Heavy Metal's Back!: Steel Panther

Cafe Society
1

Who else is a fan?

Steel Panther is a satire of '80s hair/glam metal bands that lampoons and indeed revels in every debauched, ridiculous, and kitschy sex drugs and rock N roll cliche. Their original songs are funny and very catchy – be prepared to get odd stares when you sing along to “Asian Hooker” on your iPod. Asian hookaaaaah! Hot little mutharfuckaaaah! Their covers are quite possibly better than the originals. The best part is that they are all accomplished musicians in their own right. If you are offended by, um, anything, you might wanna sit this one out.

The band:

Michael Starr (Ralph Saenz, former singer for Atomic Punks and L.A. Guns): The image-and-groupie obsessed lead singer. Clearly very inspired by David Lee Roth and Vince Neil. Appears to be subliminally in love (???) with the guitarist, Satchel.

**Satchel **(Russ Parish, former guitarist of Jeff Pilson’s post-Dokken band War & Peace): Lead guitarist. Is somewhat more fiery-tempered and even cruder than Michael. Think of every conflict-ridden, co-dependent, homoerotic singer/guitarist dynamic from every heavy metal band, ever, and you basically have Michael and Satchel.

Lexxi Foxxx (Travis Haley): Lead bassist. The band claims they recruited the effeminate Lexxi from his previous job as a hairdresser purely for his looks. Dumber than a box of donuts – he will look into the boom mic and talk into the camera when interviewed. In appearance, he owes a lot to CC DeVille of Poison.

Stix Zadinia (Darren Leader): Lead drummer. Calmest and possibly most intelligent (overly narrow superlative) of the band, Stix claims to have joined Steel Panther after Michael and Satchel met him at the club where he DJ’d, Wrinkles (a strip club exclusively for older women).

An notable element of their live shows is that Steel Panther will sometimes have famous singers or occasionally actors join them on the stage, such as Kelly Clarkson, Paul Stanley, and Dennis Rodman. You never know who’ll show up.

Some musical videos of note, all from the band’s Vevo, so its on the up-and-up:

Fat Girl, a tender paean to a special lady.

Death to All But Metal(Sarah Silverman cameos)

If You Really Really Love Me, the best love song ever.

2

Not a fan.

ETA: Actually, you could prolly call me an anti-fan.

3

New fan - Girl from Oklahoma did it for me. Broad comedy for sure, but a loving satire too.

MiM

4

I’ve seen them in concert too many times to admit to (even on the internet).

They are funny, the concerts are a lot of fun and they are good musicians. It’s a total throwback to the cock-rock 80’s era.

5

It was smarter and funnier when it was called Spinal Tap.

6

You may be right that Tap was smarter and funnier, but they’re satirising two different things; a movie about British has-beens and songs by West Coast wannabees. They’re both fruit , but one’s apples etc.

I think Tap was genius, but Panther is still funny IMO.

MiM

7

It sounded better when it was called The Darkness.

8

Looks like fun.

9

They seem fun but not too metal.

10

Oh definitely, they owe a lot to Spinal Tap, but if there’s anything that’s ripe for parody, its hair metal. And the guys have great comic timing. They must give the funniest interviews of any band other than maybe GWAR.

[Quote=PlainJane]
They seem fun but not too metal.
[/QUOTE]

Again, its to fall in with the hair metal theme. Hair/glam metal was never that heavy, because it had to be first and foremost commercially successful, and that meant appealing to very casual fans who mostly want to scream along with the chorus. Russ Parish, who portrays Satchel, is a former guitar instructor from Hollywood’s The Musician’s Institute and could probably play almost anything you could ever ask him to play. The over-the-top shredding and guitar solos he does with Steel Panther is just another aspect of hair metal he gets to lampoon, and very well if I may say so.