In their ’80s heyday, W.A.S.P. was known for their shocking theatrical stage show. After their second show cancellation in one week, the most shocking thing they could do now is actually play a show. Following last week’s cancellation in New York, fans were turned away from last night’s show in Allentown, PA at the Crocodile Rock without any explanation.
Frontman Blackie Lawless defended the New York cancellation on the band’s Web site, essentially stating what had been said before. 50 of the 500 fans at the Gramercy Theater had bought VIP packages for $50, guaranteeing them a meet and greet with the band. Apparently, Blackie freaked out when told about this, and demanded the fans be given back the$25 extra they’d been charged. When the promoters refused, he pulled the plug on the show.
If Crocodile Rock was a Live Nation venue like Gramercy Theater, it would be understood why he might have pulled out of the show. However, Crocodile Rock looks like it’s booked independently, and not only were tickets only $12.50 in advance, it doesn’t look like there was any VIP package offered. A post on the band’s message board suggested that he canceled the Allentown show because the venue wanted too much of a percentage of the merch sold.
Regardless of why he pulled out of the Allentown show, there’s really no way around it: canceling two shows in less than a week on the day of the show is a dick move. We gave him the benefit of the doubt for the New York show since he said he was essentially sticking up for his fans. But 50 fans out of 500 basically means that he was looking out for only 1 out of 10 fans (btw, W.A.S.P. sold 500 tickets in New York? Whoa!). If he comes back to NYC, the majority of those 500 probably won’t buy tickets again, and ditto for Allentown. We thought he’d lost it all the way back in September when he compared Obama to Hitler , and this isn’t winning him any points in the “Blackie Lawless isn’t a total nutcase” category.
