WASP, KK’s Priest In Ottawa, Canada

Standing Up For The Gold Standard In Metal: LA Shock Rock Veterans And Special Guests ide Into Town And Bring The Good Fortune And Great Riffs To The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino On October 6, 2026

KK'S PRIEST Photos By Andrew DePedro
WASP Photo By Rob Silva

Hellfire!
Pumping fists!
And seating arrangements?

Ottawa’s Hard Rock Casino was the location for one of the stops on the '1984 To Headless/The Sinners Ride Again' tour featuring and celebrating two of heavy metal’s most enduring and notable personalities – and occasionally known for catching the attention of Tipper Gore and the PMRC every now and then back in the day, even landing on the infamous Filthy 15 list of targeted songs that the organization had set up. And when it comes to making a career out of testing one’s luck and pushing away firm boundaries, the Hard Rock Casino was the ideal place for such a tour.

In fact, in having acquired the ticket to the show via a high school friend of mine which thankfully meant not having to take three different modes of transportation to get to the venue this time, this was also a tour and performance that was worth revisiting that same era once more.
 
And then, that familiar opening riff echoed through the venue:
*duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh*
*KERRRRAAAANG/KERRRAAANG/KERRRAANG*

Openers KK’s PRIEST are a band that’s well adverse to the expression “strike like a viper while the iron is hot” (or something to that effect) as they introduce themselves to the Ottawa crowd with a solid rendition of three of JUDAS PRIEST’s most well-known numbers to commence their setlist. And, yet, with the band comprised of frontman Tim “Ripper” Owens and former JP axeman KK Downing in its lineup who are clearly no strangers themselves to our fair city, does this band merit an introduction given its star power within its ranks? Actually, it couldn’t hurt all the same, considering that the band had formed back in 2019 following Downing’s quasi-acrimonious split from PRIEST some 8 years earlier due to what he’d described as “an on-going breakdown in working relationships between myself, elements of the band and management”. It was a mutual feeling that Owens had also experienced earlier after he’d stepped in for Rob Halford on two of JP’s critically-acclaimed late 90’s/early aughts studio discs 'Jugulator' and 'Demolition' which Downing had also played on. Once their paths had crossed again following a management deal with Explorer1 Music Group and a Bloodstock Open Air appearance alongside the late great Ross “The Boss” Friedmanre kindled Downing’s own passion for playing again, him and Owens quickly established KK’s PRIEST with a christening of their live debut in Wolverhampton later that same year, featuring the original lineup of guitarist AJ Mills (HOSTILE), former PRIEST drummer Les Binks and then-MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson. And while that lineup would be subject to change following the Wolverhampton show, it was enough proof that Downing was still a heavy metal force to be reckoned with beyond his JP years – enough so that since their live debut, KK’s PRIEST have released two studio albums and garnered a loyal following once they finally got a favorable touring band formed and ready to take on the world, so to speak. 

And with Mills (guitar), Anthony Wall (bass) and Sean Elg (drums) plying the backing riffs and keeping the beat respectively, KK’s PRIEST’s first official Ottawa sermon was set. The PRIEST catalogue may have been obligatory throughout much of their set, but they made room for their originals such as “Strike Of The Viper”, “One More Shot At Glory” and “Hellfire Thunderbolt” in between, ensuring their own classic metal status that night. And it wasn’t just the songs that made the best impression on the fans, but also Owens’ engagement with them as well. From jokingly establishing a general rule that “only the band is allowed to sit” to claiming to have “lost everything playing the machines” to even commenting on “the most golden-looking seats” he’d ever seen in all of his years of touring, Owens balanced his powerful performance with good-natured casual stage banter and delivered the goods wholesale while Downing and company provided the towering riffs – particularly on a thundering version of “Victim Of Changes” in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Sad Wings Of Destiny–and the iron-clad impenetrable rhythm section as they brought the classic metal magic of JUDAS PRIEST and the modern mystic of KK’s PRIEST to the masses that night.

And special recognition towards Downing himself who clearly spotted my KNAC shirt as I was snapping pics in the SRO section and he flashed me a grin or two while in mid-solo. 

Setlist:

“You’ve Got Another Thing Coming” (JUDAS 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”

https://kkdowningofficial.com/
https://www.facebook.com/KKsPriest
https://www.instagram.com/kkspriest/

While the opening band encouraged many amongst the crowd to get up from their seats and headbang, it would be headliners WASP who ensured that the same crowd would still be on their feet throughout their performance. And like their opening band, the headliners also commenced their set with a cover – specifically in the form of “Easy Livin’” by URIAH HEEP. Say what you must about the current mindspace of frontman/guitarist Blackie Lawless these days, but the man knows how to pick some solid 70’s hard rock classics to pay homage to in WASP’s catalogue stemming from their 1984 self-titled debut to 1989’s The Headless Children.  

That said, it would be the songs that did more speaking than Blackie himself as he mostly kept to his mammoth-sized customized exoskeleton-shaped mic stand throughout the night. Luckily, his current touring band comprised of himself, bassist Mike Duda, guitarist Doug Blair and Brazilian-born drummer Aquiles Priester, provided some sleazy-sounding riffs, rolls and shocking solos throughout their set with the backing of some surrounding screens broadcasting lots of graphic grainy images and shocking scenes – and also the band’s classic videos that adorned airtime on MuchMusic’s Power Hour back in my teenage years. In a rare moment of actual stage dialogue, Blackie introduced a rare WASP cut titled “Mr. Cool” with a story about how the same aforementioned song he’d written that was part of an early demo that he’d shopped around to many record companies all over Hollywood, only for it to be turned down on all instances before he’d revamped the song to be included on a new demo– which was then swiped by a former nameless bandmate who’d left the very early WASP lineup, taking Blackie’s song with them and profiting mightily from the royalties to the sound of “about $10,000” according to Blackie himself. Perhaps reliving the traumatic story of how he’d fought like hell to re-acquire his songwriting credits to “Mr. Cool” was why Blackie appeared to be almost downtrodden when he performed the song afterwards, but he picked up the pace quickly with a follow-up energized version of “On Your Knees”.

Yet, for all of Blackie’s past hardships, both him and WASP still kept a lot of the nostalgia for many of us 80’s kids to mentally snapshot through the broadcasting of their classic videos. From the open road vastness of the motorcycle road trip-inspired ballad “Forever Free” to the excessively shock-rock goofiness of “I Wanna Be Somebody” and “L.O.V.E. Machine” to the desert plains of “Wild Child” and “Blind In Texas”, WASP made outrageousness an art form. Even their videos for their covers of THE WHO’s “The Real Me” and HUMBLE PIE’s “I Don’t Need No Doctor” were not only their best covers but their videos were heavy on both performance and visuals. And to further prove that they still had it in them to literally keep up the shock factor, WASP’s rendition of “Golgotha” even featured a brief moment of live cosplay in which someone in a prison jumpsuit was brought towards a makeshift electric chair by two guards, his face covered with a hood, strapped into the chair and then given some lethal jolts. Blackie approached the inmate and removes the hood to reveal an Adolf Hitler mask as all three surrounding screens, which had been previously showing grainy footage of global conflict, flash the repeated message of “NEVER AGAIN”. It’s a far contrast to the rumored footage of previous WASP concerts during the US leg of this tour appearing to show images of Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign as if to show support for his current mandate. In any case, that same “NEVER AGAIN” message being broadcast throughout that segment of the show appears to be open to interpretation. No more armed conflict anywhere? No more divisive politics? No more mass levels of hatred? Though the message probably would have had more of an impact if it wasn’t among the crowd faves such as “Wild Child” and “Blind In Texas” to close out the show. Nevertheless, throughout the turbulence and chaos they’ve been known for bearing the weight from, WASP put on a fairly decent show at their first Ottawa fly-in in well over 20 years.

With special thanks to Rob Silva for getting the tickets and for Jason Leblanc for stepping in to use the extra ticket when our other friend Jason Strenkowski was unable to attend the show. And thanks again to Rob for sparing any of us from the indignity of having to use two methods of transportation to get to the Hard Rock Casino. 

Setlist:

“Easy Livin’” (URIAH HEEP cover)
“Fistful Of Diamonds”
“The Flame”
“Mr. Cool”
“On Your Knees”
“Thunderhead”/”Forever Free”
“The Real Me” (THE WHO cover)
Encore
“I Wanna Be Somebody”
“L.O.V.E. Machine”
“Inside The Electric Circus”/”I Don’t Need No Doctor” (HUMBLE PIE cover)
“Golgotha”
“Wild Child”
“Blind In Texas” 

https://www.waspnation.com/
https://www.facebook.com/W.A.S.P.Nation
https://www.instagram.com/waspofficial/