BLACKIE LAWLESS sums up Sweden, first WASP shows in more than two years – “It was almost like we were all doing it again for the first time”
WASP recently did their first shows in two and a half years, in Sweden. Frontman Blackie Lawless has issued the following synopsis:
“It was December 2019, Sao Paulo Brazil, the last time we set foot on any stage of any kind anywhere in the world. Little did any of us know that the same “world” was about to change dramatically… for all of us!
At the time we were busy preparing for what would become the “1984 To Headless” World Tour. In late January 2020, James Hetfield premiered his Custom Car Collection at the Petersen Car Museum in LA and being an old “car guy” myself, I was eager to check it out. A record number of people attended the show. After taking pictures with many of the people there and talking music and cars, it seemed like everyone was having a great time… until about a week later. A week later I thought I had the flu and felt pretty rotten for about 4-5 days, but then it got worse every day for about 4 more days. Every day seriously worse than the one before. I had never had anything like this happen before. And then I lost all sense of taste and smell for about 10 days. This had also never happened before. So I battled it for about 9 weeks and slowly over the news we are starting to hear about this strange new disease that no one really knows what it is. Fast forward a few months and find that I had unwittingly been selected to be a “beta tester” for this horrible new thing that didn’t even have a name yet.
Everyone now knows how tragically it all unfolded all over the world. So let’s recap the last 2 1/2 years. A global pandemic, A severe worldwide recession with gas prices spiraling out of sight, and a monster sitting in the Kremlin now deciding it’s time to reclaim and remake the old Russian empire.
Every single person’s life was turned upside down and quarantined into mass isolation with literally nowhere to go without sitting and waiting.
But slowly life, as resilient as ever, reared its bloody head and pushed forward once more.
So that brings us to Saturday evening, July 23 in Stockholm. It has now been 2 1/2 years since we stood and played in front of an audience. We were seriously worried about actually getting there. With all the canceled flights, it’s a challenge to move a band and crew and equipment in the best of times. But now there are nightmare scenarios going on out there right now with airlines. But the flight couldn’t have been better and band and crew and equipment all arrived safe and ready to make noise.
The longest break between shows I ever did before in my life was a three year gap after touring Crimson Idol 92-93 and then to KFD in 1996. But that was by design, this time it wasn’t. But the funny thing was that when we were getting ready to do the rehearsals for the KFD tour, I hadn’t played live or even been in a rehearsal space with a band. I remember putting on the guitar for the first day of rehearsal and I was like, “I have no idea how to do this anymore”. It was like I was in someone else’s body with no idea how to play, much less attempt to sing. The whole first day it was like I was walking around bumping into walls and the easiest thing was like I had never done it before. But the second day I started to get the hang of it again and the muscle memory came back pretty quickly.
But while I expected it to be much the same as the KFD rehearsals had been, this time was completely different. Don’t ask me why. This time on the first day of rehearsals I put on the guitar and said to the guy, ‘wow, this is the first time I’ve stood up with a strap on since Sao Paulo’. This means that all the guitar playing I played during the pandemic was in a studio. But then I ran back in my head what I had just said. I thought. ‘I seriously need to rephrase that’ and I told them, ‘when I said I hadn’t stood up with a strap on’, it sounded like I was saying ‘I hadn’t stood up with a Strap-on on since Sao Paulo ‘. Or sit down with one either for that matter. Talk about the ultimate Freudian Slip!
Everyone in the room fell down laughing and from that moment it was a joy to play all the songs that I haven’t experienced in many, many years. Even when we came out on stage in Stockholm and were still totally jet-lagged, it was joy. What I remember most was looking at people’s faces in the crowd. It’s something I’ve seen so many times before but this time it was different. I saw happiness that I haven’t seen in a long, long time and I don’t think it was just me. What I think I saw was a collective reaction from everyone there and it wasn’t like people who had been locked up for a long time, it was more of a collective feeling of just joy.
That’s the best way I can describe it, just pure joy! I’m sure there’s a lot to be said for “absence makes the heart grow fonder” and I’m sure deep down on some phycological level we all knew that. And when I say “we” I mean the band and the entire audience. But it didn’t look like that. It was almost like we were all doing it again for the first time and remembering what all the early shows we saw were about.
I will carry your faces with me for the rest of my life. And for the priceless gift… Thank you Stockholm!
After the first exhibition in Stockholm, we felt pretty good. Considering we hadn’t been on stage in 2 1/2 years, it went pretty smoothly. I don’t care what anyone says, any band, and I mean any band, is going to feel that kind of doubt and worry after that long layoff. You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t feel it. But within just a song or two it was like we never left. The reviews were positive and the audience seemed to dig it so we hit the road again.
I’d like to take a moment to explain that these two shows, as they were received, were never meant to be a representation of what the upcoming tour will be. They were festivals and our intention was to treat them as such. The upcoming 40th anniversary tour will look, sound and feel unlike anything we’ve ever done before. It’s not hype, IT’S FACT!
We’ve been working on this presentation for a while now and I give you my word, this is going to be different than any other rock show we’ve ever done. On that note, I can say that it’s been a while since I’ve been this excited about the elements of a show like what we’re going to be doing this fall. For the two Sweden shows, we didn’t want to reveal anything that will happen in the upcoming tour. I don’t want to keep you in suspense, but I’m sure you understand and I promise it will be worth the wait. Personally, I can’t wait to start rehearsing for this new show.
The forestry fair was great. It was a bit chilly when we took the stage, but I like it because it’s a lot easier to perform when it’s cooler than being in a swampy sauna. It was also good to talk to some of the other bands on the bill that we hadn’t been able to run into for a while.
And then came the journey home. We got off stage at 1am and had to go to the airport at 5:30am. After a 2 hour trip back to the airport in Stockholm and an 11 hour flight, from getting up the day before and the combined trip, we had gone 37 hours with zero sleep by the time we got back to LA
It’s like Ray Charles used to say, “I don’t get paid to play, I get paid to travel!”. Truer words have never been spoken.
So, good night Sweden – see you next year.
BUT – Watch out America – very soon… we are coming to hurt you!!”
Find WASP’s complete itinerary here.