Live: Steel Panther in Indy
Steel Panther put on a show that, no matter what is in it, it’s entertaining and fun to watch. So when they announced their Sunset Strip Live tour, fans started buying tickets immediately.
The tour recently hit Indy’s Egyptian Room with support from Wilson and sees the band playing their regular show staples but they’ve sprinkled in some classic 80’s rock covers to add even more flavor to the already-tasty, tasty experience.
Wilson got the party started early and- from what we could hear from the Box Office, they sounded great. Sometimes there are issues picking up media credentials and this night was exactly that.
Although, this show was set up weeks in advance, the venue somehow did not add some media members to the guest list and, even though the band’s AMAZING publicity and tour management teams got in touch with the venue, they still took their time fixing this issue.
As time went on and the show went on, Wilson continued to sound outstanding and the muffled effects of the band kicking the crowd’s ass was purely infectious.
20 minutes went by it had become apparent that the staff in the bowels of the venue were using smoke signals to communicate to each other and were looking for a a new stone tablet to engrave notes on or a dove to attach a hand-written letter to in order to get the message to the Box Office so they could have- as the obviously new lady at the desk referred to as “a brand new, finalized list.”
Even though no one had seen her working a show before, she talked to everyone in line like it was their first time working a concert. Yes, Box Office Lady, people needed every ticket they were guest listed for; After asking 5 people that question in a row, how she didn’t figure this out will never be known.
However, alas, at 8:50- after 30 minutes of trying to get things corrected (and almost 20 minutes after management informed media the list should be fixed), credentials magically appeared in front of photographers and they made their way into the venue like Indiana Jones in Raiders of The Lost Ark, just waiting for something else to go wrong.
By the time they got to the show, Wilson was finishing up and had a few songs left but they were absolutely glorious and lived up to every ounce of expectations.
One thing was clear from the start of the show and tour and that is the fact that both bands were determined to make this a pure rock and roll party and both Wilson and Steel Panther are PERFECT bands to make that happen and did the job early.
After Wilson was done destroying the crowd, enough time went by to let the fans gather themselves before Steel Panther came on and finished them off completely- in more ways than one.
They opened with “Eyes of a Panther” and ripped through a setlist, stopping to banter back and forth, giving each other merciless amounts of shit. Bassist Spyder- who Satchel and Michael Starr both said looks like he ate Nikki Sixx (they found him in a Motley Crue cover band) or like he ate Nikki Sixx and Lexxi Foxx- is filling in on this run as main bassist Lexxi Foxx has checked himself into sex therapy but Spyder took on the challenge and knocked it out of the park.
The band scattered in a few cover songs throughout the set because they were on the Sunset Strip Live tour so they wanted to give fans the experience of being on the Sunset Strip in the 80’s, which they’ve always kind of given fans to begin with but this was different.
The regular sex jokes and jabs were there as always, leading to roars of laughter from the crowd and, even though some of the older people in the crowd may have walked to the lobby due to being offended, 99.9% of the crowd was LOVING IT and asking for more.
At one point, to prove how much bass players don’t matter to begin with- as Starr put it- they brought a young 5th grade fan onstage from the crowd- who was decked out in spandex and a poofy hair wig- and he NAILED “Running with the Devil.”
The bad continued on after this, playing “Shout at the Devil” and “Crazy Train,” which saw Starr doing what has to be the most accurate, dead-on impression of Ozzy Osbourne EVER before the rest of the set zoomed by and was over before fans were ready for it to be over.
In the end, Steel Panther are wrapping up the album cycle for Lower The Bar and are ready to sit down and start work on the next album and there is no better way to wrap up an album cycle than with a tour like this.
This has been an easy, laid back tour that still gave fans all the popular favorites but also cashes in on the cover band popularity going on right now too. This show was Steel Panther at their best and if you missed their set on this tour, you’ve severely robbed yourself.
-Reggie Edwards
Note: There are no photos of Wilson from the show due to the venue\’s Box Office completely messing up the Guest List.