The night was cold but not cold enough to ward off people from going out. Once you arrived at The Marquee you were met by a 10-minute car line to get inside to find parking. If you were lucky, you would have found a spot to park. The parking lot attendants did their best to accommodate everyone. There were two lines forming; one was for the early entrance and the other was for regular entrance. Both lines were extremely long and wrapped around the parking lot and around the corner. The crowd was an amazing mix of older generations and younger metalheads. Some people looked like they never left the 80s while others dawned a more sophisticated rocker vibe, if you didn’t fit into those two categories most likely you were just wearing band shirts and jeans.
The first band to open up the concert was Armored Saint. This Los Angeles based band formed in 1982, in 1990 they took a hiatus due to the death of their guitarist David Prichard caused by Leukemia. In 1992 the band broke up due to John Bush going to Anthrax but in 1999 the band reunited and hit the road again. The band came out onto the stage and the crowd went wild. They opened up with “Reign of Fire”. Some of the fans could be seen singing along. Smiles could be seen on all the faces. The band came out with high energy that everyone fed off. The band moved all over the, taking advantage of the space, creating a show that the audience would eat up. The band ended their set with their song “March of the Saint” off their 1984 album March of the Saint.
Everyone was buzzing with excitement, thrill, and joy! This night was going to be remembered by everyone for years to come. The lights went dark and then some back lights came on. The band, W.A.S.P., began to came onto the stage and the crowd went nuts. They opened up their set with “On Your Knees / The Flame / The Torture Never Stops / Inside the Electric Circus”. W.A.S.P. is a heavy metal band from Los Angeles that formed in 1982. The band consists of Blackie Lawless-lead vocals/guitar, Mike Duda-bass/backing vocals, Doug Blair-guitar/backing vocals, and Aquiles Priester-drums.
Lawless has a unique set up that has not been seen before. His microphone sits behind a giant spinal skeleton and skull that is made out of meta. The skeleton covers Lawless’ body. The band members energy was electric, they jumped and spun from one side of the stage to the other. The audience soaked up their energy and demonstrated it. The audience jumped, danced and sang along word for word. They were in a trance that only W.A.S.P. could control. After they played their fourth song “Wild Child”, Lawless addressed the audience.
He stated “Promoters didn’t think we could sell tickets but you guys pushed them! It wasn’t a few hundred that put the pressure on it was thousands! We played three shows so far and they have all been sold out!”
The crowd went absolutely bonkers, they screamed, cheered, clapped, yelled and howled with hippiness. They were creating new memories and reliving old memories. The band played two encores. Their first encore consisted of “Chainsaw Charlie (Murders in the new Morgue” and “Blind in Texas”. In the second encore they played “Animal (Fuck Like a Beast)” and “The Real Me” a cover of a song by The Who. This concert was truly a step back into the 80s and brought back many memories whether it was memories of going to their concerts or just memories of being teens in the 80s!
W.A.S.P.
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