STEEL PANTHER...rawr.

Can you feel the steel?

I spent New Year's Eve with my GF, several hundred drunks and the mighty Steel Panther, at The House of Blues in Hollywood. Who or what is Steel Panther you ask? Allow me to explain...

Steel Panther (formerly Metal Skool, formerly Metal Shop, formerly Danger Kitty) are a 1980's hair metal tribute band that have rocked Monday nights in Hollywood (first at the Viper Room, then The Roxy, then the Key Club and now The House of Blues) for nearly a decade. They first appeared in a Discover Card commercial back in the day that some of you old folks might remember.

Their shtick is simple enough, professional musicians dress up in spandex and blaze through now "classic/nostalgic" 1980's anthems from Guns N' Roses, Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Van Halen, etc. Of course the best thing about this band is the humor. As a joke band, they are free to exaggerate all the stereotypical excess's of the 80's hair metal scene. Drugs, booze, women...their onstage banter is down right hilarious. You never know what might happen at a Steel Panther show in Hollywood. Guest musicians jump onstage all the time to do random cover songs and any celebrities spotted in the crowd usually get dragged onstage to sing or just get humiliated.

Of course the best thing about a Steel Panther show are the girls. Case in point:

and that's about as G-rated as I've seen. You can almost always count on boobs getting flashed, girls making out and more.

The band has gotten bigger over the years, playing shows across the country and releasing albums of original material. Their major label debut Feel The Steel is a pretty rocking album. It's campy/tongue and cheek, but wildly entertaining.


As for the New Years Eve show, it was rad. They're starting to play a lot more of their own material into their shows these days, which didn't bother me since I liked their album, but kind of kills some of the crowd's energy who doesn't really know the material by heart yet. Whenever the crowd started to drop, the band would just bust into "Shout Out The Devil" to wake everyone back up, or throw some girls onstage and flash their goods. Sadly, my GF didn't appreciate me using her camera to photograph girls making out and getting wild onstage =/ I don't think (G)oogle would appreciate that it either. Here's some normal pics from the show:

So if you like 80's metal, sexist/racist/raunchy humor, and hot girls making fools of themselves you might want to check out STEEL PANTHER next time you're in LA or Las Vegas. They do random shows across the country sometimes, so keep an eye out.