W.A.S.P @ Nöjesfabriken, Karlstad, Sweden 1/10 – 15
So, this was quite an eventful day actually! I went to town quite “early”, or well, at 13, to meet up with Linn and Michelle in order to attend a guitarclinic with W.A.S.P guitarist, Doug Blair.
So basically, we got there and it was… not a lot of people. Perhaps about 20, I thought it would be a bit more, but then again, Thursday 13…. perhaps not. Regardless, we all got into the little room and sat down and he came on pretty directly.
It was an interesting teach. To my surprise, it wasn’t too much technical guitarstuff, but more about his story and journey, and what to think about as an aspiring musician. He of course played us some stuff, it was things he had done for Orphaned Land, Lord of the Lost, some things he WANTED to do for Deathstars and some W.A.S.P material. The teach was over sooner than I wanted it to, what I mean to say here is that it was so fun and inspiring that it went so fast. Afterwards we got the opportunity to meet him and say hi.
Afterwards, we parted ways with Linn and went home to catch something to eat, watch a movie, get dressed for the night and eventually headed down to the arena for the show.
Since I’m a bit of a time optimist, we got on the road a tiny bit late, and it didn’t get better with us getting stuck behind a major truck who drove the wrong way, but according to my co-worker who worked at the venue that very night, we hadn’t missed a lot.
So, the first supportband of the night was the Norwegian thrashband Critical Solution. In all honesty, I wasn’t too fond of their music, it… I don’t know how to explain it. It didn’t really feel that special to me, but their image was cute. It was like merging a heavier band with the Murderdolls. It was odd, but a bit fun.
After this, we actually headed for the front row. I have seen Dynazty a couple of times before, however, I’ve never seen them with “Renatus” in their baggage, and since I didn’t really become a fan of Dynazty until that very album, I was really, REALLY excited for this one.
So, they walked on stage ar 20.30 sharp and opened the whole set with “Run Amok”, which.. startled me a little bit. I had assumed they’d start with “Cross The Line”, which actually became the second song on the set instead. Oh well then!
For the third song of the night, my personal, not only Dynazty favorite, but favorite song all in all through times, “The Northern End” came. And seriously… this song… Like I’ve told you. It’s absolutely perfect. And it was just as perfect live. I love these guys. “Dawn of your Creation” was next on the list, followed by “Unholy Deterrent”.
They wrapped the set up with “Raise Your Hands” and at last, “Starlight” before they left the stage. As you can see, it was a very “Renatus” dominated setlist, making every song but one from said album, but I’m not complaining at all. It was a really good show, I’m very pleased.
After this, the wait for W.A.S.P began. Anna and Linn came to join us, but after some consideration, we decided to give up our front row spots for an old classmate and his girlfriend instead, since we weren’t really big enough fans of W.A.S.P to really find the pressure and drunk people worth it.
They were a bit late when they entered the stage, but once they did so, the arena… well, they gave them a welcome, perhaps not the warmest, but a welcome nonetheless. They opened the show with “On Your Knees”.
They continued on with “Inside the Electric Circus”, “The Real Me” and “L.O.V.E Machine”.
And let me talk about something here for a moment. So, while I’m no superfan of W.A.S.P, I know their deal, and I know Blackie is a little bit of a diva nowadays, and I know he has strong opinion against people photographing. I can understand that it’s boring to play a show with a lot of phones straight up your face, and it is absolutely okay to prohibit photographing, if you announce it properly – by for instance, putting up signs.
Anyway, where I wanna go with this is the actions of the security guards. There was only one security guard who was even remotely active in looking into the crowd, sadly, he spent most of his time looking for cameras and making sure people weren’t photographing. Actually, it was more important for him to look for cameras, that he missed out on this one guy beating a girl. He missed out on this one guy pushing everyone for no reason, causing mayhem. He ignored this one guy who pulled down Linn a lot. He missed out on this one guy who repeatedly almost elbowed Anna in the face and so on. I can go on forever about people who were a little more than a concertgoer should have to deal with, and despite trying to get the attention, they were too busy looking for peoples cameras.
And when a request of the band becomes more important than paying customers safety, something is terribly wrong.
And perhaps Blackie should ask himself… why are they so attached to their phones? Why don’t they give things back? Perhaps the problem lies with him? Perhaps he isn’t delivering anymore. Perhaps he doesn’t give any energy to the crowd to feed off by, and if he can’t deliver why should the crowd?
Anyway. The set wasn’t very long in all honesty – They began around 21.45, and they were done a bit before 23. It was mixed materials – some old, some “Golgotha”, very mixed. I’m confused though – Doug said they were going to have a new set up on stage, but I can recall them having the same, or similar, set up just three years ago when I saw them the last time.
I’m actually a little disappointed. Or a lot. In W.A.S.P that is, not Dynazty, not even Critical Solution. Blackie’s attitude just turns me off, and the way the security guards acted the entire evening kind of ruined the whole show. And the hype around this tour… too much. Anna was even confused afterwards by the fact they didn’t play “Chainsaw Charlie”, nor did they do “Blind in Texas”. I mean sure, you don’t have to do ALL your hits… but apparently they played the first two in Gothenburg and Malmö.
Odd. Very odd. Well, I’m not sure if I’ll be turning to W.A.S.P again after this, and in all honesty, I realized yesterday that I always went to see W.A.S.P because of the supportbands, so I guess it says it all.
After the show, we spent some time with my coworkers before heading home, catching like one hour of sleep before going to work. No rest for me!
// Sara
Sara Hammerzmith 
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