21-10-2009 W.A.S.P

Supports: Wolf, Villieläin; Venue: Pakkahuone, Tampere (Finland)
By: Sabine van Gameren

Tonight, Pakkahuone in Tampere (Finland) gave stage to the rockers of W.A.S.P. That this band is popular here may be known by the queue in front of the door already way before the doors open.

Supportact was Wolf. This band comes from Sweden and had played in Tampere before. The band is actually formed in 1995 with releasing their debut in 2000. It is to be said that there are a couple of people who know this band in the audience but it is not from the first song on that they get appreciation. It takes a while before the Finns get warmed by the overenergetic Swedes who want to see all corners of the stage, often passing each other and pretend that the stage is small, which even though the instruments for W.A.S.P were already set up, is not the reality at all. Music wise the melodic side seems to be the main attraction of the band. Vocalwise there was an expectation of hearing a raw voice, but the surprise was there with hearing a more clean voice. The band tried everything to attract the audience in their act with minimum result, perhaps the band should have been just playing as that would have gained more respect.

Pakkahuone is connected with the smaller club called Klubi. Those who are allowed in the 18+ side of the venue have access to Klubi also as the door in between these two venues were opened. On the Klubi stage it was Villieläin that played while the Pakkahuone stage got prepared for W.A.S.P.
Villieläin is a gothic metal band with some serious heavy metal riffing. But main attraction must be the soprano vocals of Nemilia. Besides the fact that her appearance is already taking the attention of many with extreme eyelashes and just gorgeous clothes, the vocals are special enough to get your attention. They did not do the typical thing to do for a band in their genre and therefore make that little difference that makes me watch this band for the whole set. Also interesting in this band is that keyboards are often touching industrial elements. This modern approach in combination with classical vocals are fresh. To say is that the vocals are Finnish, so maybe not all international listeners might feel attracted to this band. The band recently released their debutalbum “Julma Satu”.

W.A.S.P is band formed in 1982 and hardly needs any introduction. People in the audience had been chanting their name already before the support acts started and some fanatics were guarding their front row spot with their lives. The band had chosen to play one of their success songs “Wild Child” quite early in their set, which made the audience active for singing along. The band played songs from most albums, “The Last Command” was very well represented as well as they gave attention to their latest release: “Babylon”. This abum is released quite shortly so hardly anyone knew the song, but it was in line with W.A.S.P’s earlier work so the audience adopted it quite fast.
In the second half of the set some ballads were played and the audience enjoyed it in silence with here and there some people who softly sung along. Also the visual aspect became more important in the second half of the set. A video screen showed old footage of the band as well as some more shocking material. Blackie (vocals) seemed to make a political statement within his choice for the songs and the footage, but he did not preached it to the audience. So for those who look a step beyond their aural pleasure would experience a deeper meaning. After one song, Blackie actually said a prayer but off mic.
Overall the show was played very well and the band showed exactly why they are still relevant in nowadays music scene: They just do what they always did and even better!