Steel Panther + Skindred + Lounge Kittens @ Civic Hall, Wolverhampton, 12th March 2015
There was already a queue outside the Wolverhampton Civic Hall when I arrived. Within the queue were numerous men dressed in leopard print leggings, skin tight tops and 80’s, glam rock style wigs, ready to see comedic, glam rock band Steel Panther.
To get an idea of what I was greeted by when I walked into the Civic hall, think of the TV show ‘Glee’, now imagine them covering explicit rock songs such as ‘Duality’ by Slipknot and ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ by the Prodigy (just to name a couple) and you have the nights opening act- The Lounge Kittens. Their set was full of humour and without a doubt the crowd were enjoying them, particularly when they covered ‘Kill The Power’ by Skindred who were to be the second support band for the night and ‘Glory Hole’ by Steel Panther, the headliners of this tour. With clothes and hair as luminous as their performance they were indeed a fantastic opening act; they were something different but they managed to get the entire room warmed up, ready for the bands that were to follow.
Next up were Skindred and their set was made to excite people from the off. Before they took the stage, the lights went down and ‘The Imperial March’ played which built the anticipation and got people cheering before there was anyone even performing. The band came out, but the crowd really went wild when front-man Benji Webb walked out and went straight into their first song ‘Kill The Power’. The rapport he had with the crowd was instant; If he wanted the crowd to put their hands in the air then he made sure they had their hands in the air, and if he wasn’t happy with the effort people were putting in, he was very forward in saying so (much to the amusement of the fans).
When the band were getting ready to play ‘pressure’ Benji stated he wanted the room to bounce, he ended up getting the band to restart the song two or three times because he said not everyone in the room was taking part. His strategy worked, by the time they were into the song the crowd was insane. During their set, Benji made sure he threw in some of his quirks like “waving like the queen” during ‘Ninja’ and getting everybody to get down low at the beginning of ‘Warning’ ready to jump up when the song kicked in (quite an awesome sight). Also during warning he got us to do “the Newport helicopter”, so called because Newport (South Wales) is where the band are from and helicopter, because you take an item of clothing and when counted in everyone waves said item of clothing around and around over their head! Skindred were a lot of fun from beginning to end and I think its safe to say the majority of the people at the Civic hall would agree.
By the time Steel Panther were due on stage, the crowd were already pumped (and a lot of them were alcohol fuelled). The lights went down, a black curtain covered the stage and the atmosphere was one filled with excitement. The music started and as it did the curtain fell revealing Steel Panther who were playing ‘pussy-whipped’, the crowd joined in immediately. When the first song finished, Satchel (guitar/vocals) stepped in to apologise to fans as he hadn’t been able to attend the meet and greet earlier in the day, he explained that he had been vomiting all day; he also took the opportunity to apologise in advance if he left the stage at any point as he was in fact still sick! Front man Michael Starr went on to joke about why Satchel was really sick saying it was down to drinking all night and doing drugs! The banter on stage continued and would be shocking if you were not already familiar with Steel Panther. These guys are pure filth when it comes to, well, everything.
Between songs they would discuss sex, boobs, dicks, STD’s and everything else you can think of that wouldn’t usually be socially acceptable and might make you blush! The band had a video screen as their back drop which went between showing them playing the show, to their music video, of the song they were playing. The music videos, much like their banter, were filled with boobs, sex and drugs. During ’17 Girls in a Row’ Michael Starr was picking girls from the crowd, to join the band on the stage; being fans of Steel Panther, the girls were clearly excited and they danced for the entire song, one of the girls took the opportunity to get selfies with the guys and they were happy to partake. Part of the nights set was made up of five acoustic songs, they were ‘Kanye’, ‘Weenie Ride’, ‘Stripper Girl’, ‘Why Can’t You Trust Me’ and ‘Girl From Oklahoma’; for this part of the show we saw drummer, Stix Zadinia, leave his drum kit to play a grand piano,that had come complete with candles on top of it.
By this point, Steel Panther were over halfway through their set and the evening had taken its toll on Satchel, he chose to sit down for the rest of the evening. His decision didn’t ruin the set though, in fact if anything he deserves credit for making it as far through the set as he did before he had to sit down. The band finished their main set with ‘Death To All But Metal’, a favourite amongst Steel Panther fans, this saw the room really give it their all for the end of the night. Steel Panther returned for a two song encore, ‘Community Property’ and ‘Party All Day’. The crowd, who were still crazy from ‘death to all but metal’, were singing along and the excitement was only increased by a confetti gun that was fired for the beginning of ‘Party All Day’. For the entire night, the audience lapped up everything that Steel Panther threw at them; they laughed at their filthy jokes and sang along to their filthy songs and overall it was a night fun for everybody.
Set lists:
LOUNGE KITTENS
Party Hard (Andrew W.K. cover)
Duality (Slipknot cover)
Sad But True (Metallica cover)
Kill the Power (Skindred cover)
Firestarter (The Prodigy cover)
Gloryhole (Steel Panther cover)
Rollin (Limp Bizkit cover)
Angry White Boy Polka (“Weird Al” Yankovic cover)
SKINDRED
Kill the Power
Doom Riff
Rat Race
Pressure
Ninja
Trouble
Sad But True
(Metallica cover)
Nobody
Warning
STEEL PANTHER
Pussywhipped
Party Like Tomorrow Is the End of the World
Fat Girl (Thar She Blows)
Tomorrow Night
The Shocker
Hair Solo
17 Girls in a Row
Gloryhole
If I Was the King
Ten Strikes You’re Out
Kanye
Weenie Ride
Stripper Girl
Why Can’t You Trust Me
Girl From Oklahoma
Asian Hooker
Death to All but Metal
Encore:
Community Property
Party All Day (Fuck All Night)
Review: Gemma Bywater
Photographs: Katie Foulkes