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Saw Steel Panther Last Night


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Caught the band last night at the TLA on South St in Philly. Not much different from the other 3 shows I've seen, though, I am still impressed with their level of musicianship, professionalism and sound. The band was predictably tight, well-rehearsed in their shtick and completely committed to remaining in character.  A few of the jokes and gags they did were new but mostly it was SOS. The opening band- Philly/Lansdale natives Roughhouse (formerly Teeze), an utterly forgetful band that reportedly has 3 albums to their credit and really should have stayed broken up back in 89, gave me a lot of motivation for retiring from playing hard rock at my age. They looked pitiful. Kinda like the drunken dude at the party who won't go home. They sounded worse. Their rigs sounded like bees nests of distorted mush. The notes in the solos were incomprehensible and indiscriminate. Hackneyed, cliched licks played with awful theatrics and feigned exuberance. Much of their stage act was a direct rip off SP's (which we know to be a rip off of every hair metal and hard rock band of the 80's) Steel Panther, in stark contrast, sounded great- their mix was spot on: Vocals were clear and discernible and Satchel's sound was great- really dialed in. He was sporting his now sig-version Charvel- apparently having totally severed ties with Kramer.

Russ Parrish' playing continues to impress and inspire me despite it's obvious homage to 80's (and 90's) metal licks. His precision, especially in the midst of the chaos that swirls around him on stage, is mind blowing.

My biggest misgivings about the show (aside from the opening band) were the stage full of ladies towards the end, some of whom should not have been allowed up there (body shaming alert) and the excessive chattering and needless dialogue part of their shtick. It was overkill and not that funny. Those guys are all highly talented musicians, clearly more so than vast majority of musicians they satirize. I don't think it's asking too much to have them present more music and less stage show chatter. YMMVSP2.png

 

 

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Thanks for a good review.

It is sad reading that Teeze and what they should be as far as playing and appearance.  The Steel Panther members are not very young, but they look good on stage.  I am with you on wanting to hear more music and less talk from those guys. 

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I'm still waiting to catch them here. Never seen them but would love to even though I've played all the YouTube videos and know the show pretty well. 

A comment about the opening act: Never heard of them (imagine that) but did see an opening act called Flesh for LuLu at a PIL show. Same deal with the fizzy noise. Horribly distorted vocals from speaker or amp breakup. I know most opening bands are dialed down from the FOH guy but sometimes they seem to sabotage the opening act. I was concerned about this when I saw COC in January because they were opening for Zakk. Luckily they had full access to the sound system but before the show I thought Zakk may be an asshole and screw it up. So I would wonder if these guys would have sounded better in a different venue. Hard to believe just because they were a little older they would suck that badly. Look at JP. Not a lot of sucking gong on there other than a few guys retiring because of health reasons.  

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I’ll be the contrarian, I like the schtick. I enjoy SP as a straight sketch comedy group as much I  as I enjoy their musicianship. 

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Sometimes the schtick is forced.  They could do the comedy just as well if they made it seem more like a normal concert.  They lyrics are a big part of the fun. 

G - O - L - D - D - I - GG - I - N - G - W - H - O - R 

...E

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2 hours ago, alantig said:

We saw them in Pittsburgh and had the same comment - they could have fit in another 4-5 songs easily w/less of the schtick.  I think my favorite moment of the evening was the Ozzy tribute.

YES! Quite possibly the funniest part of the show was Michael Starr's rendition of Ozzy- spot on and yet tastefully satirizing!

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1 hour ago, Stike said:

I’ll be the contrarian, I like the schtick. I enjoy SP as a straight sketch comedy group as much I  as I enjoy their musicianship. 

I guess after I hear/see  essentially the same gags 3 times in a row, it kinda loses it's novelty and appeal. I'll admit that some of the more subtle nuances of humor they injected had me taking note and laughing. Lexi's preening and some of the facial expressions by Satchel are good stuff- hard to appreciate if you're in the back of the venue but great if you're 20 feet back like we were!   :D

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21 hours ago, Stike said:

I’ll be the contrarian, I like the schtick. I enjoy SP as a straight sketch comedy group as much I  as I enjoy their musicianship. 

I don't mind the shtick, but like Steve said, some of it felt forced this time around.  The bit where they bring up the girl to sing to, they tried to get someone from the audience to sing to her, and it just wouldn't quite get where they wanted it to go.  Then they brought up another dude who turned out to be the girl's date, and he proposed to her on stage.

When the brought up the mass of women, there were a couple who seemed like they were trying to take over the show.  I have to give those guys credit - to do what they do and play as well as they do with all that chaos around them is impressive.

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