I had no idea The Muse were that big.
I knew Muse (the? lol haven't heard them called The Muse) were popular, but I definitely weren't aware of how rock/prog they were. I just thought they were more poppy. Did not expect to be blown away by their show like that.
The show on Saturday may have suffered from having to live up to that the next day. I was also pretty tired and was debating about actually going to the show. But I had never seen Steel Panther before and I liked the opener, Crobot, when I saw them last summer so I mustered up the energy to get to the show. Sadly, I got there a bit later than I wanted and missed the first few Crobot songs. They are a groovy rock band, energetic singer and totally live. I definitely enjoy them, but not enough to want to get the album. A good opener though. Best part of the set though had to be when someone got on stage and try to play the guitar before the singer chased him off the stage followed by the guitarist and then the guitar suddenly goes out
(You can see this at the 4:30 mark of the video I shared below)
I understand Steel Panther are a parody act. So I definitely knew not to take their music too seriously. I had also seen some live performances online where girls come on stage and take their tops off. I expected some debauchery and definitely got some. Let's start with the musical side. I was not impressed at all with the vocals. But Maybe that's part of the parody? Ya know, to sound similar to the rest of the 80s metal vocalists today? Because his voice sounded like that. I don't normally rip on these singers too harshly because I know they've gone through the ringer and being the original guy is just as important as being able to sing in some cases. I'm not sure this guy falls into that catagory, but it should be stated, I wasn't impressed from a vocals standpoint. However, the guitarist was great. He showed off his chops and while I think he was trashed (between songs, he sounded wasted and admitted to drinking heavily before the show) he still performed the songs well including nailing some Eddie Van Halen. He also called the venue StarRoom and not Starland Ballroom
that got a good laugh out of me because it was in amidst of talking about enjoying the venue (while it's my first time, I believe playing here is fairly common for them).
There was a lot of talk between songs. Most of it the goofing off kind. But they did band introductions that seemed like it took 15 minutes with all the jokes. It dragged too long. They also brought a girl on stage and did a song for her, which was half funny half cringe. I guess I could say there's a fine line between dirty jokes that make them really funny or really cringy and they were constantly battling along those lines. It was so hit or miss for me. I think they managed to convince this girl to take her top off, I couldn't see from my angle
but the begging for it was along the cringe side of things. If the girl just did it more organically, it wouldn't feel so dirty than to have a bunch of old dudes cheering for it.
The same girl eventually was proposed to before the next song. That was actually kind of cool, assuming it was seriously. I honestly couldn't tell at that point
They did a cover of You Really Got me with some special guests. They brought out Jerry Gaskill from King's X on drums and Ted DeSalvio from Black Label Society on bass. Probably the highlight of the set for me to see similar to an all star cover song.
For the final song of the set (before the encore) they must have had 20 girls on stage from the crowd dancing. Definitely a fun moment watching the singer dance with them. For as much as I felt cringe at times, the women certainly didn't seem to feel the same. And I must say, there were a lot of women at this show. Definitely a fun night, but didn't come close to being as epic as Muse the night before.
Steel Panther & Crobot LIVE @ Starland Ballroom Sayrevlille NJ 3/18/2023Leaving work soon to head into NYC for Nemophila tonight!
Topic: Concerts for 2023 (Read 29550 times)
