**THIS REVIEW INCLUDES CONTENT THAT IS NOT SUITABLE FOR THOSE UNDER 18 YEARS OF AGE**
COVID-19 may have wrecked live touring, but that hasn’t stopped Steel Panther. From Rockdown in the Lockdown and The Concert To Save The World, the band has continued to move forward to entertain their fans. Michael Starr (vocals), Satchel (guitar), Lexxi Foxx (bass), and Stix Zadinia (drums) delivered exactly what the fans wanted and what they do best; raunchy fun and heavy metal. And topless women. It wouldn’t be a Steel Panther show without a woman showing her chest to the band or the fans.
The show started off with a creepy voice welcoming those watching to the event while showing a clip of a roller coaster and other creepy images intermixed. After the roller coaster hit the drop into a dark tunnel it cut over to the band in The Viper Room playing on stage. They kicked it off with “It Won’t Suck Itself” and the fans in the chat room were loving the start. Michael was wearing makeup looking like a cat, Satchel was made up with a skull face, Lexxi had the dead bride (bridal veil included) going, and Stix truly went all out with a pumpkin face paint job. They followed it up with “Gold Digging Whore”. Satchel and Lexxi were playing in unison and Michael was urgent the viewers to sing along. Over in the chat, fans were spelling out G-O-L-D D-I-G-G-I-N-G-W-H-O-R-E multiple times over. I couldn’t help but smile and also sing along.
At every Steel Panther show I’ve seen, right after song two they take some time to talk to the crowd. Satchel explained how they were so happy to be back at The Viper Room where it all started for them back in 1981 (truly in the early 2000s). He also gave Michael some shit for wiping off his cat face paint and Michael agreed that Satchel always put more effort into everything. Lexxi as usual admired himself in his hand mirror. The funniest part is Satchel was looking over to the side where they could apparently see what was being said in the chat room. He seemed offended that someone asked if they were live where he replied that everything was live, except for the vocals, and had a stagehand open up a side door to show the bright Los Angeles street in the early afternoon. I always enjoy these exchanges between the band members and the added interaction with the fans in the chat room made it even more enjoyable.
They kicked in two more songs “Just Like Tiger Woods” and “Ten Strikes”, where Satchel was humping Michael’s leg (he didn’t notice) and Michael swung the microphone in front of his crotch like he was swinging his penis. At that point, the lights flickered to a pre-recorded piece where the band told a truly scary tale. The story switched between each of the band members who added their own piece to the story. And in between those we got looks at a topless woman listening to the story. This one was about a woman named Debbie and her dog Buster Hymen. Debbie was working to be an actor and a stripper while going part-time to college to be a “doctor…in the animal field”. Debbie keeps hearing dripping noises in her house and is getting scared. She reaches under the blanket where Buster sleeps and feels him lick her hand for comfort. She keeps hearing the noise and finds it was coming from the closet. She opens it only to find her headless dog hanging in the closet dripping blood. She realizes that wasn’t Buster under the blanket and when she pulls back the blanket finds a note on the bed saying “Humans like to lick too!” BUUWWWHHHAAAA……
When they cut back to the stage, Ozzy Osbourne‘s bassist, Blasko, was on stage with Satchel and Stix. Satchel was saying how he sent Michael away to get a real costume on. Blasko and Satchel talked about doing an Ozzy song and Satchel started playing the riffs for “Over The Mountain” and Satchel exclaimed that Ozzy was joining them. In walks Michael Starr dressed as Ozzy and mimicking his movements coming up on stage. Michael then proceeded to sing just like Ozzy vocally, but mumbling and stumbling over words, even though he had a lyric sheet in his hand. If you’ve never seen Michael imitate Ozzy go find it on the internet. I’ll wait…..OK now that you understand how funny that is, this was ten times better. People in the chat were typing “LOL” and “LMAO” over and over and I was laughing out loud myself. It was by far his best performance as Ozzy.
But, then they brought up what I thought was the best part of the show. With the recent passing of Eddie Van Halen, Steel Panther performed two Van Halen songs and they couldn’t have chosen two better songs. The first was “Panama” which is so perfect for Steel Panther to perform. From the guitar solo, to Michael‘s vocals and David Lee Roth high kicks, to the overall performance, they nailed this song. It was perfect. They followed up with “Jump” with Lexxi and Satchel doing a high kick in unison, though Satchel left Lexxi hanging in a high-five, to Lexxi, Satchel, and Michael doing the infamous panning the crowd and then the three-person strut down the stage. Another perfect performance. They closed up with “Gloryhole” before moving on to the next scary story.
This story was about Jesus and The Hand Holds, a band that opened up for Steel Panther, and a woman wearing a scarf at all their shows. The woman kept appearing over and over again and even got backstage. She hooks up with the lead singer and they eventually fall in love and get married. But, she won’t take off the scarf no matter what. The lead singer even asks to take her scarf on tour overseas and she still said no. One night when she’s sleeping, he decides to remove the scarf from her neck. When he pulls it off, her head rolls off! He picks up her head and her eyes pop open and she says, “You always wanted me to give you head!” BUUWWWWWHHHAAAAAAA…..
Stix came out from behind the drums to play piano on “Weenie Ride”. Lexxi kept messing with the piano fucking up Stix‘s notes. Michael and Satchel shared a stool very intimately performing the song. We then had Jesse Hughes, vocalist and founder of Eagles of Death Metal, come out on stage. He was dressed similarly to Frank-N-Furter except he had a holster on his hip. And in that holster was a huge, pink dildo. Jesse stuck the dildo to the stool as they all performed “You Got Another Thing Comin'” by Judas Priest. And of course, Michael made multiple raunchy references to the word “comin'”. Michael then left to let Jesse take lead as the band performed “Rebel Yell” by Billy Idol.
Their last scary story involved the setup you’ve heard a thousand times over in scary stories….the couple (named Frank and Suzanne here) getting it on in the car. Do you know how scary that is? Chaffing! Anyways, the band tells the tale as the two are getting it on in the car and overheard on the radio that Austin Pounders escaped from prison. This time a new topless woman in makeup is part of the cutscenes. One of her scenes she delivers a sarcastic “Really?” is just priceless. There’s a large bang against the car and Suzanne wants to go home because she’s scared. Frank agrees and takes her home. When they get to her home and get out they see a dildo stuck to the side of the car. And Frank thinks, “Austin Pounders….what a great name for a dildo killer!” BUUWWWHHHAAA…
Steel Panther wrapped up with 3 of my favorite songs. First is the iconic “Death to All but Metal”. Who doesn’t like a song that has the line “Why do all my lyrics sound like Dr. Seuss”? They followed with the song I absolutely love “Community Property”, which in my opinion, would make an awesome first dance wedding song. My wife didn’t agree for some reason. Go figure. During the song, Michael stole a pick from Satchel‘s mic stand. He licked it and stuck it to his face. Michael turned back around, singing at Satchel, and Satchel smiled when he saw it and looked like he was going to remove it with his mouth, but Michael laughed and backed up. He then threw the pick to the “crowd”. And then wrapped it up with the fan-favorite “Party All Night (Fuck All Day)”.
Outside of the cutscenes, one of the things I loved about this livestream is Steel Panther kept the production of the show pretty basic. Them on stage, good stage lighting, and a few camera angles. No crazy switching camera angles every 3 seconds. No pyro or crazy lighting. Why? Because Steel Panther doesn’t need it to make a show fantastic. The songs were awesome, the band interaction and bantering were perfect, and the guest spots were a very nice surprise. And of course, it maintained the raunchy, fun feeling you expect from Steel Panther. This livestream and the livestream merch are available for purchase at their website HERE. Do yourself a favor and go buy it and watch it! It’s absolutely worth it.
Be the first to comment