooted in that era, there are plenty of speed/power metal and thrash influences. Bassist Tom Hewson. lead vocalist Craig Cairns and guitarists Rhea Thompson and Zach Salvini cover every inch of stage whilst drummerEddie Mariotti propels it all along. There is nothing original in what Tailgunner do and Cairns’ vox are too Bruce Dickinson for my tastes but Tailgunner are more than decent exponents of this kinda thing. It may not be up my street and the band are perhaps too in thrall to their influences but they are passionate, get a strong response from a large chunk of the crowd and I can’t fault their enthusiasm.