I had already watch W.A.S.P. during their 'Crimson Idol' tour at their recent stop in Athens but I wanted to get a second fill. So, W.A.S.P. came to Illinois and performed at Mokena_s The Pearl Room in the context of their 15th Anniversary celebrations.
I arrive at the venue 15 minutes before the door opening time and watched a human line of almost 50 metalheads who were patiently waiting. After I bought myself an nice W.A.S.P. t-shirt I made my way to the front line since I didn't want to miss anything from Jonathan's video captions. Despite the fact that there was no previous announcement the billing contained three more bands that intended to warm the crowd up for Blackie's company.
The band who came first on-stage was THE LAST VEGAS from Chicago, IL. This band, as I found out later through the internet, is pretty famous in the States and has earned some pretty flattering reviews. Their style is deeply influenced from bands like MOTLEY CRUE and THE ALMIGHTY with a dirty Hard Rock sound and a great deal of on-stage attitude. Their performance was pretty good, especially the guitarists did a fine job, but they completely failed to warm up the audience that was standing still. Raw Dog and Loose Lips managed to stick to my mind but I don't think I will remember much of them after one month (sorry). You can watch below the live recorded song Raw Dog that is also featured in the famous Play Station game Guitar Hero II.
While the stage was been prepared for the next act I talked to one of the band's guitarist Jeremy Sparta and found that A.D.D. was called to perform at The Pearl Room in a short notice (one day before). A.D.D. managed to impress me with the compact rhythm section, the change between aggression and melody and the female vocals. Margaret has an excellent voice and really good looks; her vocals changed profile at easy from melodic to harsh ones while she was excellently supported by the Jeremy in the backing ones. A.D.D. performed really solid and justly they earned the audience applause. I definitely enjoyed the catchy The Path, Can't Breathe and the melodic Maybe. So, A.D.D. is a band that is worth checking out.
The banners that the road crew was setting up made me smile since the next band was FATAL SMILE from Sweden. Their debut release Neo Natural Freaks in 2006 made quite an impression with their Glam style based on MOTLEY CRUE profile. So, after a 20 minute wait the Swedes got on-stage with an obvious high mood. In fact this mood did not made through the audience that was standing still in front of FATAL SMILE that were sweating their arses off. Blade was restless and tried very hard to established a connection with the U.S. fans and in some point he succeeded. S.O.B. and Learn Love Hate (watch the video below) did make some heads move and I think their after show presence in the merchandise proved that eventually they did good at the Mokena that night.
After the Swedes gad gone off the stage the road crew started preparing the place for W.A.S.P. A kind announcement warned us that no cameras would be allowed during the band's performance and if that happened the responsible person would have to leave the venue. In the beginning this announcement made me feeling kind of bad; but after a second thought I came to this conclusion: the 'Crimson Idol' tour is something really special fro Blackie since it is based on an effort that came from his heart and practically he owns it.
The lights came down and the first scenes from Jonatha's story was projected on the screen on the back. There was only one spotlight that was pointed to Blackie or Doug Blair during his excellently performed guitar solos. Blackie remained totally expressionless during the The Crimson Idol tracks since it was Jonathan's time. I got for the second time shivers down my spine as I watched Jonathan stealing his guitar or smashing those mirrors that were surrounding him and of course it was an strong emotional ending when he took his own life by handing himself with the guitar strings. W.A.S.P. made me say excellent for the second time!
After the end of the show Blackie said: we will be back in a few minutes and got off stage. In our surprise the screen in the back of the stage starting showing Elvis Presley's live performance for some unknown reasons. Finally, the band returned with a completely different on-stage presence! Mike Duda and Doug Blair were running up and down the stage while Blackie was the classic Blackie. So, while Elvis was conquering the crowds behind the stage W.A.S.P. performed the classics L.O.V.E. Machine, Wild Child and finishing of with Blind In Texas leaving out of the setlist I Wanna Be Somebody.
With one of Blackie's pick in my hand and a signed copy of FATAL SMILE's S.O.B. single I made my way out of the venue being almost ecstatic. Although the band gave an excellent performance the U.S. fans did not reacted as I was expecting and maybe this was the reason for the smaller encore.
