W.A.S.P. Live…In The Raw Review
W.A.S.P.
Live…In The Raw
Capitol Records
1987
There are bands I like. There are bands I respect. And then there’s W.A.S.P., my favorite band, period, end of fucking sentence. No qualifiers, no nostalgia goggles, no “it depends on the era” bullshit. From the first time I heard them, W.A.S.P. didn’t just soundtrack my life, they rewired my brain, scorched my moral compass, and dared me to live louder, nastier, and with zero apologies. The past few weeks I’ve been cranking on their infamous “Live…In The Raw” album, so I thought I’d spit a few words on it for my own sanity and for those who might need a reminder.
Coming off the Inside the Electric Circus era, which was probably like one long, coke-dusted, booze-soaked, neon-lit middle finger to decency, this record sounds like a band standing at a crossroads with a bottle of J.D. in one hand and a gas can in the other. This isn’t just a live album; its transition caught on tape, the sound of W.A.S.P. peeling off one blood-slicked skin before stepping into something darker, meaner, and more dangerous.
The live cuts are filthy as hell. Aggressive. Confrontational. Zero fucks given. This is W.A.S.P. the way they were meant to be experienced - loud enough to hurt, dangerous enough to scare parents, and larger than life. Blackie Lawless stalks the stage like a man possessed, barking commands and spitting venom with enough charisma to light the place on fire. The early catalog hits harder here, stripped of studio gloss and pumped full of adrenaline, played by a band that still sounded hungry, even after conquering half the damn world.
And yeah, I’ll say it, there are overdubs. Anyone who’s seen W.A.S.P. live enough knows the difference. But who gives a shit? This isn’t a court transcript, it’s a war document, and it still bleeds authenticity.
What really kicks Live… In the Raw up another notch, though, are the new tracks. “Harder Faster,” “The Manimal,” and “Scream Until You Like It” aren’t just bonus materials, they’re the last gasps of the party animal before it learned how to aim its rage. These songs are reckless, sleazy and loud as fuck. If I’m being totally honest, the band missed on releasing “The Manimal” as a single and the same can be said of “Harder Faster” – both should’ve been released as studio singles to coincide with this release. "The Manimal" is basically "Fuck Like A Beast part 2" and that in itself demands attention...
For me, this album has always been personal as hell. This was the end of the party era for W.A.S.P., at least for a long while, and it lined up perfectly with a turning point in my own life. I was just hitting puberty, rebellion kicking in hard, hormones raging, attitude dialed to eleven. In other words: the volume was up, the world pissed me off, and the excess of the ’80s felt like it was mine for the taking.
This record soundtracked all of it like a motherfucker - raw, loud, irresponsible, and unforgettable. I have fond memories of this era of W.A.S.P. I still have the VCR tape of “Live…In The Raw” home videos as well. I don’t have a way to play it of course, but that’s beside the point… The original vinyl press is still easy to get as is the double lp reissue that features a few bonus tracks, so there's no reason not to have it. If this record isn’t in your collection, then you aren’t living life authentically or loudly enough!