October 5, 2026
The W.A.S.P. rides into Montreal for classics tour
Outside the venue, a man whose enormous beer belly pops out of his shirt bellows profanity at the top of his lungs. It’s only Monday night, yet the streets of downtown Montreal are ringing loud with the bells of chaos. W.A.S.P. is in town and there’s some kind of buzz happening.
On one hand, we’ll have glam metal pillars W.A.S.P. offering some sleezy songs taken from their first 4 albums. Co-headlining is KK’s Priest, a musical legend with a great band performing both Judas Priest tracks and original creations. Essentially, as they say, this has the potential to be a smashing evening.
See Also: Blackberry Smoke at History, Ottawa
Elements are present for a very promising evening however, I have a strange feeling about W.A.S.P’s set. I’m not sure what to expect. When I saw them 2 years ago, I felt like Blackie, the band’s lead singer, was lip synching. Eager to compare his mouth’s movements to the music being played, I wander in to Montreal’s MTelus and await the first band.
KK’s Priest
The year is 1969 and the world of music is being shaken at it’s very foundations. Guitarist Kenneth Keith Downing Jr., or KK as he’s more commonly known, has just co-founded the legendary British heavy metal band Judas Priest in Birmingham, England.
For a little perspective, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath simultaneously came into existence the year before, in 1968, changing the face of Rock n’ Roll forever.
Decades pass. Feline lives are spent like water as the tolls of Rock are paid in flesh and blood. Hit album after hit album see the light of day. Judas Priest continuously earns their place among Metal’s mightiest. It’s a story well known.
For KK however, that journey would come to an end in 2011, his departure from Judas Priest confirmed. Citing various reasons for leaving but not going into great detail, the guitarist would make a comeback to the stage in 2009 but only in 2020, would he found the true next chapter of his musical path, KK’s Priest.
Heavy metal perfection
The band enters the stage to Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Haze. The evening’s tone is set. A heavy metal gift is about to be unwrapped and thrown to a hungry crowd.
Wasting no time, the band rolls through 3 Judas Priest tracks. ”You’ve got another thing comin”’, ”Breaking the Law” and ”Living after Midnight” are played to the great delight of the assembled fans. Priest’s vocalist, the incomparable Tim Owens, previously a member of Judas Priest from 1996 to 2003, is the best possible fit for this band on vocals. With top dollar stage charisma and skill, he sings with the range expected of one interpreting Priest tracks. The last time I saw him perform in Montreal was when he sung for Yngwie Malmsteen’s band in about 2012.
During the entire show, I was utterly floored by KK’s balance of smooth playing and on dynamic energy. At the youthful age of 71, he delivers a show worthy of his long music legacy.
Shortly before breaking into Judas Priest’s ”Heading Out to the Highway”, Tim explains to a slow burning crowd that they are recording all the shows on this tour in the hopes of having enough material for a live album. Later on, I would have the following realization: ”Maybe that’s why the sound was so good!”
What about their new material? Well, I thoroughly enjoyed discovering the band’s original material. ”Hellfire Thunderbolt” and ”Another Shot at Glory” are great examples of how KK has put together something familiar, yet altogether a departure from his previous work with Judas Priest. I feel like there are occasional blackened tinges to the music, hints an edge that could be sharpened.
They ended the set with ”Turbo Lover” and I’m happy to confirm that a satisfactory amount of people were singing the song.
W.A.S.P
I get a call from my editor and he goes: ”Justin, they’ve changed their minds. They’ll taking photographers! You have until 6pm to decide.”
I crane my neck off to the side and peer at my oven’s clock. 5:58pm. I accept, grab my stuff and make haste to Montreal’s stinky, yet charming downtown.
Fast forward. It’s 5 minutes to showtime.
Standing on the MTelus floorboards, I scan the stage. Overall, the stage design is the same as 2 years prior, when they went on a short Canadian tour playing the first album in it’s entirety – but not Fuck Like a Beast, of course. They don’t play that one anymore. Stacked high, encircling the band, is an amalgamation of twisted, circus looking imagery and spray painted cutout art. There’s a nazi and what looks like an ayatollah the bassist’ left.
Going in strong, the band plays ”The Flame”, a pure glam rock killer of a track that’s sure to stoke the dying embers of an aging crowd. But did it?
Following this was a very special one. The song ”Mr.Cool” is an obscure W.A.S.P. rarity because, well, it has never been played live before this current tour. Introducing the song, Blackie Lawless explained that the song was a demo, pre-dating W.A.S.P., when he and Chris Holmes had a band called ”Sister”. The song was brought to New York by a friend and sold for 5000$ to a record label. Later, as the band tried to include it on an album, they would end up being sued twice, the second time for one million dollars(Raise finger pinky to lips and squint eyes like an evil super-villain).
An interesting addition to this fact, is that the song also appeared on a Killer Kane album. This proto-punk glam band born in 1975 from the ashes of the New York Dolls was a short lived affaire but Blackie was in it and the proof in available on Youtube. Mr.Cool’s musical foundation would end up being repurposed for W.A.S.P.’s Cries in the night, off their second album, ”The Last Command”.
Nothing but hits, A.I slop and a bit of Jesus
While watching the show, I notice the use of some sort of vocal backing track. It seems like Blackie is singing but not always to the same extent.
Despite lots of concentrated squinting on my part, I’m never quite convinced that Blackie is lip synching. Aside from a couple of instances in particular, such as on ”I Wanna be Somebody” or ”On Your Knees”, it’s tolerable. Most people might not notice. That being said, I can’t say with any measure of conviction, that it makes things better.
Then, ”The Headless Children” began with a new background video playing. At first, it seemed like it was an animated version of the album cover. Cool. Then, an A.I. generated Hitler became the center of attraction interspersed with close-up clips of Nazis with hyper realistic pig faces. Blackie ends the track with ”Never Again” written on the stage’s screens. An altogether anti-fascist message corrupted by the seductive temptations of vapid. soulless Art.
Before rolling into their last song for the evening, the beer smashing hit ”Blind In Texas”, Blackie transitioned into a poem about Jesus. Squinting yet again at the happenings on stage, I zoned out for a bit. During the following banger however, I notice a punk couple in front of me banging their heads and waving their beers. They reminded me that I nowhere near optimal drunk levels to enjoy W.A.S.P.
Read More:
>> AC/DC at Parc Jean Drapeau, Montreal
>> Rush at Bell Center, Montreal
>> Dimmu Borgir at MTelus, Montreal
My favorite part of the evening was their video clips from the 80s playing as a backdrop to their performance. ”Wild Child” and ”L.O.V.E Machine” are great examples. Why ruin an awesome, visual legacy with A.I. when all you need in the Arizona desert, an enormous W.A.S.P. logo and some extras?
And few explosions. For good measure and all.
