Photos and Review by Jeff Palmucci
Galleries: Steel Panther, Bad Marriage
Steel Panther played the House of Blues last week, giving those in attendance a chance to get in touch with their deep feelings and their softer, more sensitive sides. No, just kidding.
Steel Panther is to a heavy metal band what Howard Stern is to a stodgy NPR newscaster. Their on-stage personas are are wildly inappropriate, and pretty damn funny. Picture Van Halen, except David Lee Roth is a 13 year old boy with really bad impulse control. They are insanely, and hilariously, over the top.[1]
There was a party atmosphere waiting in line at the House of Blues. Check out these knuckleheads who came out in full costume. You guys are my heroes.
Opening up the night was Boston’s own Bad Marriage. Their hard rock hair band style meshed well with Steel Panther’s 80’s rock, and they did a great job warming up the crowd.
Steel Panther came out to Eyes of a Panther, off their first album, and got the crowd going quickly. They played lots of my favorites including Death To All But Metal and Community Property. Even though a major part of Steel Panther’s act is the comedy, they are also insanely talented musically. Guitarist Satchel (pictured here on my Facebook profile photo) can lay down some pretty serious riffs, and lead singer Michael Starr can belt out the lyrics. Most of the comedic bits are banter between these two guys. However, drummer Stix had one “I can’t believe they went there” moment that night with his impression of Def Leppard’s Rick Allen.
If the middle of the show they invited this girl up on stage and had her do a mimic game with Starr. She actually had a pretty good voice. Then Starr, because this is Steel Panther, tried to get her to flash the crowd. She did, but showing remarkable foresight, chose to wear a bra that showed absolutely nothing when flashed (much to the band’s disappointment).
They invited a whole bunch of other girls onstage for covers of Livin’ On a Prayer and Pour Some Sugar On Me. I think Starr got a little more than he bargained for when an over-enthusiastic girl started to aggressively dirty dance with him as he was trying to sing. I’m not sayin’ it was sexual assault, but it was damn close.
Steel Panther puts on great show. Equal parts burlesque and metal. Go see them, but before you decide to bring a date, listen to the lyrics so you know what your are getting into.
[1] The first time I met these guys, my friend Ilya Mirman and I interviewed them backstage at Rocklahoma. They did not break character once. Impressive.
Steel Panther at the House of Blues – Boston, MA
