POP MUSIC REVIEW : A Socially Conscious W.A.S.P.

W.A.S.P. made its local reputation in the early ‘80s by wearing codpieces and chain-sawing sides of beef on stage at the Troubadour--the band was to heavy metal what Gallagher is to comedy. It made its international reputation with a very tasteful song called “. . . Like a Beast” and sold out vast arenas worldwide. Lead guitarist Chris Holmes was the guy you saw drowning himself in vodka in front of his mom in Penelope Spheeris’ rockumentary “Decline of Western Civilization II.”

This year, less noisy than Poison and less evil than Slayer, outflanked by real speed-metal bands the way Playboy centerfolds were by Penthouse’s, the W.A.S.P.-ers have kind of belatedly decided to become socially conscious, probably because they got sick of playing shows where Metallica shirts outnumbered theirs 10 to 1. They got Metal Church, a genuine, if dorky, political speed-metal band to doze through an opening set. They took a stand against the neutron bomb, only a dozen or so years after the Weirdos did. And if their on-stage denunciations of substance abuse are less than convincing, well . . . so are their riffs.

W.A.S.P.’s stage set sort of resembles Peter Sellars’ vision of hell in “Don Giovanni,” with cardboard flames consuming sinners, a city and a giant death’s head. And Tuesday W.A.S.P. was nothing but professional, leaping about at the half-empty Santa Monica Civic as if it were still headlining a packed Long Beach Arena. “Singer” Blackie Lawless growled OK, in a fluffier sort of way than he used to, and Holmes’ solo on a cover of the chestnut “I Don’t Need No Doctor” was almost as good as when Peter Frampton used to do it with Humble Pie.