I remember seeing Steel Panther for the first time, it was in a stuffy tent at Download ’09. We ran over to the third stage to see them on a wim and they turned out to be one of our favourite new bands that year. They were hilarious and the only other ‘funny’ band around at the time seemed to be Bowling For Soup.
Back then Lexxi Fox always told the crowd “We play every Monday on The Sunset Strip in Hollywood”. Whilst this could easily be taken as just talk from their comedy-glam-rock-band-parody performance, it was actually true. Steel Panther is known for having the longest running residence along the famous Sunset Strip, in LA.
One summer myself and a friend actually flew all the way to Los Angeles, to see them play at The House of Blues on the strip. That same night by what seemed a rock and roll miracle, we met Lemmy across the road at The Rainbow Bar and Grill. For this, Steel Panther will always be a pretty magical band to me. Even though they are a parody band they 100% evoke the spirit of heavy metal from the 80s.
Fast forward to present day and I’m really excited to be sat in the giant Wembley Arena, about to watch a band that I have seem progress so much over the last 7 years.
Opening the show were fellow Californians Buckcherry. Vocalist Josh Todd has had a past of being in Hollywood glam rock bands, and you can clearly hear these influences in Buckcherry. The band name was inspired by a drag queen acquaintance of theirs named “Buck Cherry”.
The band have a laid back rock and roll energy about them. Josh Todd loves to dance on stage and it creates such a fun opening.
They played some of their absolute bangers ‘Gluttony’, ‘Lit Up’, their cover of Icona Pop ‘I Love It’ sung as “Say Fuck It”. Finishing on their most popular track ‘Crazy Bitch’. Buckcherry kept the crowd successfully warmed, and were full of energy, from start to finish.
I mentioned that funny band Bowling For Soup earlier, well they played main support to Steel Panther, and what an excellent choice. Panther and BFS, whist different styles and from what seems different eras, both stimulate the crowd with comedy during their performances.
Lead singer Jaret Reddick tells the crowd “This is the only country I can get away with saying this. Everyone put your arms in the air like this and if the person next to you has not got their hands like this then they are a cunt!”. He proceeds to get the crowd to freestyle with their hands in the air, followed by imitating a “wailing inflatable hand man”.
https://beta.ramzine.co.uk/featured/interview-with-bowling-for-soups-jaret-reddick/
The band played the classics ‘Girl All the Bad Guys Want’, ‘High School Never Ends’ and ‘Punk Rock 101‘ (which included the bands famous ‘photo opportunity’ which they seem to do every show, as a way to encourage fans to take photos at the gigs).
They also played the classic ‘Stacy’s Mom’, which Jaret pointed out is not actually their song (it’s by Fountains of Wayne). The song just seemed to have been searched for a lot on the internet with their band name, so they decided to cover it. BFS also played some new tracks from the new album ‘Drunk Dynasty’.
BFS finish on ‘1985’, by this point the beer is most certainly flowing, and the crowd have had a great time.
Steel Panther take to the stage playing ‘Eyes of a Panther’ off of ’09 album Feel the Steel. The band play a set full of hits from all albums.
As usual when they play ’17 Girls in a Row’, girls from the audience are invited onto the stage to prance around and pester the band whilst they are playing (at least that’s how it looks). Each girl does though seem to be having the time of her life before being whisked away back stage when the song comes to an end.
When the band return back to the stage for the classic encore we are very pleased to hear a track rarely played live ‘Fat Girl (Thar She Blows)’. The band end with ‘Party All Day (Fuck All Night)’. It’s safe to say, that’s how some fans certainly spent their day celebrating Steel Panthers return to the UK!
