I didn't bother with the support act, but did get to the venue in time for Steel Panther. Pity I wasn't as amped up/drunk as the crowd, but it was still an awesome show. The first sign of things to come was when they took the first of many song breaks, to pat themselves on the back for playing two songs in a row without a hitch.
Around the hour make, or so, an audience (possibly drunk) member behind me obviously failed to grasp the full concept of a Steel Panther show when, during a song break, he yelled out something to the effect of "Shut the F up, Play a f***ing song, ya F****ts!" Also noticed a disgruntled audience member in the upstairs bit giving the band the finger- maybe he knew one of the girls that were brought up on stage and didn't appreciate the subtleties of the ensuing groupie etc jokes.
They've definitely honed their performance to be a fine balance of humour (obviously- but the dirty kind), crowd pleaser's and musicianship, best highlighted by lead guitarist, Satchels solo where he treats the crowd to a medley of well known heavy metal song riffs that amps up the crowd, especially when he gets behind the drum kit, still playing guitar, to use the bass drum with a spare foot.
Also, I'd push anyone to find a moment where the band members are out of character. Even when front man Michael Star is taking center stage, Lexi (Bass) constantly plays the air head and Satchel will fain being out of breath after an 80's heavy metal high kick. Granted, these characters are ingrained, with Steel Panther formerly known as Metal School (?Spelling may be different and I'm sure there were a few other band names). But my point is, they had polished their 80's schtick to a fine point well before their 2009 debut (feel the steel).
In the end, the Steel Panther show was top notch- not only for fans of the genre but of performance, and no doubt critics will spout about the non-stop running sex joke but applying an argument for pop music- the crowds would've have come out, and world wide- continue to come out to see them, if they sucked at their jobs (I am comfortable in applying this argument here, simply because of the majority of the bands songs unsuitability for commercial radio, the naughty lyrics and over the top 80's sex crazed rock star joke- which at the same time I fully understand is their appeal)
Check out my interview with Satchel, and other things:
http://www.hardfastheavy.com/2012/09/transcript-of-steel-panther-interview.html
http://www.hardfastheavy.com/2012/09/steel-panther-links-us-on-their-fb.html
http://www.hardfastheavy.com/2012/09/bits-of-my-steel-panther-interview.html
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