Live: Steel Panther @ Academy 1

Steel Panther
Academy 1
30 March
5 stars

If you’ve never heard of Steel Panther before, things could go either one of two ways. You could completely fall in love with them, and feel like your life has been completed (like myself) or you could find them utterly revolting and ridiculous. However, if you end up feeling the latter, you’d be right – that’s the whole point. Steel Panther make no bones about what they do. Their riffs are straight out of the 80’s, lifting from bands like Whitesnake, Bon Jovi, Van Halen and pretty much every other spandex clad hair metal act. Their lyrics aren’t witty or clever- they could be construed as sexist and offensive to pretty much any member of the female species, but that’s the great thing about it, believe me.

Despite having embraced Steel Panther, I still wasn’t completely sure what to expect live, but what I, and every other member of the sold out audience got was nothing short of sublime. The musicianship between all 4 members, even when playing songs like ‘It Won’t Suck Itself’ is truly brilliant. Michael Starr’s vocals are perfect, hitting those wailing highs just like his idol David Lee Roth, if not better. Lead guitarist Satchel, who started out under Paul Gilbert’s wing, has got his sound down to a tee, and even manages to do pelvic thrusts while effortlessly sweeping his way up and down the neck. Then we have Stix and Lexxi, musically less in the limelight, but no less important, Panther are a band consisting of 4 front men.

These songs are meant to be taken seriously, it’s one big joke on the bands like Def Leppard and Rat. But as far as enjoyment at a gig goes, I’ve never had a better one. That’s right, I might go as far to say that Steel Panther’s Balls Out tour was possibly the best gig I’ve ever seen – and I’ve seen Meatloaf live.

Steel Panther – If You Really Really Love Me