“Two legendary chapters of British and American heavy metal history collided in Houston, with KK’s Priest revisiting the Judas Priest catalog before W.A.S.P. took the stage for a career-spanning assault of its own.”

    Heavy metal history was on full display at Houston’s House of Blues as W.A.S.P. brought its 1984 TO HEADLESS tour to town with KK’s Priest serving as special guests. The tour has been built around W.A.S.P.’s landmark debut and the early era that established Blackie Lawless and his band as one of the most controversial and theatrical forces to emerge from the early-1980s Los Angeles metal scene. Formed in 1982, W.A.S.P. quickly developed a reputation for combining heavy metal with shock-rock theatrics, eventually producing a catalog that stretched from the raw aggression of the self-titled debut through more ambitious material such as The Headless Children and Golgotha.

    For Houston, the W.A.S.P. lineup featured the band's longtime leader Blackie Lawless on vocals and guitar, Doug Blair on lead guitar, Mike Duda on bass and Aquiles Priester on drums. Lawless remains the sole constant member of W.A.S.P., having guided the band through its many lineup changes and musical eras. Blair has been part of the band since 2006, Duda since the mid-1990s and Priester joined the touring lineup in 2017.

KK’s Priest: The Priest Legacy Hits the Stage

“When K.K. Downing stepped forward with KK’s Priest, Houston was hearing the sound of a guitarist who helped define the vocabulary of classic heavy metal.”

    Before W.A.S.P. took over the room, KK’s Priest delivered a set that served as both a celebration of Judas Priest's history and a showcase for the band's own material. Founded in 2019 by former Judas Priest guitarist K.K. Downing, the group brought together Downing with former Priest vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens, guitarist A.J. Mills, bassist Anthony Wall and drummer Sean Elg. Downing's place in metal history is firmly established through his decades with Judas Priest, while Owens fronted Priest from 1996 through 2003 before eventually reuniting with Downing in the new band.

    The Houston set wasted little time establishing that the Priest connection would be front and center. “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’,” “Breaking the Law” and “Living After Midnight” immediately connected the current band with the Judas Priest catalog, while Owens' history with Priest gave the songs an especially direct connection to their original era. The set then moved into KK’s Priest material with “Strike of the Viper,” “One More Shot at Glory” and “Hellfire Thunderbolt,” the latter coming from the band's 2021 debut Sermons of the Sinner. The group followed with “Heading Out to the Highway,” “Beyond the Realms of Death” and “The Sentinel,” keeping the emphasis firmly rooted in the classic Priest catalog.

    The deeper Priest cuts continued with “Victim of Changes” and “Turbo Lover,” before the band closed its set with “Raise Your Fists.” That final song brought the focus back to KK’s Priest itself and its modern identity rather than simply functioning as a tribute to Downing's former band. Since forming, KK’s Priest has released two studio albums, Sermons of the Sinner in 2021 and The Sinner Rides Again in 2023, establishing material capable of standing alongside the classics that inspired the project.

W.A.S.P.: Blackie Lawless Leads a Journey From Shock Rock to Headless Children

“Four decades after W.A.S.P. first crashed into the metal scene, Blackie Lawless remains at the center of a band whose history is inseparable from his vision.”

    When the lights finally shifted toward W.A.S.P., the evening moved from a celebration of Judas Priest's legacy into the unmistakable world created by Blackie Lawless. W.A.S.P. emerged from Los Angeles in 1982 with Lawless, Randy Piper, Rik Fox and Tony Richards in the original lineup, eventually adding guitarist Chris Holmes and developing the combination of heavy riffs, provocative imagery and theatrical presentation that became their calling card. The band's self-titled 1984 debut and The Last Command established W.A.S.P. as one of the prominent American metal acts of the era, while later albums demonstrated a willingness to move beyond the band's early shock-rock reputation.

    The Houston performance opened with “The End,” the Doors classic playing from tape and setting an ominous tone before “Easy Livin’,” the Uriah Heep cover, launched the live portion of the set. From there, Lawless and company moved into “Fistful of Diamonds” and “The Flame,” followed by “Mr. Cool.” Before the latter, Lawless explained that he had originally written the song then it was sold for $5,000. Turned out that he never saw a dime from the sale, so several years later he recorded the song himself which led to him being sued for $1 million dollars since he had already sold the rights to it. The song represented the first version of what would eventually become “Cries in the Night,” offering a glimpse into the songwriting history behind material that might otherwise have simply been another deep cut in the set.

    The performance continued with “B.A.D.” before moving into a medley of “Thunderhead,” “Forever Free” and “The Real Me.” The sequence demonstrated the breadth of W.A.S.P.'s catalog, moving between original material and the band's interpretation of the Who classic. The set then reached one of its darker and more ambitious points with “The Headless Children,” the title track from the band's 1989 album, a record that marked another stage in Lawless' evolution as a songwriter and placed greater emphasis on social and political themes than the band's earlier material.

    The first portion of the show had already covered considerable ground, but the encore pushed even further into W.A.S.P.'s history. “Mephisto Waltz” played from tape before the band returned to the stage for “I Wanna Be Somebody,” one of the defining songs from the band's early catalog. “L.O.V.E. Machine” followed, bringing another unmistakable piece of the 1984 era into the room, before “The Big Welcome” again appeared from tape. The band then returned for the “Inside the Electric Circus" and "I Don’t Need No Doctor” medley, combining W.A.S.P. material with the Ray Charles-associated classic popularized in rock by numerous artists.

“The set moved freely between W.A.S.P.'s raw early material and the darker, more ambitious songwriting that became increasingly important to Lawless.”

    The final stretch took an unexpected turn with “Golgotha,” with the band performing only the first several minutes of the song before moving into “Wild Child.” That transition brought the audience back toward the band's classic period before the night finally closed with “Blind in Texas,” an anthem that remains closely associated with W.A.S.P.'s early identity and its long relationship with the Lone Star State.

    For a band that has undergone countless personnel changes across more than four decades, the continuity ultimately comes from Lawless himself. His role has extended beyond simply fronting the group, encompassing vocals, guitar, songwriting and the broader artistic direction that has carried W.A.S.P. from its controversial beginnings into its current era. The current lineup of Lawless, Blair, Duda and Priester reflects that mixture of longstanding personnel and musicians who have become part of the band's later history.

Two Eras, One Heavy Metal Night

    The pairing of W.A.S.P. and KK’s Priest made for a night built around two very different but interconnected stories. KK’s Priest drew directly from the legacy of one of heavy metal's foundational bands while establishing its own catalog with Downing and Owens at the center. W.A.S.P. offered a look at the continuing evolution of a band that helped define the theatrical side of American metal and has remained under the direction of its founding frontman for more than four decades.

    With W.A.S.P.'s “1984 TO HEADLESS” concept specifically revisiting the band's formative period while incorporating material that reaches well beyond the debut album, the Houston performance became more than a simple nostalgia trip. It connected the raw, controversial W.A.S.P. of the 1980s with the more mature songwriting that followed, while KK’s Priest provided its own bridge between classic heavy metal history and the present day.

    Together, the two bands turned the House of Blues Houston into a meeting point for multiple generations of metal, with songs written decades apart sharing the same stage and demonstrating why both W.A.S.P. and the Judas Priest legacy represented by KK’s Priest continue to have a place in the live heavy-metal landscape.

W.A.S.P. Setlist:
The End (The Doors song from tape)
Easy Livin' (Uriah Heep cover)
Fistful of Diamonds
The Flame
Mr. Cool
B.A.D.
Thunderhead / Forever Free / The Real Me (Medaly)
The Headless Children
Encore:
Mephisto Waltz (From tape)
I Wanna Be Somebody
L.O.V.E. Machine
The Big Welcome (From tape)
Inside the Electric Circus / I Don't Need No Doctor (Medaly)
Golgotha
Wild Child
Blind in Texas

KK's Priest Setlist:
You've Got Another Thing Comin' (Priest cover)
Breaking the Law (Judas Priest cover)
Living After Midnight (Judas Priest cover)
Strike of the Viper
One More Shot at Glory
Hellfire Thunderbolt
Heading Out to the Highway (Judas Priest cover)
Beyond the Realms of Death (Judas Priest cover)
The Sentinel (Judas Priest cover)
Victim of Changes (Judas Priest cover)
Turbo Lover (Judas Priest cover)
Raise Your Fists