Steel Panther 19th March 2010.

When i first heard about Steel Panther, it was because i saw the single 'Death to all but Metal' on Kerrang! Now this song, really, isn't their strongest on the album by a long shot. I have no idea why they released it as their debut single when they have so many better choices but luckily i decided to look into them further anyway. After finally downloading the album, i listened to it and wasn't convinced, but i liked it enough to keep it. I read several reviews of their shows saying they were one of the best live bands around, which in itself was enough to convince me to check it out. I have to say, it was certainly an experience. The ticket clearly states anyone under 14 must be accompanied by an adult, but any adult who takes a 14 year old child to this show has serious parenting issues. It was great fun, a fantastic experience and well worth the money, but totally unsuitable for the younger audience.

I was told the support act for Steel Panther was a band called 'The Sirens'. So, as normal i looked them up, listened to them on MySpace and honestly they didn't hit me as anything spectacular. When we got into the venue, i looked onstage and couldn't decide wether to be intrigued or concerned about the appearance of chain-rail things. When the lights go down, i pushed to the front of the crowd, knocking some guys beer out of his hand, and got ready to take some photos. As it turned out, the 'Sirens' were not so much a pop-punk band from Detroit, more some strippers. Now i'm not sure, but i would have thought that anything like this, should it be included in the show, would have been mentioned when buying tickets, though it seemed somewhat fitting, really, considering Steel Panthers whole 'thing' is just 'Sex, Drugs and Heavy Metal'.

The did their 'thang' and we kicked around a bit waiting for Steel Panther to come on. I wasn't sure what to hope for, I was unsure how they were going to make a 45 minute album go on for 2 hours, and we found out. Filler. They came onstage and blasted through 'Eyes of a Panther' with all the effort and charisma you wouldn't think a band with a combined age of about 170 (between 4 members) could manage. They then played another song, and everything seemed to go fine. Unfortunately, after that they decided to just sort of... Talk... For the next 45 minutes or so. Granted, it was pretty funny, loads of audience participation, getting us to join in, chanting, and all that, but ultimately, if you're in a gig for an hour and you've only heard 4 songs you aren't really getting your moneys worth.

They picked up the pace in the second half, however and stormed through many of the other songs they have, one of the highlights being Community Property. Their take at a love song, you can see the thought that's gone into it, but play it to your girlfriend and you'll get a slap. After playing through this, leaving many of the words to the audience, they finished and decided to play it again. The entire crowd cheered as they started, but they stopped and were 'apparently' told they weren't allowed. I think they could have done, but didn't because of the DVD, so they played it at about 20 times the speed it would normally do. This could easily have been done by a couple of people just screaming the words fast and strumming a guitar, but the music and vocals synced almost perfectly, speeding up and slowing down at the right times. It was almost frightening to image they had been practising playing that song so ridiculously fast, and somewhat mesmerising watching it form.

They calmed it down a bit for 'Girl from Oklahoma'. Personally, I don't really like this song, i realize that most of their songs are about sex, but this one is just crude. It does, however, sound wonderful when played live. The same can be said about 'Death to all but Metal'. Not a good song, if i'm honest, however with a few thousand people all screaming 'F*** the Goo Goo Dolls, they can suck my balls', you can totally see the humour coming through in the song.

They came back with a bang, definately, though still stopping occasionally to unmercilessly mock the bass player. All in all it was a very good show and they are definately showmen. Try to take them seriously, you'll hate them. Try to see them as a joke, they aren't funny. The band are alright, but one of the few bands that are only really good when you see them live. The songs are catchy, and i've been singing the same line from one of the songs for several days, it just sticks, but you are never going to appreciate them as a band until you've seen the effort they put into their live performance. They were filming for a live DVD, and Michael Starr was totally in control of his stage presence. While strutting from one side of the stage to the other, he'd see a camera guy and just wander around right at him, basically controlling the camera simply by pushing the lens were he wanted it to be. I thought this was good, because it showed that the DVD meant a lot to him, and he made a big deal about it, however it also meant he paid less attention to those who had paid to come see them. He managed to find a good balance however, and it was interesting just seeing how the band reacted to the cameras being there.

The amount of thought that has gone into their show, potentially just because it was for the DVD, perhaps not, is just staggering. The amount of money spend on props and costumes and extras just to emphasise the songs was incredible. Songs like 'Asian Hooker' Starr was wheeled onstage in a weird chinese (?) wooden cart thing by two asian women, and he hopped off wearing a Kimono thing. For 'Stripper Girl' they called out a load of - you guessed it - strippers. Granted these ones were there for effect and just danced around a bit, they didn't actually strip, but they had all been 'hand picked' by the band from a strip joint they went to apparently. For a song titled 'The Shocker', the strippers, accompanied by a load of stage hands, came back onstage to throw a bunch of giant foam hands into the crowd. Difficult to describe, if you feel the urge, google it. During Turn out the Lights, they decided to hurl a load of blow up dolls into the audience, which quickly got ripped the shreds. Also, they had 7 foot flames coming out of the stage, and cannons at the side firing more confetti into the air that i would have thought posible.

It's things like this that really separate this band from any other bands i've seen live. Many bigger bands that have the budget to put on a massive stage show don't bother. If they're that big, people will go see them. They just need to turn up, play and leave. These guys, however, have clearly noticed that they're very much a show band. The CD is good, but not even close to the experience of seeing them live. Granted if you cut out every use of the word 'F***' the DVD will only be about 45 minutes long, as that was basically every other word that came from any of them. These guys are all about having fun, partying and not really caring about what happens next. They arent a huge band, i'm not convinced they have a massive budget, and even though they only have about 45 minutes of material, the thought they put into their stage show made it more than worth going to see them. If you can get past the homophobia, sexism, racism, sizeism and whatever else they can find to ridicule, you'll see their show as what it should be. Pure unadulterated fun. I totally recommend seeing these guys live, but be cautious who you take as some of it seemed wonderfully inappropriate for some of the kids i saw running around in the crowd.