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15/06/2004 - Paris, France (Elysée Montmartre)
by Thomas "ulti" Inglebert
exclusive pictures from Murder-One @ www.metalchroniques.com

Arriving a few hours before the show, I had the chance of witnessing the set up of the stage and the soundchecks of the three bands that were to play tonight : Dyecrest, DragonForce and, of course, W.A.S.P. !

The afternoon began with my meeting with Herman, DragonForce's guitar-player, a very friendly person speaking French fluently ! We hang out for a while, as there was really nothing to do while the roadies were setting up the stage, including Blackie's impressive microphone stand, which needed 4 people to lift it and put it in place !

A little later on, as I walked around the dressing rooms, I saw Stet Howland who has just gotten out of the shower, and, him being the nicest guy in the world as always, immediately walked towards me to say hi and chat for a while. Even if he must surely have been really tired like the rest of the band, as this was one of the last dates of the European tour, he was really friendly, happy to talk about W.A.S.P. and his other band as well (Carnival Of Souls), and making jokes about his age (42, yep he surely doesn't look like 42 !) or people wanting him to sign covers from records on which he didn't play ! I had the chance of meeting him and interviewing him over the phone some times before, and Stet always stays true to himself, a real happy friendly person, besides being one of the best drummers in the world !

As Stet was going outside for a walk (with a cow-boy hat), Mike Duda and Darell Roberts got inside, and... well... they were not really as nice as Stet at first ! The thing was, they had a lot of problems on previous dates were local people just got into their dressing room to make sandwiches ! After having told them that I had already eaten ;-) the atmosphere got a lot more relaxed and friendly ! They were indeed really tired, having played almost every night for 2 months, and Mike asked me if I could get Darell out for a trip in Pigalle (the neighborhood were the Elysée Montmartre stands) and find him a hooker !

We didn't had time for this as the soundchecks were ready to begin, with Dyecrest at first, a band from Finland who played a cover of Bon Jovi's "Runaway" to do the soundcheck, and this was a very cool speedy version, I don't know if they have the intention of putting this in one of their records but they should !

As time was running out, W.A.S.P. was next on the soundcheck and DragonForce didn't had time to do theirs.
Stet was first on the drumkit, waiting quite a long time for the others to arrive. He noticed the black curtain that separated the Elysee Montmartre in two, and kept making jokes about the "curtain of shame" and the "curtain of despair" ! Blackie, who had been staying in the tourbus all afternoon, arrived last, in T-Shirt and shorts, and the next few minutes were one of the most extreme experiences of my whole life !

Not because I saw Blackie, because I already met him a lot of times, but because the band choose to play "L.O.V.E. Machine" to do the soundcheck, and this "soundcheck version" was the best version I've ever heard of this song ! It was fast, aggressive, Blackie wasn't singing the whole song but just parts of it, and he was standing like a statue in front of his microphone stand, almost expressionless but looking very angry at the whole world. The other boys, maybe because they were tired as well, didn't look so happy as well, but all of this was so cool and extreme to watch and listen to, the most hatred version of "L.O.V.E. Machine " ever ! They really should put this on a B-side someday !

Anyway, after this, the boys all got back into their dressing room, and as I didn't want to interrupt their concentration before the show, it was decided that I would chat with Blackie after the show.

The doors opened at 6.30 PM, and Dyecrest hit the stage first, at 7PM. I didn't had much time to see them, as I was arranging something special for the DragonForce set : Aude & Reynald, former directors of W.A.S.P. WARRIORS with me some years ago, came to the Paris show along with their 10 year-old boy who his a great DragonForce fan ! He had this 10 year-old size DragonForce TShirt, and when Herman and the rest of the band knew about this, they decided that he should get on stage with them for the last song of their show ! As Dyecrest was finishing his show (good heavy-speed metal), we arranged things with backstage passes and DragonForce was ready to hit the stage.

DragonForce's set consisted of only 4 songs, as they were 7-minutes long each ! The band was in great shape, and seeing Herman, previously a quiet friendly person becoming this jumping guitar-hero on stage was pretty amazing ! The audience reacted very good, especially to Herman's awesome guitar solos. The Dyecrest dudes went up on stage at one point to jam with DragonForce, and everyone was feeling very joyful. At the end of the 3rd song, I took Aude and her son backstage so that he could get on stage, which he did by the end of the 4th song, and he seemed very at ease on stage, not impressed at all, giving the devil's horns and playing air-guitar ! The audience reacted really good to this, and the set ended in a feeling of real happiness on both sides.

But now, time was up for the serious things to happen...

As the roadies were putting up Blackie's impressive microphone stand, the crowd roared, and when the lights went down, the roar became even louder.
The intro consisted of the two "Neon God" giant flags on both sides of the stage being illuminated and the intro of the "Neon God" album being played at maximum volume, and just at the end of it, as the lights were up a bit, we could see the whole band standing on stage, and starting with a furious medley of "On Your Knees", "Inside The Electric Circus", "Hellion" and "Chainsaw Charlie". The crowd immediately started to sing (or yell, most accurately) every word of every chorus, and even louder on the "hey hey hey" on "Chainsaw Charlie", which seemed to please the band a lot, and gave them even more powerful energy !

For the first time he played in Paris, Darrell fitted perfectly with the rest of the band, especially with Blackie on the "Chainsaw Charlie" guitar parts where they were both standing face to face across the mike stand. Mike was great as always, being in the band for so long, jumping everywhere and giving the finger, singing lines along with Blackie on some parts.

After this excellent medley, Blackie didn't even gave us time to breathe, as they almost instantly went on with "L.O.V.E. Machine", where the crowd went wild during the chorus, you couldn't even hear the band at times ! I was still under the impression of the excellent angry rendition of this song that they made during the soundcheck, so it could only have appeared a bit fader to me, but it was great nevertheless.

Instead of the usual "I wanna know how many of you metalheads fuck like a beast", Blackie started to say "I got pictures of naked ladies lying on their beds... if you fuck like a beast, you're an animal !!!", and "Animal" was next, with the crowd yelling "I fuck like a beast" on every chorus ! It was followed by the classic "Wild Child", with its excellent guitar intro played by Blackie and its also excellent ending where Blackie started to swing on its Terminator skull-like microphone !

After this shot of classic songs, Blackie told us that they had a new album out (for those who were in a coma for the last few months) and that they were to do 2 songs from it right now. It started with "What I'll Never Find", a softer song during which we were able to take our breath back, and watch Darrell doing amazing guitar solos, alone on stage surrounded by a beautiful red light, and continued with "Sister Sadie", where the crowed woke up again and joined Mike & Stet on the "hey ya" parts ! I wish they had also done "Asylum #9", "XTC Riders" and "Raging Storm" from the Neon God album, but they obviously didn't had time to do it all, the show already lasted almost 1 hour and a half !

During the whole show, the band was thanking the crowd, apparently very pleased with the answer they got from the audience !

At the end of "Sister Sadie", the lights went down completely, and we could hear the intro of "My Tortured Eyes", from the KFD album. Only one light came up, a green light, just showing a little bit of Blackie standing on top of his mike stand. During the course of the song, he would put some special paint all over his face, arm, and the skull stand, which, combined with the green light, made him slowly appear as a horror figure escaped from the deepest pits of hell... This is a very special thing that's impossible to describe, you really have to see it for yourself to fully comprehend it.

As the crowd was watching this almost religiously, the song ended, the lights went up again, and the whole band was in place for the "Real Me", which is so powerful, so in-your-face, that it will surely become a classic of every W.A.S.P. show ! Another classic came with "I Wanna Be Somebody", on which the crowd, even if it was becoming exhausted by this non-stop succession of hits, found the strength to roar "I Wanna Be Somebody Too" ! A great moment, as always !
At the end of the song, Blackie just said "good night" and went away....

What ? Would this be the end ? No way !!!
The audience just wouldn't take it, and they started calling the band back, for quite a long time, before Blackie re-appeared, all by himself, wearing his famous BC Rich Warlock guitar (he had another guitar for the rest of the show, a more classic guitar but with the Los Angeles Raiders American Football team logo on it).
Blackie then started to play alone, just his voice and his guitar, and gave us a very sensitive medley of "Titanic Overture / The Idol / The Gypsy Meets The Boy / Sleeping In The Fire". Everyone was in awe, holding its breath and just enjoying the moment... It was almost surreal, a real artistic moment, a communion between an artist and his audience of hundreds of people...

But unfortunately, "Blind In Texas" was next ! Unfortunately not because of the song of course, but because this is the song that traditionally closes every W.A.S.P. show for decades ! So it was the last time we could sing aloud, and we did !!! And after a few "I'm blind... in Texas !", Blackie just said "good night Paris, we'll see you next time", and this time this was really the end...

The end ?
Well, not quite, as I would have the chance to meet the Man again !
After waiting a bit while the band was cooling off and eating pizzas, Blackie went out of the dressing room and we could talk for a while, mostly about the show because I really had to tell him that this show we've just witnessed was more an Art show than just a music show, especially with the thing on "My Tortured Eyes" and the acoustic set, to which he replied that W.A.S.P. always tried to make some "avant-garde" things, and they surely did here !

I also had the opportunity of giving him the "W.A.S.P. BIBLE" that Christophe & I did a few years back, and gave every member of the band their official W.A.S.P. WARRIORS membership card ! After some talk about the new album and all, Blackie had to join the tour bus because they were leaving for Norwich, where they played the next day !

Once again, this was an extraordinary day and evening, I pray that W.A.S.P. will come back again soon for another show like this one, without a doubt one of the best concerts I've ever went to !!!