Review by Lisa Burke
LA glam/parody metal kings Steel Panther literally brought the House Of Blues Sunset Strip by playing the very last show at that venue in the summer of 2015, bringing an end to their longstanding association with the Sunset Strip, having done highly successful and popular residencies not only at the House Of Blues but also at the Key Club and Viper Room in earlier years. This January, they found a new venue a few miles east of the Strip for a set of three headline shows, the Fonda Theatre in central Hollywood. Our writer Lisa Burke was in attendance for the first of these shows. Check out her review below.
On Thursday January 7th 2016, I attended the first Steel Panther Threesome of the year. After the House of Blues Sunset closed down last year which was basically a second home to Steel Panther and their diehard fans, they have been having a hard time finding a new home, and on this night they played the first of three Thursday night January shows at the Fonda Theatre in Hollywood. With its comparable size to House of Blues, hip location, and open-minded staff I believe we may have winner for a new venue for a residency and place for their sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll to live and breathe. Usually Steel Panther would have at least two openers before going on but on this particular night it was only one opener Phil X And The Drills. They played mostly covers and a song with snippets of covers from all over the map. The end.
The pre Steel Panther entrance anticipation song of the evening was a favorite of mine, ‘Blackout In The Red Room’ from Love/Hate, who in my opinion was a very underrated band due to their best album coming out when Guns ‘N Roses was taking flight on the charts. Regardless, this was a very appropriate song for them as it invokes a wild party about to take place. In comparison to all the other Steel Panther shows I’ve seen over the last few years this one was probably the most conservative of all due to lack of exposed nipples. When Satchel is the one showing the most nipple all night you know you could have had a slightly better time. Satchel usually wears a black mesh shirt with holes in it, but this time it was basically a poor excuse for a shirt that wasn’t even worthy of being labeled as a shirt with its extra ridiculously-sized cutouts. It did make for good comedy however, which I’m sure was the intention. Lexxi was Sporting a peacock feather printed shirt that was super fun and made up for any lack of style on the other side. If you aren’t aware, there is an old saying that peacock feathers are bad luck on stage as is a real mirror due to its interference with the lighting so naturally Lexxi who always gets the short end of the stick as a bass player has both these unfortunate elements to carry forth and liven up the running joke.
They played a very typical set that included ‘Gloryhole’ and ending with ‘Death To All But Metal’, but it was enjoyable and of course I laughed, cringed at their raunchy jokes, and had a wonderful time. One slight critique I have is that while ‘Just Like Tiger Woods’ is an adorable little ballad I’m not sure in the year 2016 that anyone cares about Tiger Woods anymore. Perhaps if they played a song called ‘Just Like Donald Trump’ it might be a bit more effective. It feels a little outdated to me, yet i suppose glam rock/hair metal is pretty outdated as a genre anyway so perhaps it does still carry validity. Also, after seeing ‘Asian Hooker’ played while two Asian chicks were crowd surf racing to the stage at a past Steel Panther show, it brings a tear to my eye to see it performed without that visual enhancement. Despite the lack of special guests and exposed breasts on this night as there have been in the past they did manage to get a stage full of girls to at least look awkward dancing in too many clothes for a Steel Panther show.
The most memorable moment for me was not the one girl who exposed her badly done boob job, but it was the Whitesnake cover of ‘Here I Go Again’ which included snippets of bands who supposedly ripped off Whitesnake including ‘Sweater Song ‘ by Weezer and some reggae jammin as well. Of course these are ridiculous bands to compare to Whitesnake but funny none the less and holds some truth to the fact that Whitesnake was a classic role model for many bands of the same genre. Another running joke worth a mention is that only 80 per cent of what you see and hear is real which is a parody on the use of backing tracks and how taking that seriously in improper cheating ways is very frowned upon in this industry. I’m going to conclude that I’m happy to have the boys back in Hollywood where they belong and I hope the Fonda is working out a good deal for them as I think it could make everyone happy in the end. I’m looking forward to finishing the weekly Thursday night threesome I started with them, and I know you know you are welcome to join in on the fun. Feel the Steel!