W.A.S.P. At MTelus

One of the original Bad Boys of Heavy Metal is currently out on the road, and he brought his band to Montreal’s MTelus in November.  In the early 1980s, W.A.S.P. were one of the most notorious bands to emerge from Los Angeles’ legendary Sunset Strip.  They rapidly gained both fame and infamy with their shock-rock songs, appearance, performances and would of course appear on a famous filthy list.  Lead singer Blackie Lawless was definitely one of the main faces of this movement, and though we find ourselves 40 years removed from that point in history, he is still out on the road giving venues full of adoring fans the chance to relive those glory days.  As many bands are doing these days, W.A.S.P. currently are touring in celebration of one of their albums.  In this case, ‘The Album One World Tour’ celebrates their debut 1984 self-titled album, W.A.S.P.  During his set, Blackie discussed how one of their managers suggested a tour to celebrate the album by playing it in its entirety and how he found the idea to be ludicrous.   They had never opened a show with their hit song, which is also the first track on the album, ‘I Wanna Be Somebody’.  He equated the idea to having Led Zeppelin open a show by playing Stairway To Heaven right off the bat.  Thankfully he eventually did give in to their wishes, as playing one of their biggest hits just got the already rabid crowd even more worked up as they all threatened to blow the roof off the venue from the get-go.  Faced with the daunting task of following Armored Saint on to the stage, Blackie Lawless and W.A.S.P. were not ready to have the show stolen from them.  From behind an impressive end of days backdrop, the band walked to the front of the stage where Blackie’s mic stand awaited.  Looking like a mix between something created for John Doe from the movie ‘Seven’ and The Terminator, it was an impressive centerpiece from which Blackie held court.  Another nice added touch was the video wall behind the band playing the music videos of the songs that W.A.S.P. were playing live.  A little bit of the present and the past mixed together.  Speaking of the past, the original W.A.S.P. line-up may be a thing of the past, but the current members who shared the stage with Blackie more than held their own.  All of the photographs were taken at f/3.2 while using various different shutter speeds, ISO settings and focal lengths.  Here are the rest of the photographs that I took of W.A.S.P. during their performance on the MTelus stage.

If you would like to find out more about W.A.S.P. and their music, you can do so by following the link to their website.  If you would like to see the photographs that I took of Armored Saint, who performed earlier that evening, you can do so by following the link.  I big thank you goes out to Michael Brandvold of Michael Brandvold Marketing and Christopher Gonda of V13 Media for getting me a pass to shoot the show, as always, it is very much appreciated.  W.A.S.P.’s Album One World Tour continues through to mid-December.  Be sure to check it out for an unforgettable blast from the past.