Date: Saturday, December 11, 2021
City: St. Louis, MO
Venue: The Pageant
Opening act(s): Platinum Rock Legends
Headlining act: Steel Panther
Platinum Rock Legends Setlist:
Rebel Yell
Nothin’ But A Good Time
Careless Whisper/Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go
Thunderstruck
You Shook Me All Night Long
Fat Bottomed Girls
Steel Panther Setlist:
Pussywhipped
Goin’ In The Backdoor
Just Like Tiger Woods
Asian Hooker
Poontang Boomerang
Eyes Of A Panther
The Stocking Song
Girl From Oklahoma
17 Girls In A Row
Party All Day (Fuck All Night)
Community Property
Death To All But Metal
———————
Gloryhole
Notes:
- Tenth time seeing Steel Panther live.
- Lexxi Foxx left the band in July 2021. For this show, he was replaced by Rikki Thrash as the band continues to audition potential new members. Fourth different bass player in the last four shows dating back to 2018.
- Seven songs rotated from the prior show in October.
- The band introductions before “Just Like Tiger Woods” included a snippet of Def Leppard’s “Photograph.”
- Satchel played a guitar solo featuring classic rock riffs after “Eyes Of A Panther.”
- A girl named Ash was brought on stage before “The Stocking Song” and each member of the band sang a tiny snippet of a ‘made up’ song to her.
- Show #14 at this venue; first since June 5, 2021.
Videos:
Review:
I ended the review of my last concert with the following:
It’s not unusual for Steel Panther to be my final concert of the year, as that usually happens at The Pageant in St. Louis in December. It doesn’t look like that will happen this year, but there’s a good chance this will wind up my final concert of 2021. If it was, then Steel Panther was a great way to finish a very odd but necessary ‘year’ of concerts.
It wasn’t long after that when Steel Panther surprised the hell out of me by announcing a December 11 show at The Pageant. It has become somewhat of a tradition, as I’ve seen Steel Panther at this awesome venue in December of 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2019. The band didn’t play there in 2017 and we don’t need to bother discussing 2020.
I won’t rehash the year in concerts since I already did that when I thought the October 16 show in Bloomington would be my last one of the year. Instead, one more show was added as an appropriate epilogue to an again strange but necessary year of concerts that started at the very same place back on June 5.
When we visit The Pageant for general admission shows (especially in December), we usually try to arrive a little early so we can wait in the Halo Bar and be granted early entrance into the venue to secure a good spot. Unfortunately that wasn’t possible tonight since we left a little later following my nephew’s birthday party and then a longer than expected wait in a McDonald’s drive through thanks to a goddamn holiday pie.
Sadly, the balcony was once again closed off, so we found a decent spot to sit and awaited the start of the show.
As late as yesterday, the opening band for this show hadn’t been announced. It wasn’t until today that a group called Platinum Rock Legends were listed on the venue website. I had no idea who they were but I was curious about if they were a cover band strictly based off the name. So I had Brittany look them up while we waited on our shitty food and it was confirmed that they would be doing covers.
Sure enough, that’s what they sounded like, with one band member even being touted as the man behind impersonations of Billy Idol, Freddie Mercury, and Joe Elliott (among others). With the mention of Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott, I was intrigued.
PRL hit the stage promptly at 8PM with a cover of Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell.” The lead singer was dressed as Idol himself, but kept changing various lyrics to ‘suck my dick.’ He did it so many times that I had checked out of the performance during the very first song despite the band musically sounding very good.
The singer left the stage and was then replaced by another singer in full Bret Michaels garb, so I wasn’t sure if it was an improvement over the prior singer or not. Poison’s “Nothin’ But A Good Time” followed and sounded better than Poison themselves. While that is a compliment, it’s not that hard to sound better than Poison.
The stage lights remained down after that song, at which point the first singer returned dressed in a robe while the band played the beginning of George Michael’s “Careless Whisper.” I had been recording the beginning of each song just in case a Lep tune was going to be played and had my camera going at this point. Suddenly the band stopped “Careless Whisper,” kicked off Wham’s “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” and the singer ripped off his robe to expose a tiny cut off shirt and an even tinier mankini on his bottom half.
I had stopped filming at that point but immediately regretted it since it ended up being the performance of the night. The band was musically sound once again, but the singer prancing around the stage, hamming it up as much as possible while very visibly shaking his ass was hilarious.
That song and performance won over the crowd, myself included, purely for how over the top and ridiculous it was.
The second singer returned once again, now dressed as AC/DC’s Brian Johnson, while the band launched into “Thunderstruck.” It sounded good, but a little weak since it had only one guitar part. You can’t leave Malcolm’s part out of any AC/DC song, especially one of the biggest hits they ever had.
Speaking of which, I was a bit annoyed when “You Shook Me All Night Long” followed since I fucking hate that song (out of pure over-exposure) and I was looking forward to the next surprise costume/character change from the other singer.
He did return for the sixth and final song, now as a very erect Freddie Mercury. Every band member remained on stage for a set closing “Fat Bottomed Girls.”
If Platinum Rock Legends ever found their way to a close venue on a convenient night, I wouldn’t hesitate to check them out again as they were quite entertaining and it sounds like we only got a small taste of the various artists they cover/impersonate.
The stage was prepped after their half hour set and Steel Panther took the stage promptly at 9:00.
This was the first year I would be seeing Steel Panther twice within a single year since 2012. Those two shows were about three months apart and featured virtually identical setlists, with the only changes being that a couple of songs were dropped for the second show. This year, my two shows were a little less than two months apart. Still, I was hoping for at least a couple of different songs from what we got on October 16 in Bloomington.
Thankfully the show got off to a great and different start, as Steel Panther opened this show with “Pussywhipped.” That broke a streak of five straight shows that were opened with “Eyes Of A Panther” and it was my first time seeing “Pussywhipped” since it opened the band’s December 16, 2014 show in Chicago. Once again, All You Can Eat is my second favorite Panther album so I welcome anything from it in the set and I was happy and surprised to see this track for only the second time.
The changes continued as the Lower The Bar classic “Goin’ In The Backdoor” swiftly followed in the second slot.
The lengthy band introductions came next, which included the intro for the latest temporary bassist Ricky Thrash. Steel Panther is currently holding an online tournament to help determine their new permanent bass player. It’s still depressing that Lexxi Foxx is gone, and this show means I’ve seen four different bass players in my last four shows dating back to 2018. That gives Fuel a run for their money in terms of lineup changes!
But at least it has provided some variety in the intros, as each one has been a little bit different.
Another set change followed with the return of “Just Like Tiger Woods.”
The first carryover from the prior show was “Asian Hooker,” but another change came next in the form of “Poontang Boomerang.” Which is a more recent classic and suggested this show would be a little more balanced than the last one in terms of what albums were represented.
After “Eyes Of A Panther,” Satchel did his guitar solo and seemed to play a few different riffs than usual.
While both venues I’ve seen Steel Panther at this year required either proof of full vaccination or a negative COVID test for entry, I was still surprised when girls were brought up on stage at each. For this show, a girl named Ash was brought on stage first and the band did their thing where they ‘made up’ little songs for her.
Since it’s Christmastime and this show was billed as “Steel Panther Presents White Christmas,” it was no surprise that they resurrected “The Stocking Song” for this occasion. I don’t mind it but I would prefer their normal material to Christmas music.
“Girl From Oklahoma” followed and then way more than 17 girls were brought on stage for the return of “17 Girls In A Row.”
After they were cleared off the stage, the home stretch arrived and the main set closed out with “Party All Day (Fuck All Night),” “Community Property,” and “Death To All But Metal.”
After a brief encore, they returned to close out the evening (and my 2021 concert season) with “Gloryhole.” Then it took several attempts for them to toss Michael Starr’s hat around before they all caught it. In all, I got to see seven different songs than the previous show less than two months ago, which was awesome.
As always, it was a fun and entertaining night. I will say it was one of the more subdued crowds I’ve seen at a Steel Panther show, but I don’t think that was on the band themselves. The smaller shows I’ve seen this year have been a bit of a mixed bag as things still haven’t felt quite ‘normal,’ both in terms of crowd energy and size.
While things aren’t yet normal, I was happy to resume the tradition of a December Steel Panther show at The Pageant to close out the year. Hopefully that continues in 2022.
Links:
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