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W.A.S.P. - The Sting (Live at the Key Club, L.A.)

W.A.S.P. - The Sting (Live at the Key Club, L.A.)

List Price: $24.95
Your Price: $22.46
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Could Be Better
Review: I bought this DVD with high hopes for the Live WASP that I had always wanted to see. I saw them on the Headless Children tour and was pretty impressed. Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed with this DVD. It is a good DVD - and a must for WASP fans - but it does have it's problems.

For starters, the vocals are highly suspect in this DVD. Many times you can hear 3 singers but you only see 2. The drummer has a headset on, but you rarely see him singing. The only time he was noticeably singing was during "I Wanna Be Somebody" but then there was only one voice on the soundtrack and that was Blackie. Also Blackie forgets to sing the first chorus in "Sleeping In The Fire." Overall, the vocals are inconsistent. Some songs sound perfect - other songs do not. Also the recorded quality of the voice is different in several songs. I can only think they did vocal overdubs in the studio after the fact.

The other thing that bugged me is that some cameras are sharply in focus wile others are fuzzy. And, I got a little tired of the "gonzo" angle from the ground up. Once or twice would have been cool but not throughout the whole video.

I was also amazed that WASP would release this product with the timing errors at the beginning "Sleeping In The Fire" and "The Real Me." In fact, at the beginning of "The Real Me", I thought my DVD had skipped. Not so...just a bad edit.

Also, sadly, this crowd wasn't into the band at all. The crowd was so quiet on the DVD that when the band stopped playing it sounded like about 10 people in the audience. Most of them just stared at the stage as if they had never seen or heard of the band.

Okay...I know I am ragging on them a lot, but one last complaint..song selection. I would have much rather heard another WASP tune than "The Real Me." How about "High On the Flames"? How about "Headless Children."? How about the "Heretic"? And I don't really care for "Dirty Balls" and "Damnation Angels." I thought Helldorado had better tunes than those.

Overall I give this DVD a rating of 3. Mostly because Blackie is so outrageous and outspoken - I was expecting a superior quality DVD and only got good. In my book they didn't deliver the goods. Sorry Blackie! But as I said if you are a WASP fan, you will probably enjoy this DVD.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: WASP 2000- Visably Older, Fatter, Slower
Review: I only thought this was an average DVD. There are 2 older VHS concerts from the 80's that I think really captures WASP at their finest. I thought the DVD sounded just OK. Doesn't look like WASP puts much into their stage show these days. The most shocking thing I saw on this video was what a fatso Blackie Lawless has turned into. Almost not recognizable from even a few years ago. He's old, doesn't move around like he used to. I think his shows really lack the energy from the mid 80's. Blackie looked like he was just going through the motions...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: James Nollett From Valentine Ne No1 W.A.S.P Fan in Ne.
Review: Ive been a W.A.S.P. fan for years this DVD is great the sound and picture quality was awsome . Ive been waiting for W.A.S.P to put out a DVD for years. This is what made me go out and get a DVD player . Awsome concert. This DVD displays W.A.S.P. at their bombastic best. A must have concert DVD for not just W.A.S.P fans but fans of true Heavy Metal as well. I actualy saw W.A.S.P. on this same tour in Lincoln and they kicked [butt] This DVD kicks [butt] W.A.S.P. RULES. Buy this you will not regret it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Could Be Better
Review: Quite honestly, this is WASP at its musical finest. The live WASP in this DVD is superior in sound to that of the 80's. The stage show isn't what is used to be, but, that is more due to the decline in this genre of music. There is not a better rock and roll musician than Blackie Lawless. This DVD shows a glimpse of his talent and his entertaining ability. The quality of this DVD is AWESOME!! Buy it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Collectors MUST have!!
Review: Quite honestly, this is WASP at its musical finest. The live WASP in this DVD is superior in sound to that of the 80's. The stage show isn't what is used to be, but, that is more due to the decline in this genre of music. There is not a better rock and roll musician than Blackie Lawless. This DVD shows a glimpse of his talent and his entertaining ability. The quality of this DVD is AWESOME!! Buy it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Blackies thoughts and mine
Review: This DVD contains a basic offering of hits and a few miscellaneous songs from the band. Because it is a collection of more popular songs, it does not necessarily give a full insight into what WASP is capable of. The performance itself is not all that bad and they pour themselves into it. The show fairly rocks (3 and a half stars), but contains nothing from more intelligent WASP projects (and lyrics) such as Crimson Idol, and Dying For The World.

Some of the criticism in previous reviews are worth noting, but are not all necessarily the fault of WASP themselves. The way the DVD is put together is a different story. I once had an opportunity to interview WASP singer Blackie Lawless after this DVD came out (I used to work with an online music magazine), and among what turned into a long and very interesting interview I asked him about this DVD. He said that this DVD was part of a deal involving a company that WASP was no longer involved with, and that WASP had no creative control over the DVD at the time. He would not say much else because the company behind the project made it clear that if WASP said anything derogatory about them they would sue. He said he had never seen the DVD and that we could just fill in the blanks regarding what he thought.

Seems to me that WASP fans will love it a lot, but according to Blackie, WASP plans on doing something more proper in the future.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: BLACKIE ROCKS!
Review: this is a MUST have!,the camera angles are GREAT!,not too fast, not too slow,and a couple of times the microphones go out,, but its not that noticeable,,all in all, a must have for all W.A.S.P. fans,,the sound is GREAT!, much better than the cd, of the same title, just a great rock and roll show, from start to finish, you will NOT be disapointed, BLACKIE ROCKS.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: W.A.S.P. in the 21st Century
Review: Well at least Blackie is still out there performing and hasn't turned into a VH1 'Where is he now?' episode. This may be the last time we ever see Cris Holmes performing with W.A.S.P. Apparantly Blackie owns all that is W.A.S.P. and Cris has no songwriting credits for royalties. Poor Cris ruined his hands doing construction jobs and cannot play the guitar as well as he used to. So for fans of old school W.A.S.P. and Cris Holmes fans, this is a must have.

This is not the greatest W.A.S.P. could have delivered by a long shot. Though this DVD is enjoyable, W.A.S.P. and this DVD could have been better.

Only 12 songs? I mean c'mon Blackie! Couldn't you have squeezed in a bit more than that? 'Blind in Texas' being the one and only song for the encore? Whatever happened to great songs like 'School Daze', 'The Flame', 'BallCrusher', 'I Don't need no Doctor', 'Mean Man', or 'Rock n Roll to Death?"

The sound is terrible. First of all the audience is not miked. No big problem you say? Well when Blackie decides to let the audience sing ALL the choruses to 'I Wanna be Somebody' and 'Blind in Texas' it is a problem. Insead of hearing Blackie singing, or the audience screaming, you get absolutely no sound, complete dead space where the chorus needs to be. You can see the bass player screaming 'Blind in Texas', but I think his mike got turned off. Plus we have overdubbing. Watch for Blackie on many songs be ten or fifteen feet away from the mike, mouth completely closed, and you hear his voice screaming through your speakers. 'Live in the Raw' indeed.

Last time I saw W.A.S.P. live, Johny Rod was on bass. I don't know who this guy is, and I have no idea if he's a good bass player or not. I don't have the greatest home entertainment system by far, but at least I should hear some bass. For all I know this guy could be jumping around without his bass even being plugged in. And what's up with all the blue eye shadow? He looked like a flamer.

Cris was still able to rock and throw down on this one. His solos were right on from what I saw and heard. Being a guitar player I have an eagle eye for fingerwork when it comes for solo time. Cris seemed to have a good night on this one. The red Rambo rag was a nice touch.

Blackie, well he's aged obviously as we all have. Has he reestablished himself as the shock rock master that this DVD proclaimed? Hardly. This is not the W.A.S.P. or the Blackie I remember from the 80's. Yeah I know I can't expect the white streaks in his hair, or the sawblade body armor, but he didn't perform the same as when I remembered him. First of all trying to watch him as he hides behing his motorcycle handlebars gets really annoying. I hope he's dropped that thing from the set. He's front center stage and up on a riser, but for dang near the whole show all you see is his face peeping out over this stage prop. Hey if he wants to bring it out for 'The Real Me' and do his sparkfire pinwheel ride, great. But to stay behind it all night is not what I'd expect from him. Plus Blackie still thinks he's commanding an arena of people. To see him stare out arrogantly over a crowd of maybe three hundred people as if he's God is not humorous, it's embarrassing. He should have been kissing the crowd's butt that they even bothered to show up.

Speaking of the crowd, not too many chicks. The place is mostly full of early to late thirties types. Yeah the old fans who remembered Blackie from back in the day. Didn't see too many twentysomethings. The cameras tried to zoom in on girls, but they succeded in only showing three. Someone in the crowd is a big Foster's Beer drinker. We constantly see a hand holding the can up. I don't know if it was the same can throughout the entire show, or if the guy had a twelve pack under his jacket. Also watch for a fat dude with a purple headband fight with this other guy over a plain white, sweaty towel that I belive Blackie throws into the crowd.

All in all what can be said? W.A.S.P. fans will want this, but if you're not familiar with W.A.S.P. and this is your first taste (or sting) of them, I don't think you'll be too impressed, and first impressions are important.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: W.A.S.P. in the 21st Century
Review: Well at least Blackie is still out there performing and hasn't turned into a VH1 `Where is he now?' episode. This may be the last time we ever see Cris Holmes performing with W.A.S.P. Apparantly Blackie owns all that is W.A.S.P. and Cris has no songwriting credits for royalties. Poor Cris ruined his hands doing construction jobs and cannot play the guitar as well as he used to. So for fans of old school W.A.S.P. and Cris Holmes fans, this is a must have.

This is not the greatest W.A.S.P. could have delivered by a long shot. Though this DVD is enjoyable, W.A.S.P. and this DVD could have been better.

Only 12 songs? I mean c'mon Blackie! Couldn't you have squeezed in a bit more than that? `Blind in Texas' being the one and only song for the encore? Whatever happened to great songs like `School Daze', `The Flame', `BallCrusher', `I Don't need no Doctor', `Mean Man', or `Rock n Roll to Death?"

The sound is terrible. First of all the audience is not miked. No big problem you say? Well when Blackie decides to let the audience sing ALL the choruses to `I Wanna be Somebody' and `Blind in Texas' it is a problem. Insead of hearing Blackie singing, or the audience screaming, you get absolutely no sound, complete dead space where the chorus needs to be. You can see the bass player screaming `Blind in Texas', but I think his mike got turned off. Plus we have overdubbing. Watch for Blackie on many songs be ten or fifteen feet away from the mike, mouth completely closed, and you hear his voice screaming through your speakers. `Live in the Raw' indeed.

Last time I saw W.A.S.P. live, Johny Rod was on bass. I don't know who this guy is, and I have no idea if he's a good bass player or not. I don't have the greatest home entertainment system by far, but at least I should hear some bass. For all I know this guy could be jumping around without his bass even being plugged in. And what's up with all the blue eye shadow? He looked like a flamer.

Cris was still able to rock and throw down on this one. His solos were right on from what I saw and heard. Being a guitar player I have an eagle eye for fingerwork when it comes for solo time. Cris seemed to have a good night on this one. The red Rambo rag was a nice touch.

Blackie, well he's aged obviously as we all have. Has he reestablished himself as the shock rock master that this DVD proclaimed? Hardly. This is not the W.A.S.P. or the Blackie I remember from the 80's. Yeah I know I can't expect the white streaks in his hair, or the sawblade body armor, but he didn't perform the same as when I remembered him. First of all trying to watch him as he hides behing his motorcycle handlebars gets really annoying. I hope he's dropped that thing from the set. He's front center stage and up on a riser, but for dang near the whole show all you see is his face peeping out over this stage prop. Hey if he wants to bring it out for `The Real Me' and do his sparkfire pinwheel ride, great. But to stay behind it all night is not what I'd expect from him. Plus Blackie still thinks he's commanding an arena of people. To see him stare out arrogantly over a crowd of maybe three hundred people as if he's God is not humorous, it's embarrassing. He should have been kissing the crowd's butt that they even bothered to show up.

Speaking of the crowd, not too many chicks. The place is mostly full of early to late thirties types. Yeah the old fans who remembered Blackie from back in the day. Didn't see too many twentysomethings. The cameras tried to zoom in on girls, but they succeded in only showing three. Someone in the crowd is a big Foster's Beer drinker. We constantly see a hand holding the can up. I don't know if it was the same can throughout the entire show, or if the guy had a twelve pack under his jacket. Also watch for a fat dude with a purple headband fight with this other guy over a plain white, sweaty towel that I belive Blackie throws into the crowd.

All in all what can be said? W.A.S.P. fans will want this, but if you're not familiar with W.A.S.P. and this is your first taste (or sting) of them, I don't think you'll be too impressed, and first impressions are important.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: AWESOME!!
Review: what can i say,, this is one of the greatest bands ever, chris holmes ROCKS, and blackie is looking and sounding better than ever,, the production and editing are flawless!, if you buy only one music dvd this year, make it this one, its well worth it, and i hope someday the vhs catalog is released on dvd, this is the most enjoyable dvd ive seen in a very long time,, so what are you waiting for, BUY IT!


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