Las Vegas Weekly

[Hair Metal]

Steel Panther

Feel the Steel

Album

"Feel the Steel" MP3s

• Stripper Girl

• Eyes of a Panther

• More on Steel Panther

Hair-metal parody act Steel Panther is based in Los Angeles but plays Vegas multiple times a week, packing in crowds at casino lounges around town. The band’s shtick is based on an over-the-top exaggeration of glam clichés, and in a live setting, with a mix of well-known covers and novelty originals, maybe it works as a tongue-in-cheek tribute of sorts (admittedly, I haven’t experienced the band live).

The Details

Steel Panther

But Steel Panther’s major-label (!) debut, Feel the Steel, is painfully bad, and not in a funny way. Sure, it impeccably re-creates the hooky arena-rock sound of the ’80s, but it does so in service of tasteless, repetitive, crass, unfunny jokes about sexual escapades, laced with loads of uncomfortable misogyny, homophobia and a bit of racism. Even with a wink, this is the musical equivalent of a Rob Schneider movie, and manages to make every band Steel Panther is allegedly satirizing look classy in comparison.