{"id":357970,"date":"2025-08-19T23:27:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T23:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/357970\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T23:27:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T23:27:13","slug":"live-review-w-a-s-p-o2-academy-glasgow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/357970\/","title":{"rendered":"LIVE REVIEW: W.A.S.P. @ O2 Academy, Glasgow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nothing sets the mood at a rock \u2018n\u2019 roll show like a stagehand announcing that anyone crowdsurfing tonight will be ejected from the venue. The mood is threatened further when, by show\u2019s end, it is just half past nine and the Glaswegian crowd are sent home in broad summer daylight. W.A.S.P<\/b>., here celebrating the 40th anniversary of their debut record<\/a> (technically 41st now), roll in and out of the city with some haste and no support act, certain in their abilities to deliver a tight show that can withstand these square conditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the most part, it does. One woman can loudly be heard protesting \u2018surely not!\u2019 when the houselights come on, but so can praise for Blackie Lawless<\/b>\u2019 voice, with one attendee noting he sounded fantastic. Read any comments surrounding live reviews of W.A.S.P.<\/b> shows from the last few years and backing tracks dominate the discourse. Lawless<\/b> is honest about the band\u2019s use of them, and they are apparent if you keep an ear out; some choruses sound a little too perfect. Lawless<\/b> doesn\u2019t put a foot wrong either, his snarl as pronounced now as on the band\u2019s 1984 debut. Is he having some assistance? Probably, but the only thing he is guilty of is honesty. Lots of bands, most far younger than Lawless<\/b>\u2019 68 years, are having some help on stage. His only crime is inviting us behind the curtain.<\/p>\n

\"W.A.S.P.W.A.S.P. live @ O2 Academy, Glasgow. Photo Credit: Duncan McCall<\/p>\n

Besides, in the room, it all sounds great. I Wanna Be Somebody<\/b> as an opener is an instant shot of adrenaline for a crowd ready to party, even if Lawless<\/b> admits to some nerves about its placement so early in the show. Full album runthroughs take the responsibility of constructing a setlist off the band, and for the opening ten songs at least, everyone knows what\u2019s coming next. L.O.V.E. Machine<\/b> and On Your Knees<\/b> are stands out, both for their anthemic qualities and how of their time they sound. They have a transportive effect on the audience, made up of many who were old enough to buy the record on its release, taking everyone back to their hedonistic youth in the 1980s. A few of this evening\u2019s songs \u2013 B.A.D.<\/b>, School Daze<\/b>, Tormentor<\/b> \u2013 haven\u2019t featured in W.A.S.P.<\/b> shows since 1985. While some bands take albums on the road for their 10th anniversary, the occasion feels all the more momentous when some tracks haven\u2019t been played since before many of us were born.\u00a0<\/p>\n

W.A.S.P.<\/b> have been performing this exact show for a while now, so it is a fine-tuned machine. There\u2019s little space for improvisation or any sort of surprise, but what cuts through is guitarist Doug Blair<\/b>\u2019s stellar work stage-left. He is a proper old-school shredder, dishing out tasteful, genre-worshipping solos every five minutes. If there\u2019s any cynicism towards backing tracks, Blair<\/b>\u2019s virtuoso performance is a real tonic, an organic display by a performer at the top of his game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"W.A.S.P.W.A.S.P. live @ O2 Academy, Glasgow. Photo Credit: Duncan McCall<\/p>\n

The stage is decked out like a carnival \u2013 or indeed an electric circus \u2013 with screens showing old music videos. They switch to clips from World War II during The Headless Children<\/b>, and they\u2019re depressingly similar to many scenes coming from Gaza, the song highlighting a bleak inevitability about the world\u2019s cruelty. But for the most part this is an upbeat affair, a celebration of a long career front-loaded with songs that have already become their legacy. Yet, for a band in their twilight years, their resum\u00e9 shows a living, breathing act: they\u2019ve visited Glasgow four times in the last decade alone, putting more reps in than most of their contemporaries, many of whom they\u2019ve outlived. It\u2019s over before the sun even thinks about setting, but it\u2019s hard to feel anything other than happy in a room in which everyone knows this can\u2019t last forever, so we\u2019re all going to make the most of it tonight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rating: 7\/10\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Check out our photo gallery of the night\u2019s action in Glasgow from Duncan McCall here:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like W.A.S.P. on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nothing sets the mood at a rock \u2018n\u2019 roll show like a stagehand announcing that anyone crowdsurfing tonight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7826],"tags":[748,918,4884,126001,712,16,15,126002],"class_list":{"0":"post-357970","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-glasgow","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-glasgow","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-o2-academy-glasgow","12":"tag-scotland","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-w-a-s-p"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}