W.A.S.P. – Crimson Idol Show Review

On Sunday, March 2, 2008, Britne and I traveled up to Mokena, IL to The Pearl Room to see the W.A.S.P. Crimson Idol tour.  Never being to The Pearl Room and only seeing pictures of it on the internet, we didn’t know what to expect.  When we got there we were suprised to find that The Pearl Room is in a strip mall!  Don’t worry metal fans, although the venue is a little small, it was still cool.  The only complaint is that there was an attendant in the bathroom.  Who wants to feel obligated to pay to wash their hands? 
The first opening band was The Last Vegas. Nothing too flashy here. The lead singer reminded me of a cross between The Black Crowes and Aerosmith’s frontman, Steven Tyler. The band had lots of energy and their sound was good, I just wish we were more familiar with their music.

Next up was a band with a little bit of a harder edge called A.D.D. which stands for Analog Digital Disorder. I don’t think the crowd was very familiar with their music but they seemed like decent musicians, especially the drummer. I heard several people around us say how talented he was. The lead singer was a woman and unfortunately the band drowned out her vocals most of the time. The lead guitarist sang back up vocals and he was really good. His voice projected very well also. He should get more mic time.
The last opening band was Fatal Smile from Stockholm, Sweden. I know this is going to be harsh but, this band is stuck somewhere back in the mid 80’s. Their clothing was quite entertaining ranging from fake leather pants to fishnet sleeves to leather neck ties. No, this band wasn’t a 80’s cover band, they were for real! They made an attempt to be heavy, but it fell short. Judging by the conversations and look of the crowd everyone thought it was pretty comical. Everyone except the dude wearing the big blond wig and lots of eye makeup, he resembled the lead singer, and he had on chaps with his bare butt cheeks hanging out. He was pretty entertaining. I hope Fatal Smile has a huge fan base in Sweden because I’m not sure it’s going to happen in the US.

As for the headlining band, W.A.S.P, as their website stated, they did perform the Crimson Idol in it’s entirety with supporting movie footage playing in the background. This was a very moving and entertaining performance well done by the band. The presence of the footage on the large screen directly behind the band made you feel as if you playing the part of Jonathan Steel himself. After the performance of the Crimson Idol, the band took a 10 minute intermission during which they played footage of Elvis in concert on the large screen behind the stage, interesting. Three more songs followed the intermission, Love Machine, Wild Child, and Blind in Texas. All great songs for sure but I guess we were a little disappointed they didn’t play a few more. Overall it was a great show for the money, the only thing that would have made it better is a couple less opening acts and a few more songs from W.A.S.P. We will definitely go see them when they come around again.

[tags]W.A.S.P., A.D.D., The Last Vegas, Fatal Smile, The Pearl Room[/tags]