The question “Why?” can be a valid point of departure for an account of rock’n’roll history or a broader inquiry into rock’s constructive merits, but to ask “what does this band endeavour to achieve?” will only ever get you so far.
Rock bands have existed for unnumbered reasons over the years, and there’s no way of ensuring that the listenership directly understands the artist’s intentions. UK Prime Minister David Cameron has on multiple occasions cited The Smiths as one of his favourite bands. Cameron represents the Conservative Party, which makes him exactly the type of political figure that many Smiths songs sought to denigrate. The band’s former guitarist Johnny Marr has even gone so far as tweeting, “David Cameron, stop saying that you like The Smiths, no you don’t. I forbid you to like it.”
That brings us to Steel Panther. Steel Panther’s design is fairly straightforward: a humorous parody of ‘70s/’80s heavy metal and glam rock. It’s a fertile subculture for parody, as its key proponents tended to live entirely profane lifestyles characterised by drugs, sex and misogyny. Steel Panther have been especially successful because not only do their songs talk about fucking all night and partying all day, but they’re also a more than proficient group of heavy metal musicians.
Tonight, frontman Michael Starr frequently resembled a castrato, hitting high notes with resolute ease. Drummer Stix Zadinia and bassist Lexxi Foxx created a firm base, distributing thumping hard rock sounds to every corner of Festival Hall. Guitarist and bandleader Satchel spent a hefty portion of the night shredding away on his custom designed six-string. During an extended solo, he interpolated both Smoke on the Water and Advance Australia Fair – two songs you’d be advised to leave out of any live music performance, and yet both gained enormous cheers from the predominantly male audience.
And herein lies the confounding issue with Steel Panther. A lot of their songs completely ignore the line of good taste, but when accepted as parody, they’re quite clever and genuinely funny. For instance, the night’s most epic moment was Community Property – a group sing-along about unconditional love, only with the disclaimer that Starr’s “cock is community property”. However, while Steel Panther are joke-makers, there’s no denying that a portion of their audience revels in the depraved excesses of the heavy metal era. And the band seemed to play to these fans’ expectations, lapping up abundant applause for saying horrible things, revisiting questionable stylistic motifs, and inviting women to “get their tits out”.
Yes, it’s a bit of fun and we should just enjoy the ridiculous spectacle for what it is. This is a fair point, and during several sections of extended banter the band demonstrated that fame hasn’t slowed the evolution of their caricaturing sense of humour. But being surrounded by thousands of rabid Steel Panther fans, not sure of the extent to which people were taking it at face value – it was more than a little unsettling.
LOVED: Lexxi Foxx really is a dreamboat.
HATED: Boys.
DRANK: Rum slushies.
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
IMAGE: SIMON ATKINSON
