W.A.S.P. Full review of London Roundhouse 2023 by Dawn Osborne of TotalRock

I have seen South of Salem several times before and tonight, with a shorter set, they have reeled it in out of respect for their main headliner, so there are less death defying leaps and, they only just get going and their support slot is over.  Some of the nicest guys in the business they express their gratitude for the opportunity to be on tour for W.A.S.P. and, widely toted as bright prospect newcomers, no doubt it will not be long before they are headlining. Still they are a nice amuse bouche for the main course. The sound is not the best tonight, but they get through everything like troopers.

It seems that W.A.S.P. don’t tour that often and there is a massive appetite to see them. The excitement is palpable. My only argument tonight is that I wanted more!! As as a photographer it was great, as an extended medley at the beginning of ‘On Your Knees’, ‘The Flame’, ‘The Torture Never Stops’ and ‘Inside The Electric Circus’ meant that it seemed like we had six songs to shoot (which we needed – see the separate photo gallery on the TotalRock web site – as I got fifty shots in very difficult conditions of darkness, red light, lots of dry ice and a huge skull mike stand in front of Blackie. Had we not had a long time to shoot I would certainly have got a lower yield).  However, this did mean that after the photography I only had seven songs to go!! Blackie knows how to tease, we missed him before he even left the building.

The positive side of a short set was that we got massive song, after massive song, after massive song, as it was packed full of greatest hits. ‘Inside The Electric Circus’, ‘L.O.V.E. Machine’, ‘Wild Child’, ‘Blind In Texas’, ‘Animal’, ‘The Real Me’ and ‘I Wanna Be Somebody’. Clearly Blackie knows what his audience want and he is not so self involved as to dole out obscure B sides. Certainly he is a lot fitter than the last tour having visibly trained to be match fit, check out those shapely thighs in spandex and Native American white-tasselled knee-high moccasins (swoon). He does not take any breaks for extended drum or guitar solos (well maybe one in Crimson Idol but which was totally appropriate for that lengthy track) and at the end he swings back on the Skull mike stand and jumps on top of it gripping with only his legs, hands out like a Chinese acrobat. Most people couldn’t do such a thing in their twenties. What a legend!!

While there was not a lot of chat between songs, he does find time to thank his loyal audience for being with him since the early days and all his band and crew. He even flashed up pictures of all his former band mates. This magnanimity did not go unnoticed, although the crowd were already totally smitten.

So I already want Blackie to come back. The sound wasn’t always perfect tonight, but the songs were so massive it did not matter and everyone sang right though them anyway. Long live the King of Shock Rock!

Dawn Osborne