Community Property
Steel Panther were a complete unknown to me last year when they completely rammed out the Tuborg Tent and they produced one of the sets of the weekend. This year they clash with Motorhead as they take to the second stage but still get a big crowd and most of them it seems now own a copy of their rather excellent album ‘Feel the Steel’. They are a complete parody of 80s big hair metal and they do it exceedingly well from the spandex, hair and flowing scarves to the songs themselves that lyrics aside, would fit onto pretty much any album from that genre.
The rain makes getting across the arena hard work and unfortunately means we miss the first song of the set, which is a shame as it turns out to be ‘Death To All But Metal’. They follow it with the hilarious ‘Turn Out The Lights’ and the Backstreet Boys cover ‘I Want It That Way’. Between every song they engage in amusing and sometimes downright laugh out loud banter between both themselves and the crowd. Much of this involves encouraging women in the crowd to get their boobies out and of course they do! Much to the delight of the crowd, who can follow it on the video screens at the side of the stage. It’s all part of the game with both band and crowd playing their parts to perfection.
Steel Panther are renowned for getting special guests up on stage to play with them and today is no exception as they welcome Scott Ian of Anthrax to help them out on ‘Asian Hooker’, that is when he eventually gets on, singer Michael Starr informing us that he’s "just doing some coke backstage". Guitarist Stachel joins in, stating that "Scott is so high now he’ll probably fuck this up but it doesn’t matter because he’s famous!". They don’t play too many songs, mainly due to all the talking but we couldn’t let the set pass without mention of ‘Community Property’ and the rousing set closer ‘Party All Day (Fuck All Night)’.
They are just great fun, completely over the top, totally un p.c and a fabulous parody of the glory days of ‘hair metal’. Behind it all though they are a damn good band, much like Spinal Tap not only is it all very funny but the songs stand up on their own. The weather is rotten but Steel Panther have raised more than a few smiles on an otherwise dreary afternoon.