Photo report of W.A.S.P. in Athens, Greece and other stories, 07 – 26 – 2011 (Tuesday)

The raw meat of W.A.S.P. “meats“ Lady Gaga

The concert of W.A.S.P. in Athens is always an event that draws the attention of many fans that did not attend the band performing live during the heyday of the 80s. Everybody knows that 80s was the era that shock rock became a really big thing and countries like Greece had a limited access to this exposure since the music media was limited as well during those days. Thus the Greek audience is really hungry to hear and watch the bloodthirsty show of the 80s, regardless if we are 20 years later and everything has changed: Shock rock is shock pop now since the executives of the music industry decided to steal the fame of the larger than life metal shows and lend the shocking attitude to artists such as Lady Gaga. While Lady Gaga is widely respected in the metal music scene, it is not a secret that she is trying to use the same tricks that metal used in the 80s so as to shock people: Large portions of sexuality and blood! The fact that she is trying to attract the mainstream group of people, prevents her from throwing raw meat in the audience just like Blackie did 20 years ago. So she is using a more light way by wearing a dress made of raw stakes in mainstream events in order to show her protest against the people who do not respect the animal rights. If you summarize both actions then you realize that Blackie and Gaga use the raw meat to shock the audience and the common obvious or secret goal is to gain publicity.

Blackie Lawless used to throw raw meat in the audience during the 80s

Lady Gaga wears raw meat during the 00s

W.A.S.P. and Greek society

Nowadays most of the 80s shock rockers have changed their habits and turn into religion or change the focus of their music due to change in their culture and family status. The result is that USA which is a country where everything is larger than life, ignores the presence of the 80s shock rockers and looks for new blood to keep the bloodthirsty show alive. The choice for the 80s guys is to break into new markets where shock rock has not been consumed in a large scale and there is still space for the oldschool to be considered as cool. Greece as a part of the Southern Europe is an interesting market for W.A.S.P. because the local executives of the record labels promoted heavily W.A.S.P. during the 80s and 90s by focusing on the underground demand for the heavy rock sound and the demand to shock the Greek society. The local conservative social environment affected the mood of the Greeks who started adopting shocking attitudes and extreme behavior in the football games or during the street riots. Except the real street violence, there was an internal anger inside the teenager’s heads that was hopefully expressed through art. Thus the music of W.A.S.P. became synonymous with the need for expression of “safe violence” inside the teenager’s bedroom by raising the fist and screaming the W.A.S.P. lyrics “until they like it”. The Greek headbanger of the 80s used W.A.S.P.’s music as a soundtrack for the rage against the machine of the mainstream Greek society and the “skyladiko” (dog) culture of the Greek folk artists that their lyrics were barking over lost love and heartbreaks. So while all the mainstream Greek artists were killing their art for a few drachmes (old Greek currency) and singing bubblegum love lyrics, the rebellious Greek side was praising the anti-romantic love hymns of W.A.S.P. such as “Love Machine” and “Fuck Like A Beast”. The antithesis between the metalheads and “skylades” (fans of Greek folk music) was really a big thing during the 80s in Greece and everybody remembers the fist fights and the hate between these music tribes. The international metal bands were the idols of the music youth and the vinyl records became an eternal memorabilia for the Greek fans. W.A.S.P. was one of the bands that enjoyed big success because the local dept of EMI Records (Capitol Records in USA) showed interest in the band by including their music in local album compilations.

Local compilation of the Greek EMI in 1986 that features the music of W.A.S.P.

The music of W.A.S.P. became legendary in the heart of the fans but the unsatisfied passion to attend the band performing live in Greece, became a permanent dream for all the Greek headbangers. When the dream became reality in Rockwave Festival during the 00s, then this country expressed all their love for Blackie and his gang. Blackie as a rock n roll business person realized how strong was the demand for W.A.S.P. and started to visit the country for concerts more frequently than ever.

W.A.S.P. in Athens 2011

The concert of W.A.S.P. in Athens during 2011 was a greatest hits show since almost everybody came to live again the 80s spirit and raise the rock n roll fist once more…Blackie is not young anymore and his voice is not in a good condition, that’s why there were pre-recorded parts in the show regardless if none seemed to care about it. People were really on the band’s side and they enjoyed all the hits without losing their enthusiasm at all. Behind the band there were screens that showed the 80s promo videos of W.A.S.P., so the group synchronized their movements with the video in a choreography. This was a smart thought because the memories of the old promo videos along with the band performing now live on stage builds a bridge between the past and the present: The old W.A.S.P. meets the new W.A.S.P.! The venue was almost sold out and the band ended up performing for almost 90 minutes while the previous years they were not playing more than 70 minutes including 2-3 instrument solos (guitar, drums, etc.).