Legendry W.A.S.P. front man Blackie Lawless on stage in Dublin last month. Photo: Aled Thomas

I promised a few people I’d do a little gig report on the W.A.S.P. show in Dublin last month. That however was before my month went a little crazy with work and a few other things and it didn’t get done. Anyway, better late than never and my apologies to those waiting for it.

Put simply, if you missed this then you are probably still kicking yourself pretty hard. The buzz around this show has been quite immense with the term ‘gig of the year’ being bandied about the auld interweb quite a bit. While I can’t quite tag it that, it was indeed one hell of a show and one that will be talked about for some time to come.

W.A.S.P. have been here a number of times in recent years and the band’s last show, in the same venue, all be it by default (they had been booked to play Tripod but construction work didn’t finish on time) was pretty memorable too. The novelty of seeing a band of W.A.S.P.’s stature in such a small venue wasn’t lost on those who turned up that night despite the late rescheduling.

W.A.S.P.’s Irish Fans came out in force (and brought porn....) Photo: Aled Thomas

This time round the sell-out crowed wedged into the Button Factory were really up for it. The fact that it was a weekend night really added to the buzz for many in attendance, with a very busy bar evident throughout the night. Alas, I was to witness the entire show completely stone cold sober and that might be why I won’t go as far as calling it gig of the year. But it was certainly special. You can often call these occasions by the type people who show up and they really came out of the woodwork for W.A.S.P. with this one. There was a healthy mix of young, old (you know what I mean), Irish and foreign nationalities in attendance with plenty of members of some of the bigger Irish metal bands also knocking around.

The set-list impressed with the more recent material standing well beside the hits of old. Two songs from Dominator might otherwise have seemed a bit much, but gelled well in the set-list on this occasion. Blackie led the band in what was certainly the best performance I’ve seen from W.A.S.P over the past half a decade and even had a little bit of banter with the crowd while he was at it.

If I recall correctly (a month later) the set-list was along these lines:

On Your Knees
The Real Me
L.O.V.E. Machine
Crazy
Babylons Burning – New
Wild Child
Hellion/I Dont Need No Doctor/Scream Until You Like It
Arena of Pleasure
Chainsaw Charlie
The Idol
Take Me Up – New
I Wanna Be Somebody
Heavens Hung In Black
Blind In Texas

The Last Command: Blackie had the audience eating out of his hand in the Button Factory. They were certainly near enough.... Photo: Aled Thomas

Thanks to Aled Thomas for the photos.