Source: Rhian Westbury
Without a doubt we can guarantee that nothing brings out the party in a big city like when Steel Panther roll in. Everyone is just ready to embrace the beauty of heavy metal in all of its spandex clad glory, fuelled on booze and god knows what else. This week we were lucky enough to catch the Panther at Manchester arena along side Buckcherry and Bowling For Soup. Partying isn’t the word.
First things first the turnout was insane! So much so that we unfortunately missed the majority of the Buckcherry set due to queues and whatnot. ‘Crazy Bitch’ could be heard on arrival to the arena and we got to see some dancing ladies in the hallways, so it could’ve been worse right?
Source: Rhian Westbury
Direct support came from pop punk royalty Bowling For Soup. We were lucky enough to catch Soup on their UK headliner earlier this year when they crushed Newcastle, so we were eager to see how they would handle a much bigger stage. Long story short, they smashed it. With a set crammed with classics like ‘High School Never Ends’ and ‘Girl All The Bad Guys Want’, high octane covers of ‘1985’ and ‘Stacy’s Mom’, and even a brand new track ‘Hey Diane’ from this year’s studio release, Drunk Dynasty. In addition to the absolute arsenal of tunes, Bowling For Soup’s humour and stage presence was a perfect match for Steel Panther and the crowd ate it up like, well you know.
Source: Rhian Westbury
Steel Panther then, God where do we begin? The hair, make up and spandex were all on point as per and the biblical set which followed was nothing short of spectacular either. Made up of a mix of Feel The Steel, Balls Out and All You Can Eat, the Steel Panther set shone in full heavy metal prestige. Although the majority of the set came from the first record (which we are aware is perfect in every way) there were a few hidden gems like ‘Gangbang At The Old Folks Home’ and ‘Tomorrow Night’ we would’ve loved to have seen. However our criticism meant nothing to the army of “Fanthers”(?) who were screaming every word back in unison, and the obligatory boobie flash showed that everything was running smoothly from the off. Following the announcement of their upcoming 2017 album, Lower The Bar, we were hoping for a sneaky new song to make the list, sadly though this wasn’t the case.
Source: Rhian Westbury
Highlights of the show for us would have to be the inclusion of the brilliant yet fucking disgusting ‘She’s On The Rag’ and the army of ladies which arrived on stage during ’17 Girls In A Row’, honestly there’s more of them every time. Now, unfortunately in addition to this we do have a minor negative, but we swear it’s only little. We completely understand that when you go to a Steel Panther show you expect a lot of goofing around from the boys. However, some of the gags just went on a little too long for our liking. To the point where it actually felt like we could’ve had another two or three songs if they had been toned down just a little. It’s a shame also, because Steel Panther, despite being labeled a parody band always perform in expert fashion and we would’ve liked to see as many songs as humanly possible from them. Despite this though, we had an absolutely amazing time and are way too eager for the next record. February isn’t too far away after all.
Death to all but metal.
