French Kiss For Wasp

Artistes : WASP – French Kiss
Venue : L'Elysée Montmartre
Town : Paris
Date : 15-12-2009
Crowd : Around 850 people

Photos : LOST

The fire is set by French Kiss, a French glam, the kind you just don’t see anymore. Copy Poison, paste French Kiss and you get the main idea of tonight’s first act. Their American heritage is made even more obvious by their inevitable cover of “Talk Dirty To Me” from Poison’s album Look What The Cat Dragged In. As the rest, the performance is reasonable. These very young Parisians give it their all with strong conviction and enthusiasm. It seems that their fashion and musical influences are so apparent that all interest is quickly lost. In fact their set doesn’t manage to provoke any grand response from the audience and this is clearly not the way to heat up the Elysée...


French Kiss

Setlist:

Steady Chicks
Buy My Love
Sexpectations
Talk Dirty To Me ( reprise Poison)
I Miss You
Bite De Poulet
24/7 On The Run
Nice To F’K’N Me


It was originally the Loco venue that was supposed to great the Americans from WASP, yet it is the Elysée Montmartre instead since the latter has closed down. 850 people have gathered on this cold night and the venue is packed.

It is 8.40pm when the lights come off and WASP start off with « On Your Knees », a twenty-five year old song that manages to combat the weather’s hardships. As do all of the old tracks that are played tonight in fact. “The Real Me” from the album The Headless Children doesn’t make us feel any younger and “L.O.V.E Machine” brings us back to a time that anyone under the age of twenty would have no recollection of... The sound is excellent, brilliant in fact, and Blackie’s voice is still as sharp and recognisable amongst many. Simply unique.


Blackie is the one and only king of heavy metal


Behind the drum kit, a screen showing the band’s music videos is displayed all the way through. The oldest ones bring us back to the first line ups of the Sexual Perverts. The composition is still upheld by Mr Lawless – WASP is his band is it not?- but Doug Blair on guitar and Mike Duda on bass show presence on stage and take part in the party.

The guitarist even has his orginal guitars. One of which has its body covered by a circular saw, whilst the other has lights creating a stained glass window effect. In a breach from the old days, two tracks from the latest album keep the concert going. These songs are “Crazy” and “Babylon’s Burning”, the very best, in which the video shows Obama, Bin Laden and the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Could the Sexual Perverts have turned into Serious Politicians ?

"Crazy" and "Babylon’s Burning" are the only tracks from the new album played tonight because the set list is dominated by the years 1996 until 2004. We can vouch for the track "Wild Chid" followed by "The Hellion" and then "I Don’t Need Do Doctor".



Musically, the whole thing seems to be coherent. WASP played heavy metal tracks that are efficient. As for the crowd, it was not until “Chainsaw Charlie (Murders In The New Morgue) that they started to wake up a little. The crowd had remained quite calm at this point. In actual fact, the concert never fully manages to bring the show to life, despite a beautiful moment during “The Idol”. In this moment, Blackie and Mike leave the stage to Doug who plays us a cool solo with his stained glass guitar and followed by the drums. The screen projection is the cross of Crimson and it is one of the best video effects of the whole evening. Blackie makes sure to demonstrate his still capable singing skills on this track...



Guitarist going nuts.


« Take Me Up » from the album Dominator also manages to awaken the crowd and of course “I Wanna Be Somebody” finally provokes something big in the room. The song has the same effect on the stage, as the musicians go a little crazy on this one. It’s a shame... because one hour and fifteen minutes into the gig and the pause before the encores is already up.

« Heaven’s Hung In Black » from Dominator will be the first track played, before the even better « Blind In Texas » puts an end to the evening so that the band and the audience can share their final moments together. Better late than never was the moment when the audience started to sing the lyrics to Blackie much to his delight, who despite his old age, is still capable of withholding the band for so many years.


Thank you Sir



What should be remember from tonight? We should remember that shock rock is all packed up in dusty boxes containing the Perverts’ history now and that only the circular saws on Blackie’s outfit can remind us of the time when WASP was all about provocation, scaring parents, grandparents and the American PMRC (Parent Music Resource Centre). WASP have indeed written some amazing heavy metal tracks, yet the concert tonight was slow to take off. Could the weather take some of the blame? Or is this because of a dull performance overall?

The truth must be a little of both.

Setlist:

On Your Knees / Real Me
L.O.V.E Machine
Crazy
Babylon’s Burning
Wild Child
Hellion / I Don’t Need No Doctor / Scream
Arena Of Pleasure
Chainsaw Charlie (Murders In The New Morgue)
The Idol
Take Me Up
I Wanna Be Somebody

Encores

Heaven’s Hung In Black
Blind In Texas