W.A.S.P.
W.A.S.P.
Few Bands in the history of Rock N’ Roll have ever incited the love, the hate, the raw emotional effect this Band has had on the world. From the very beginning, in the small venues of Los Angeles California, and later to the numerous countries worldwide that banned these Winged Assassins from performing live, the Band’s unique style of Shock and Rock caused Religious organizations, Local City Councils, Parliaments, and the Washington D.C. Senate to hold hearings in an effort to bar this group from selling records and trashing stages everywhere they played.
The band’s founding member, frontman Blackie Lawless, has led the group as its lead vocalist and primary songwriter since its beginning. His unique brand of visual, social and political comment took the group to worldwide heights and sold millions of records alongside a legacy of sold out shows across the globe for 4 decades.
Joined by bassist Mike Duda and guitarist Doug Blair, whose tenures in the band span 26 and 18 years respectively, along with drummer extraordinaire Aquiles Priester, will take the Band and the Fans back to where it all started. Complete with the stage show extravaganza that many fans never saw live.
Witness Live the Winged Assassins spectacle of “SHOCK and ROLL” as they take you Back…Back to the Beginning!
Armored Saint
One of the select few true metal bands to emerge from the glitzy Sunset Strip scene, Armored Saint specializes in a style of no-frills metal that has more in common with New Wave of British Heavy Metal acts like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Saxon. The band issued a trio of influential albums in the 1980s (March of the Saint, Delirious Nomad, and Raising Fear) before ceasing operations in the early ’90s after the passing of original guitarist David Prichard. Re-forming in 1999, the group has continued to stand at the nexus of thrash and hard rock, releasing their hard-hitting eighth full-length effort, Punching the Sky, in 2020.
Formed in 1982 and originally comprising John Bush (vocals), David Prichard (guitar), Phil Sandoval (guitar), Joey Vera (bass), and Gonzo Sandoval (drums), the quintet issued a three-track self-titled EP on the Metal Blade label in 1983 before signing on with Chrysalis. They put out such underappreciated releases as 1984’s March of the Saint, 1985’s Delirious Nomad, and 1987’s Raising Fear, and built a fanatical following in their locally, but failed to break through to the big time elsewhere.
Shortly after a switch back to Metal Blade in the late ’80s, Armored Saint issued their first live recording, 1989’s Saints Will Conquer, but bad news was lurking right around the corner. Founding guitarist Pritchard was diagnosed with leukemia and passed away in 1990. The group pressed on (with newcomer Jeff Duncan taking Pritchard’s spot in the lineup), issuing Symbol of Salvation in 1991. But the band decided to call it a day a year later when Bush accepted an invitation to join New York thrash metallists Anthrax. By the late ’90s, Armored Saint decided to reunite once more and Bush remained a member of Anthrax and Armored Saint simultaneously (Vera was also doing double duty, as he’d become a member of prog-metallists Fates Warning). The newly re-formed outfit issued an all-new recording in 2000, Revelation, while a double-disc anthology, Nod to the Old School, surfaced a year later. A decade later in 2010, the band released La Raza, their sixth full-length studio album, on Metal Blade, followed in 2015 by Win Hands Down. In 2017, the band issued the PledgeMusic-funded Carpe Noctum, a concert LP recorded at the band’s 2015 Wacken Festival set, as well as their headlining show in Aschaffenburg, Germany. They followed that up in 2020 with their eight studio long-player, Punching the Sky.