On July 23rd, W.A.S.P. performed at Skansen in Stockholm, Sweden. Fan-filmed video of the band's show can be viewed below.
The setlist was as follows:
"On Your Knees"
"Inside the Electric Circus"
"The Real Me" (The Who cover)
"L.O.V.E. Machine"
"Crazy"
"The Idol"
"Hellion" / "I Don't Need No Doctor"
"Arena of Pleasure"
Encore:
"Chainsaw Charlie (Murders in the New Morgue)"
"The Great Misconceptions of Me"
Encore 2:
"Wild Child"
"I Wanna Be Somebody"
Ultimate Classic Rock caught up with Black Lawless in late April to discuss W.A.S.P.'s "meteoric" rise to fame, their highly anticipated US tour, the key to career longevity and his thoughts on reintroducing the rude, crude classic "Animal (Fuck Like A Beast)" into the band's live set to mark the occasion.
With the band hitting the road in the US for the first time in a decade, and with a lot of his contemporaries starting to call it quits and going on their farewell tours, Blackie contemplates whether that creates more excitement and urgency among fans to go see this tour.
Says Blackie: 'You may be right. I don't think of age as a number. I think it's how you feel, and I still feel like I'm in my 20s. I feel really good, I can do most everything I've ever done, so I feel pretty good about where I'm at. The thoughts of retirement just don't appeal to me. I see some people use it as a marketing tool, and I've always thought that was kind of a cheap stunt. I mean, if they're sincere about it, then you probably do - I shouldn't say probably - you do owe it to a fan base to tell them if you're indeed gonna stop. I mean, my natural reaction, I'm the kind of person that I would want to just do it till I can't do it anymore. And then I'd just stop. You know, one day you just don't go into the office anymore. I don't want a gold watch from anybody for my years of servitude. That's not my thing. But I do think that you would have an obligation to let people know if you were indeed gonna stop. But that's just not my thing. That’s not the way I would go about it. Because what do you do when you retire? You know, we were fortunate enough - and I say we [as in] anybody who does this for a living - you did it because you would've done it for free anyway, so what's there to stop? If you physically cannot do it anymore, I get that. But you've been blessed to make a living at your hobby, this thing that's been your passion. So why do you want to stop? I mean, I don't."
Read the full interview at Ultimate Classic Rock, and find W.A.S.P.'s complete live itinerary here.
