Steel Panther: The Balls Out Show

Tuesday night 600 people, including myself, were treated to some of the greatest 80s metal created this side of the 21st century. You are forgiven if you were not able to acquire a ticket, as they sold out in roughly 11 minutes, but more on this in a moment.

Before We Begin

I will begin with the support act, Red, White and Blues. Featuring Myke Gray and Matti Alfonzetti, previously of Jagged Edge, this band, who seemingly have no internet presence, other than a few 'bootlegged' songs and videos that were recorded at Hard Rock Calling earlier this year, and their website, are bluesier (hence the name) than what would be expected at this kind of gig, but their music was lively and they got the crowd going.


They also had a lot of important information to share about current affairs.

If you want to hear more from the band, they will be supporting Whitesnake on their december tour, and their debute album, Shine, should be available to pre-order from today. You can also follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

On To The Main Event

For anyone who hasn't seen Steel Panther live before, shame on you. For those who have, you will know that their shows are a cross between stand up and musical genius. This being the only UK date to promote their new album, they really had to bring the thunder, which they did.

Their set was a steady mix between old and new. Unfortunately the show was riddled with problems, including Stix breaking his snare, Satchel snapping a string before his solo, and Michael's microphone not working properly throughout the entire evening. They handled all this like pros, I've seen some bands throw hissy fits about bad sound in smaller venues, but the Panther powered through and gave us additional onstage banter whilst things were being fixed. In fact, when it came time for Community Property, the microphone issue united the entire audience, as we all sang the words, up until the second verse where the band got mixed up, and started the song again.

One major highlight was Satchel's solo, where he proved he was a better guitarist than basically every other classic metal guitarist by playing their songs at super speed, whilst also playing the drums.


That's right.

If you missed this show, you may be forgiven, if you have purchased tickets to the show in December featuring Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe and Steel Panther.