Steel Panther at History - Concert Photos

It was 1987 at Toronto’s history last week when Steel Panther came through town on their On the Prowl tour. 

The band is a consistent fan favourite and their fans took full advantage of the opportunity to don their favourite 80s metal gear and try to forget for a moment that its 2023 and we’re getting ever increasing amounts of gray hair.

If you’ve ever been to a Steel Panther show -- and there were many, many people in attendance who had been to multiple Steel Panther shows, and also many, many people out at their first Steel Panther show --then you know what you’re going to get: their own brand of 80s hair metal tunes that set the clock back a few decades, hilarious off-colour on-stage banter and interaction with the crowd, and a whole bunch of spandex, wild guitars and lots of hair, all from a band that executes the genre with faithfulness and irony from the clothes to the lyrics to those 80s print, Floyd Rose equipped Charvel guitars. They’re all fantastic musicians, and everyone leaves with a smile on their face. Check out the setlist here.

BRKN Love had the honour of warming up the crowd for Steel Panther. My pics of their set are here.

Check out my pics of Steel Panther from shows in 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014.

Steel Panther at Rebel - Concert Pictures

It felt like the good old days in Rebel on December 6. "Why?", you may ask. Well, 80s hair metal and comedy masters Steel Panther were back into Toronto's Rebel for a blast of ear-ringing volume and molten metal music.

Steel Panther has graced the virtual pages of One In Ten Words before. First was back in 2014, then again in 2015 and 2016. Click through on the links for those photos. I'm glad 2017 kept the trend going with this cool show at the recently-renovated and renamed Rebel.

The band did what they do best and delivered a fun set of tunes including the seasonal soon-to-be classic "Stocking Song", tunes from their latest record Lower the Bar and personal favourites including "17 Girls in a Row", "Gloryhole", "Death to All But Metal", a full-crowd singalong for "Community Property" and "Party All Day".

Satchel's guitar solo featured cool riffs from Deep Purple, Metallica, Van Halen, Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, Guns N Roses, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath. It's great to hear the opening riffs from classic tunes like "Smoke on the Water", "Crazy Train, "Breaking the Law", "Sweet Child O Mine", "Number of the Beast", "Iron Man" complemented by the classics - "I Have a Little Dreidel" and "Do-Re-Mi".

In addition to the music, which is expertly delivered with full nods to the inspirations, they deliver comedy that’s in the realm of cringe-funny and it seems to be more so each time I see them because of the continuing march of political correctness. The audience loves it but you have to wonder if the audience destined to become more selective?

Steel Panther at Rebel - Concert Pictures

Photographer Roy Cohen captured these photos at Steel Panther's show at Rebel on November 29. Their new album Lower the Bar is out February 24.

Steel Panther at Sound Academy

Last May, I saw Steel Panther for the first time. It was a nostalgic trip back to 80s hair metal complete with many audience members either in costume or in their retro outfits, flashing girls, lots of laughs and lots of devil horns in the air. Check out my thoughts and pics from last time.  

As far as my thoughts go, not much changed on their return trip through Toronto on the All You Can Eat tour. They pulled their tour bus into the renovated Sound Academy for another onslaught of metal. While I'm thinking of the renovation, what exactly was renovated? I didn't see anything different.  

There were some new editions to the set to keep it interesting. The hair solo is not to be missed, and they followed it up with "17 Girls" and "Gloryhole" when they invited at least 17 girls from the audience on stage to pout and preen. As my friend said, it is kind of surprising that in this age of the internet, social media, and cameras on every phone, girls are still willing to get up on stage, or on their boyfriends' shoulders, and expose themselves.

The acoustic section was cool and featured their viral hit "Kanye". The more I absorb the Steel Panther philosophy, the more I agree with these guys.

They brought out fellow LA native Joey Fatone from NSYNC to sing on the encore tunes of "Community Property" and "Party All Day (Fuck All Night)". Overall, a fun night at the Steel Panther show. Just what everyone expected.